Dragons Sing In the Rain and win in Troy

Written Saturday October 1st, at 12:00 AM

This type of year you got to be prepared for anything, especially weather wise.

Friday night was nothing different for everybody else including the Dragons and the Colts. Rain was falling all over the place and the Dragons, with a bend, don't break defense beat the Colts 17-7 in Colts Stadium.

Both teams struggled all night, it was a sloppy game to say the very least. Troy struggled throwing the ball, relaying on their running attack. Lake Orion struggled with penalties killing drives in Colts territory along with dropped passes most of the night. "Tonight was really hard fought," Lake Orion coach Chris Bell said to reporters. "I thought we were a little sloppy, but I thought our defense made some key stops when they needed to. Troy is a good team, and when you play good teams, you’ll take a win anyway that you can get it."

The scoring started when Lake Orion running back Jacob Miller scored from nine yards out for a 7-0 Dragons lead in the first quarter after an 80 yard drive opened the game up. In the second quarter the Dragons struck again when quarterback Sean Charette connected with wide receiver Chaz Miller for a 23 yard touchdown pass from the right side of the end-zone and things were looking really good for the Dragons at 14-0.

The Colts did have an answer for their own late in the half, after forcing the Dragons to turn the ball over on downs. Troy went to the ground with the combination of quarterback Justin Losey and running back Oliver Jiang. Losey and Jiang did most of the running attack with the quarterback option or the running back option that the Colts use in their spread set scored with a quarterback keeper one yard touchdown run by Losey to cut the lead in half to 14-7.

The Dragons closed the game out after a scoreless third quarter but in the fourth quarter after a Dragon defensive stop on fourth down. Miller took the ball to the Colts 20 yard line, where Orion's offense was stopped from scoring a touchdown by the Troy defense so Bell decided that he would take his chances with a 20 yard field goal by junior kicker Jeremy King. King connected with the field goal, sending the Dragons up two scores at 17-7.

Bell knows the Dragons can play better, making too many mistakes just won't get the job done especially down the line in big games. "There’s a lot that we need to do better." Bell added. "We’re going to learn from this, but we’re definitely excited to get out of here with the win. It puts us in great position."

Losey and the Colts offense could not figure out the bend and don't break Dragon defense. The Colts missed two field goals, got stopped three times on fourth down deep in Dragons territory and turned the ball over once on a fumble also deep in Dragon territory. "We had chances," Troy coach Gary Griffith said to reporters. "There were three times that we were down deep in their end, and we came away with nothing. We improved on some things from last week, but we let them get away with some big plays that killed us."

The loss sends the Colts to 3-3 overall and 3-2 in OAA Red play. Troy now knows that they need to win out just to have a shot at the playoffs. The schedule is manageable, they play Pontiac next week for their homecoming game and host the OAA Crossover opponent and finish the season at Troy Athens against the Red Hawks. Griffith is very confident that his Colts know what is at stake for them. "It’s kind of simple, we either run the slate or we collect equipment after that last game. It’s right there in front of us."

The Dragons improve their record to 5-1 overall and 5-0 in the OAA Red. The Dragons have a chance to clinch a share of the OAA Red Championship and make the playoffs with a win over the Troy Athens Red Hawks on Friday night for homecoming.

This is yet another big game for the Dragons, the Red Hawks come into Orion with a 5-1 record overall and 4-1 in the OAA Red. Troy Athens won 27-17 in their homecoming game against West Bloomfield last week. Bell and his crew are looking forward to the challenge of the Red Hawks coming into the Dragons Lair. "I know that Athens is huge up front. "It’s going to be a good challenge for us, but we’re looking forward to it."