Just another Orion Eisenhower game going down to the wire yet again

Written Saturday November 3rd, at 12:22 AM

The word never stop believing is quite an understatement.

What happened Friday is any typical Lake Orion-Utica Eisenhower football game, it would be low scoring and good defense from both teams.

It was just another typical Orion/Eisenhower game.

A four yard quarterback bootleg keeper by Lake Orion senior quarterback Derrick DeLaura with 1:58 left in the game sent the Dragons to a 10-7 victory over the Eagles in the region four district one championship game, winning its fifth district title in seven years.

The game however got started with a bang.

Dragons kicker Jeremy King kicked the opening kickoff toward Eagles running back/kick returner Jay Miron. Miron took the ball past seven Dragons defenders and returned it 97 yards to the house for an Eagles touchdown. The touchdown sent players, coaches, and fans on the Eisenhower sideline to a frenzy for a 7-0 lead, 15 seconds into the game.

Lake Orion thought it tied the game with an 80 yard punt return for a touchdown by Nick Booker but it was called back by an illegal block in the back penalty. On that drive, DeLaura threw an interception in Eagles territory to defensive lineman Ethan Hines ending the drive with 8:53 left in the first half and Eisenhower still up by a touchdown.

The Dragons got a 33 yard field goal from King with 1:04 left the second quarter, making the score 7-3 Eagles. That would be the score at halftime and at the end of the third quarter.

Eisenhower did get an opportunity to score again in the third quarter after Adam Figlan blocked a Brad Schaenzer punt to the Lake Orion 16 yard line with 3:54 remaining in the third quarter. However the Eagles could not convert. Quarterback Joe Zerafa was sacked for an 11 yard loss and then a pass play to running back Shane King lost four yards and then on fourth down, instead of taking the three points Eisenhower went for it, Zerafa completed the pass to Dan Chmielewski for 18 yards but it wasn’t enough for the first down and the Eagles turned the ball over on downs.

The winning score was set up by a halfback pass by Cory Ester to Chaz Miller 32 yard pass through three Eagles defenders to the Eisenhower 31 yard line and then after that a few plays later DeLaura found Miller for an 11 yard gain to the Eagles six yard line. One play after that the bootleg by DeLaura happened on an 11 play, 74 yard drive.

After the DeLaura touchdown, the Dragons made a defensive stand, stopping Zerafa and crew on four downs giving Lake Orion the ball at the Eisenhower 16 yard line before running out the rest of the clock.

Utica Eisenhower only had 75 yards the whole game. Zerafa was 10-14 passing for 55 yards.

Lake Orion had 197 yards for the whole game (109 rushing, 92 passing.) DeLaura was 6-11 passing for 60 yards with an interception. Miller had five catches for 81 yards and Jacob Miller had 20 carries for 51 yards.

This is the third time that the Dragons have beaten the Eagles since 2008 all at Lake Orion. Eisenhower has lost the three games by a combined 17 points. The Dragons previously beat the Eagles 7-0 in the district semifinals in 2008 and 17-10 in the regional finals in 2010.

The Dragons (10-1) move on to the regional finals where they host the Macomb Dakota, Cougars. The Cougars like Lake Orion is also 10-1. The only loss was to Dearborn Fordson in week one 35-21 at home, won ten straight since. Macomb Dakota is the MAC Red champions and is 3-0 all time against the Dragons but the difference was all three games in the series were all in Macomb. This time it’s in Lake Orion.

Macomb Dakota beat Macomb L’Anse Creuse North 42-17 in Macomb on Friday to get here. It should be yet a good match up yet again on Friday night.