Turnovers Doom Dragons Playoff Hopes.

Written Friday November 1st, at 11:40 PM

Turnovers in football hurt and sometimes it ends your season.

Just ask the Dragons that same question Friday night at Lake Orion against Romeo.

Lake Orion turned the ball over eight times, including five fumbles and an interception in a 24-21 upset loss to the Bulldogs in the pre district of the MHSAA playoffs in Region Two, District One in Division One.

The Dragons stopped Romeo on it’s first drive as Drew Casey recovered a Bulldogs fumble at the Lake Orion 16 yard line. On the next play Matt Krause fumbles the ball and Romeo recovers at the Dragons 16 yard line.

Lake Orion’s next two drives after that resulted in fumbles as Zach Arnold fumbled on the next drive in their own territory. Dominick Giovinnazo also lost a fumble as well, killing a Dragons drive but the Lake Orion defense got a stop and then got a pick of it’s own from Connor Grant.

Lake Orion would respond late in the second quarter when Grant found Corey Ester for a 14 yard touchdown pass on a fourth and seven making the score 7-3 Dragons.

The Dragons would then get a stop but instead of kneeing it to run the clock out Keith Fields fumbled the ball and was recovered by Romeo. The Bulldogs scored on a four yard touchdown pass from Paul Hurley to Mitchell Pacitti for a 10-7 Romeo lead heading into the half with Lake Orion having four turnovers.

Lake Orion came out in the second half driving down the field deep into Romeo territory. The drive ended with a Chris Leigh nine yard touchdown run making the score 14-10 Dragons.

The Dragons then got a pick from Kyle Bell but Romeo a few plays later picked off Grant off a tip pass for Lake Orion’s fifth turnover of the game with the Dragons still up 14-10 heading to the fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs would then strike again connecting on yet another Hurley to Pacitti pass from 14 yards out making the score 17-14 Romeo with 6:26 left in the game.

Lake Orion would then respond with Matt Krause going 38 yards with four minutes left in the game giving the Dragons a 21-17 lead.

Romeo would then respond with a game clinching drive, which to Dragons fans was very similar to Walled Lake Central in 2011 and had a big pass play to tight end Blake Williams to the Dragons six yard line with over a minute left in the game. One play later, Hurley connected with Williams for a Romeo touchdown over Bell making the score 24-21 Bulldogs.

The Dragons would have one last chance but a fumble ended all hope when Romeo recovered the fumble and would run the clock out. It was the sixth of the night for Lake Orion and the season ended right there.

Lake Orion ends its season at 7-3 while Romeo is 6-4 moves on to face the Wolves next Friday at Clarkston.

The Dragons are now 3-1 all time against the Bulldogs in the playoffs and 0-2 since 2005 as a number two seed in the district.

I’ll be honest here I did not see this coming. The Bulldogs were coming into this game at 5-4. I was disappointed with the Dragons running backs, they could not hold on to the ball all night. Romeo’s defense played well but it was aided by Lake Orion’s mistakes. I thought the Dragons defense did well for one half but could not get the big stop late, it had Walled Lake Central from 2011 when Lake Orion lost 20-17 written all over it.

So many missed opportunities wasted and the Dragons paid for it with their playoff lives.