Lake Orion Falls In Battle Of Defending State Champions

The varsity football team needed about a quarter to get adjusted to Harrison’s size and speed on Friday night. By then it was too late – the Hawks burst out to a 21-0 lead.

The Dragons had chances to get back in the game, but the team couldn’t overcome the three-touchdown deficit and lost 28-7 at home.

"The fact that we started slow on defense and spotted them 21 points right of the gate didn’t help our cause,” Bell said. “It took us a quarter to play defense, and that can’t happen, you can’t start slow against these guys.”

Lake Orion (6-2; 6-0 Oakland Activities Association Red) fans didn’t even have a chance to settle into their seats before Harrison scored. Running back Lorenzo Collins scored 44 seconds into the game on a 27-yard run.

The sophomore rushed for 92 yards on 10 carries in the first quarter alone. He finished the game with more than 200 yards for the fourth straight game. His 24 carries for 207 yards and two touchdowns helped Harrison (8-0; 6-0 OAA White) push its win streak to 22 games.

“We didn’t do a good job tackling him. Several of his big runs, we had guys there,” Bell said.

Collins wouldn’t score again until he broke off a 55-yard run with fewer than three minutes to go in the game, but with the Dragons worrying about the run in the first half, Jake Vento capitalized with two touchdowns of his own.

Vento hit Garius Coleman with a 47-yard bomb on the Hawks' second possession for a touchdown.

He followed that up with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Devin Funchess. Funchess’ score put Harrison up 21-0 with 10:42 left in the first half. Both of Vento’s touchdown passes were on third downs.

“They were winning the physical battle up front and we had a hard time stopping the run game,” Bell said. “Then when we did get them in long yard situations, Vento made some great throws.”

But Harrison couldn’t put the game away. The Hawks had five first downs in the first quarter and only managed four for the rest of the game. Lake Orion grabbed some momentum out of halftime with a quick score.

The Dragons needed less than five minutes to take the ball 69 yards for a touchdown. Quarterback Sean Charette completed five out of six passes for 48 yards on the drive. He cut the Hawks lead down to 21-7 with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Robert Aiello.

Lake Orion would get the ball back after a three-and-out and go right back down the field. It started the drive on their own 9-yard line and worked the ball down to down to Harrison’s 7-yard line.

“Boy, we sure let them take it down the field in the passing game,” Hawks head coach John Herrington said. “It never looked like we were in control.”

The problem for the Dragons offense was their red zone offense. The drive stalled after a offside penalty and a sack by Ed Huckleby. It was the third time in the game that Lake Orion failed to get points inside the 20-yard line.

“We just couldn’t finish when we got to the red zone, that’s the time when we need to dig deeper,” Charette said. “We are going to learn from this, we’re going to go into practice with a different mindset, it’s not just scoring from the 40 or 50 (yard line) and making those big plays.”

With the playoffs looming, Bell said his team will quickly need to shore up those mistakes.

“It’s making plays on key downs,” Bell said. “They did a nice job on some key downs and won some one-on-one battles when it counted. We moved the football and we gave ourselves a chance to get some points, they got some key fourth down stops down deep.”

It was the second consecutive year these teams met in the Oakland Activities Association Crossover week. Lake Orion and Harrison were both the top seeds in the OAA Red and White last year, and both were at the top of the standings again this season.

The game not only pitted two top teams against one another – it also helped raise money for a cause.

“Michael Quinn was a student here who passed away in the early ‘90s,” Bell said. “The foundation has been around for almost 20 years raising money to support a family with a sick child in the Lake Orion area."

The Lake Orion student council dubbed the football game the “Mike Quinn Bowl,” and Harrison was presented with a trophy for getting the win.  

"The foundation lost a little bit of steam, so our student council adopted that as our charity. They are running a charity week and this football game was the kickoff to a bunch of activities going on next week.”