Royal Oak Out-Manned in 56-20 Loss to Troy

Down two key players and coming off an emotional victory last week, the Royal Oak Ravens couldn’t hold off Troy High School on Thursday night, falling 56-20 at home.

The loss dropped the Ravens to 1-1 on the season and 0-1 in OAA Red division play.

The Troy Colts controlled the defensive and offensive line play Thursday night, but in building a strong and winning team, head coach Jeff Hill – in his first season with the Ravens – knows there will be some games like this one.

"Unfortunately, it's part of the process of learning how to grow as a program," he said. "Last week we got the win and kids were so enthusiastic and so happy. We forgot how to practice again. I told the kids that's part of the growing — knowing how to practice after a win and how to practice after a loss."

The supportive home crowd of parents, fans and students stayed to the final horn, something that hasn't happened in several years.

"Our kids continued to play on the field," Hill said. "We found some kids who played really well tonight and they're going to earn ways onto the field. And we found some kids who are going to have some competition to get back on the field."

Early in the game, Troy’s offense was running wide open.

"I thought our kids came out and dominated the line of scrimmage," Troy’s head coach Gary Griffith said. "(The Ravens) had a big kid hurt for them. No. 55 (David McPherson) is a real good high school player and he didn't play a down. He was hurt and I thought that really brought their line play down."

The Ravens were also missing senior running back Robert Gibson.

Griffith was complimentary of the "new" Royal Oak team he faced Thursday night.

"They are very well coached; they lined up where they're supposed to," the Troy coach said. "They played hard and never gave up. There were a couple of times where we had the clock running and they went right down the field and scored. They made big plays. They are certainly moving in the right direction."

Royal Oak hosts West Bloomfield next Friday night. Ravens coach Hill knows his team will build from Thursday’s loss.

"West Bloomfield will be the opponent we play on Friday night, but it will be about us and what we do in practice," Hill said. "Do we get kids who are going to hustle to the ball and kids who are giving us good scout team looks and all the things that go with it? And that's where our emphasis is going to be."

Game action

With Troy controlling both lines, junior quarterback Justin Losey wreaked havoc on Royal Oak. The offense found plenty of running room, scoring five touchdowns — four rushing and one passing — in the first half. Losey added one more passing touchdown in the second half to finish with six total.

Troy's defense stopped the Ravens’ opening drive after six plays and then scored in two plays after a punt return put them on the Royal Oak 16 yard line. Royal Oak was again four plays and out and Troy put together a nine-play, 68-yard drive with Losey connecting with senior wideout Chris Michael for a five-yard TD pass and a 14-0 lead with 4:11 left in the first quarter.

"Our offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage and when you do that good things are going to happen," Griffith said. "We controlled the clock and I think we only punted once, maybe twice."

Royal Oak put together a 12-play, 75-yard drive in 4:14 with senior running back Nolan Jones taking it in on a 33-yard run. The drive included a roughing the kicker penalty during a punt for 15 yards, followed by a fake punt and run by Brandon Fredrikson to keep the drive alive.

Troy answered the drive with a seven-play, 55-yard drive, taking 3:02 off the clock. Losey ran 16 yards up the middle to score, capping the first quarter. The Ravens mounted another drive to begin the second quarter, but quarterback Fredrikson was intercepted by Troy senior Davion Rice who returned it 35 yards to the Royal Oak 25-yard line. From there Losey found the end zone five plays later with the help of a roughing the passer penalty on Royal Oak that kept the drive alive on a third and 10.

Up 28-7, Troy's Rice struck again intercepting Fredrikson and stopping the Ravens 10 yards away from the end zone. With 1:08 left in the half, Losey took the snap and ambled 88 yards down the field to put Troy up 35-7 at halftime. Losey had 154 yards on eight carries at half. Troy senior running back Oliver Jiang added another 84 yards on nine carries for 238 first half rushing yards.

"Justin is a very, very athletic kid," Griffith said. "Things like that, there's a reason why that play happened. We blocked. We blocked well and he ran and made a couple of cuts, but if we don't block he doesn't have the opportunity to make that play."

The second half opened with a five-play Troy drive covering 67 yards in a little more than three minutes with Losey passing to senior Tyler Horne for the touchdown making it a 42-7 Troy lead. But Royal Oak junior Marcio Foster took the kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown and whittled the score to a 42-14 Troy advantage.

The Colts then drove down the field 80 yards courtesy of a 75-yard and five-yard run by Jiang to put Troy back up 49-14. After the score, Griffith put in some backups who still managed to add two touchdowns while Royal Oak added one more, a 58-yard run by Foster.

The final score was Troy 56, Royal Oak 20.