Troy High Colts Buck Last Week's Loss With a 56-20 Win Over Royal Oak

showed the power of its offense Thursday night with a 56-20 win over the Royal Oak Ravens to redeem their record to .500 and garner a division win the first win for the Colts.

After mustering a meager three points in its season opener to Romeo, the Colts offense was running wide open from its first possession on Thursday, managing to rack up the first win of the season and a commanding score of 35-7 by the end of the first half.

"Our offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage and when you do that good things are going to happen," Colts head coach Gary Griffith said.

Junior quarterback Justin Losey scored a total of eight touchdowns, including an 88-yard run for the Colts. Losey managed to score five touchdowns — four rushing and one passing — in the first half of the game, followed by another touchdown pass in the second half

"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."

Senior running back Oliver Jiang rushed for 84 yards for the Colts in the first half of the game and carried the ball into the end zone on a 10-yard run in the second half. Jiang, took over the running back position this week for injured co-captain Matt Oppenlander, who also sat from his starting end position on the defensive line.

Troy Junior Joe Leonard scored the final touchdown for the Colts on an 8-yard run that came at the end of a five-play, 84-yard drive. Meanwhile, Troy Senior Davion Rice, picked off a pair of passes by Ravens quarterback Brandon Fredrikson to tallied two interceptions in the first half.

Troy's defense stopped the Ravens opening drive after six plays, before the Colts offense drove for 68-yards and landed in the end zone with a pass from Losey to senior wide out Chris Michael.

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 Fredrikson to keep the drive alive.

"It's something we learned from some college coaches," Royal Oak head coach Jeff Hill explained. "We've got four options and Brandon is a great athlete, and if you don't cover him he can hurt you."

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.

A second raven drive at the start of the second quarter ended with an interception by Rice, who returned it 35 yards to the Royal Oak 25 yard line. 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, Rice struck again when he intercepted Fredrikson and stopped the Ravens only 10 yards from the end zone. With only 1:08 left in the half, Losey took the snap and ambled 88 yards down the field to put Troy up 35-7 at half. Losey had 154 yards on eight carries at half, with Jiang adding another 84 yards on nine carries for 238 first half rushing yards.

The Colts followed the fisrt half with a five-play drive that covered 67 yards in a little more than three minutes, ending with a  touchdown pass from Losey to senior Tyler Horne.

Royal Oak junior Marcio Foster showed his speed on the field with an 89-yard run for a touchdown and whittle the score to a 42-14 Troy advantage.

The Colts answered on the next possession with a with a 75-yard run from Jiang, who then took the ball another 5 yards and into the end zone to put Troy up 49-14.

An 8-yard touchdown run by Leonard near the end of the game made a final score of Troy 56, Royal Oak 20.

The Colts host Rochester next Friday night to open its home schedule.

"It's a big game and its a building block," Griffith said. "They always play us tough. We're going to have to play a great game."