When the Lake Orion Dragons traveled to Troy to do battle in the Colts? annual Homecoming game a year ago, the Dragons handed Troy a home loss.
So when Troy came to Lake Orion for Homecoming Friday, Lake Orion quarterback Sean Charette did his part to make sure the Colts didn’t return the favor.
Charette completed 10-of-17 passes for 161 yards and threw three touchdown passes, and the Dragons held Troy to just 57 yards in the second half en route to a 42-12 Oakland Activities Association victory. The win left Lake Orion (5-1, 4-0) one win shy of qualifying for the playoffs. The Dragons visit winless Royal Oak Friday.
‘We beat them at their Homecoming last year and we didn’t want them to do it to us,? said Charette. ‘Our offensive line had a great game, and we opened up the passing game. We mixed it up pretty well.?
The game was close for awhile, trading first-half touchdowns early on. Lake Orion’s Kim Bruce (14 carries, 100 yards) scored on a two-yard run and Troy’s Chris Wheeler answered with a two-yard run of his own (but the Colts missed the point-after). Danny Ney had an 86-yard kickoff return and the Colts got a 20-yard run from Wheeler, but missed a two-point conversion that would have tied the game.
Then Charette and the Dragons? defense went to work, and the game wasn’t close again.
Charette found Ney open in the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown pass, then scored on a 5-yard run of his own to put Lake Orion up 28-12 at halftime. He finished the scoring with a pair of third-quarter scoring strikes, a 36-yarder to Ney (3 catches, 64 yards) and an 11-yard pass to Alex Mayo.
‘We thought with our size advantage we could run the football,? Lake Orion coach Chris Bell said. ‘When you commit that many guys to the run (Troy often had eight men in the box), Sean’s going to get you.?
Meanwhile, the Dragon defense, which gave up 153 yards of offense in the first half, stiffened. Defensive end Phil Serzo sacked Troy’s quarterback twice and was a force closing down the option. Mike Nelson and Vinney Booker led the team in tackles.
Bell said the defensive adjustments made by defensive coordinator Dave Tooley and his staff were the key to the second-half success. And the game, he said, wasn’t nearly as easy as it looked.
‘We had a hard time in the first half defensively, but we did a better job of tackling in the second half,? Bell said. ?(Troy) did a great job of making us earn every yard.?