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Getting Tricky: Louisa accelerates past Orange in rivalry game

Photo by Brian Mellott

Louisa County isn’t big on gadget plays. When you can do what the Lions can do on the ground with the basics, you don’t need much of the fancy stuff.

 

It turns out though, they can run the fancy stuff too like they did in a 62-25 romp over rival Orange County Friday night. Already ahead a pair of touchdowns, late in the second quarter, the Lions called a double pass.

 

“That was a great call by Will (Patrick, Louisa’s offensive coordinator),” said Louisa head coach Mark Fischer. “When he called it I was like ‘you know, we can run it in, we can run it in’ but he called it and that thing was just beautiful. I was like, great call dude, I’d have never done it, I wouldn’t have had the guts to do that, it was beautiful.”

 

Malik Bell threw a backwards pass down the line of scrimmage to backup quarterback Jarrett Hunter who was lined up in the slot. Hunter then calmly and coolly unleashed a 29-yard toss to a wide open Mark Carter in the endzone.

 

“It’s designed for Ray (Raquan Jones) but (Malik) told me to go ahead and throw it and he was open,” Hunter said.

 

That touchdown helped open the floodgates, starting a 27-0 run that blew open the game. The Lions rolled up 484 yards of offense, with 392 of it coming on the ground at a clip of 7.84 yards per carry. Orange County, perhaps the most balanced offense in the Jefferson District, couldn’t answer or keep up as the Lions’ defense overcame giving up a couple of long first half touchdowns and an onsides kick recovery that briefly gave the Hornets a spark. Right after a 46-yard touchdown sprint by Jaylen Alexander, the Hornets executed an onsides kick and recovered. After a bobbled snap on a punt opened the door for a fourth down conversion, Orange was in range of cutting Louisa’s early 21-0 early lead to just a touchdown. But David Sharpe picked off a pass in the endzone to snuff out the drive, one of two picks on the night for Sharpe who also caught a touchdown from Bell.

 

“That was the worst we’ve played, the first six or seven minutes of that ballgame and then things settled down and we had an opportunity to cut it to a one-score game and still at the end of the day we weren’t able to get off blocks and make plays defensively,” said Orange coach Jesse Lohr. “They’re a good football team.”

 

Job Whalen almost immediately broke off a 70-yard touchdown, part of a 114-yard outing for the senior tailback who also made several big defensive stops. Orange answered that score with a 45-yard rainbow of a touchdown pass by Kenyon Carter to Chris Washington down the sideline, one of just a few lapses by the Louisa secondary who took a step forward against the Hornets’ prolific passing game.

 

“That was our biggest fear coming in obviously is that they can throw the ball around the yard so well and we’ve not shown that’s one of our strengths,” Fischer said. “They still got us, and we’re still not there by a longshot, but we’re getting better. If we can just keep improving at that each week hopefully we can hold our own.”

 

The Lions surrendered 192 yards to Carter through the air, but he had to work for them throwing the two interceptions and going 16-for-33, a few ticks below his usual 55 percent completion rate. The secondary covered well enough that the front seven was able to swarm too, coming up with several sacks including an early one by Caleb Turner. With the defensive backs marking well, the Lions’ defensive line did a tremendous job of freeing up the Lions’ array of tacklers to come after Carter.  

 

“The linebackers, we’re really aggressive and we complement off of them because the defensive line is non-stop, they put in a lot of work,” said Louisa junior linebacker Brandon Smith. “I give all the credit to them.”

 

Orange responded by trying to roll Carter out, away from the speed, which worked at times but didn’t allow him to operate with the full field on most plays.

 

“We get burned a few teams but we always come back and make plays or get turnovers,” Hunter said. “Anytime we get burned we’re coming back.”

 

That stretch of scoring that blew the game open included a pair of touchdowns by Raquan Jones, who finished with 68 yards on nine touches. The first pop of scoring came largely on the back of Bell, who finished with 112 yards and scored three straight touchdowns to open the game and put Orange in a hole.

 

Washington led the Hornets with 97 yards receiving on five catches while Minor had six grabs for 59 yards. The Lions held Alexander to 70 yards on 17 touches, with the bulk of that coming on his 45-yard touchdown run in the first half.

 

Louisa, now 8-0 on the year, will look to keep things rolling at home against Charlottesville Friday while Orange (4-4) travels to take on Monticello.

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