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Inspired drive: Orange honors Minor but falls to Eastern View

Photo: Brian Mellott

There was a fascinating contrast between the way that Orange County took to the field, and then carried out its opening drive. The Hornets walked out of the tunnel at Porterfield Park slowly, and with purpose with their arms linked and those on the outside holding their arm up with the number one pointed in the air. Orange then presented former teammate Darius Minor’s family his jersey in a frame. A scholarship in his name was announced. Then there was a moment of silence for him. Then the focus turned to football with power house Eastern View waiting on the other sideline. What ensued immediately after was nothing short of inspiring.

 

“Obviously this was an emotional night as we all gathered around to pay tribute to a great kid and that’s what Darius was,” said Cyclones coach Greg Hatfield. “We knew that Orange would come out of that charged up.”

 

And they did. Things did not go Orange’s way most of the night in a 49-14 loss to Eastern View, but the opening drive of the game was about as perfect as Hornets fans, players or coaches could have wanted.

 

“It was a little bit of going out and executing and maybe a little bit of Darius up top giving us some help,” said Orange coach Jesse Lohr.

 

The Hornets received the opening kickoff and leaned heavily on running back Jalen Alexander. Sporting Minor’s former number, Alexander put the Hornets in the redzone before a Walker Johnson pass found Kyrie Carter who then set up first and goal after a 15-yard reception. Alexander plunged in two plays later from two yards out and it was Orange on top of a very good Eastern View team 7-0 with 7:15 left in the first.

 

“I think we came out with the right energy because of the ceremony for Darius,” Alexander said. “We tried to dedicate this game to him and we had an excellent first drive. Unfortunately things didn’t work out for us after that.”

 

A great deal of that had to do with the Cyclones senior backfield between Matt Lowry at quarterback and Tre Holmes at running back. The Cyclones scored on their first drive with Holmes capping a quick drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. After an interception from Chance Graves, Lowry broke off a 64-yard scoring run to make it 14-7 in just over six minutes of work.

 

“We made the adjustment defensively, just putting an extra hat in the box after that first drive and I thought that worked out pretty well for us,” Hatfield said. “And then Tre Holmes, Matt Lowry, they both had great years last year and they’re doing it again this year. We didn’t try to be fancy. We just tried to be physical.”

 

While Orange struggled to stop either back as the duo combined for 297 yards, the Hornets were able to move the ball themselves too. However, a bad snap on third and manageable in the redzone forced a punt and another turnover on downs in the redzone left the Orange without anything to show for it.

 

A 47-yard touchdown from Holmes and a 69-yard touchdown run from Lowry gave Eastern View a 28-7 lead going into the break. After another Cyclones drive was capped with a 3-yard Noah Proctor touchdown, the game was essentially wrapped up when the Hornets had a fumble on the next drive and Till Butler scooped it up and scored from 40 yards out to make it 42-7. With injuries mounting between Alexander getting nicked up and Johnson hurting his arm, the Hornets simply didn’t have the means for a comeback effort.

 

In the fourth quarter Orange was able to pick up a defensive touchdown. It came with defensive back Hylton Hale picking off a pass and returning it 22 yards to the house. That wrapped up the scoring at 49-14.

 

“I’m proud of the kids for playing hard through the fourth quarter,” Lohr said. “The kids are going to fight tooth and nail and that’s never been the issue around here. I’m proud of these kids, proud of the direction of this program. It’s just that we’ve got to find a way to get better in certain areas. I think we’re making gains but also, that’s a perennial 10-win football team over there and we matched up well early, they just wore us down.”

 

On the night, Alexander finished with 22 touches for 127 yards with a touchdown despite missing most of the second half. He is expected to be fine after bruising his knee.

 

Orange will wait on Johnson to be evaluated. The sophomore was fantastic at quarterback in his debut against Culpeper but will have to wait and see if he can be ready for Spotsylvania next week.

 

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