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Usually it’s baseball that has that reputation for something new, something unseen happening every game. Orange County coach Jesse Lohr used to be the Hornets baseball coach, so he knows that feeling. It’s always better to be lucky than good, and while Orange was good, it also was the beneficiary of a couple of bounces — none bigger than the onside kick that wasn’t that helped the Hornets score twice in just two minutes to fuel the way for a 27-20 win as they hoped to move closer to securing a playoff bid for the first time since 2010.
“I put it on them, I told the kids that this was a must-win game,” Lohr said. “It’s not life-and-death, obviously, but it’s still a game that we had to win. Playoff football for us started this week. We worked hard. We came out expecting to win this game, and that’s where we want to be — expecting to win these kind of games. But to be honest, I’m a little bit speechless.”
After a Charlottesville shanked a punt deep in its own end, the Hornets took a 13-7 lead early in the third quarter with Orange’s Trevon Smith picking up a 20-yard rushing touchdown.
“The motto in practice was ‘Hate to lose.’” Smith said. “The holes were there, the line did amazing, right side, left side, they were just there tonight doing an amazing job.”
What followed was Orange kicker Joseph Plamp falling down on the ensuing kickoff, the ball popping up in the air and the Hornets front line, some how, some way came up with the ball. Then the game took a different tone. Hornets marched down field behind Smith again early, and from 41 yards out fullback Donovan Jackson broke off an outside run to the left and made it a 20-7 game with 7:03 left in the third.
“There’s plays in every football game where there’s a weird bounce and we wanted to squib it and the turf monster, whatever happened there, your kicker slips and the ball bounces our way,” Lohr said. “I believe the fullback run really opened up the game. Donovan Jackson, loosened some things up for us. I thought the running attack was pretty good.”
To make matters worse for Charlottesville, they responded with Rashad Brock’s 80-yard kickoff return to set up first and goal, but Orange forced a fumble at the 1-yard line two plays later to give itself another big break. The Black Knights defense stepped up to force a short punt. But once again the Hornets came away with a turnover, this time with the Black Knights throwing a screen pass backwards and it since it was incomplete, but still a live ball, Orange was able to take over possession.
“I’ve said it all year long, when we focus we can play and when we don’t we’re extremely pedestrian,” said Charlottesvlle coach Eric Sherry. “Give Orange credit, they made plays.”
The bleeding stopped though for CHS. Orange threw an interception early in the fourth quarter and that set up a 45-yard TD pass from Rakeem Davis to Tre Durrett to make it a one-possession game with 11:45 to play.
“Effort level with my kids is never the issues,” Sherry said. “Execution is a different thing (right now)… They keep grinding and do what they have to do so I have no issue with our effort what so ever.”
From there things were quiet until the end of the fourth. First Orange was able to pick up some insurance with Smith bowling forward on a 30-yard touchdown run with 2:27. Charlottesville answered with a 2-minute drill with Davis reeling off a 51-yard run and then throwing a 13-yard TD pass to Bryant with 42 seconds to go to cut the Orange lead to seven.
While the onside kick did not go Charlottesville’s way, since they had three timeouts, they were able to force Orange to run for a game ending first down. The Black Knights managed to force a fumble of their own with 27 seconds left. However, Orange’s defense rose to the occasion late, and after one completion put CHS in Orange territory, a sack and two incompletions ended the game.
“Winning this game, it’s an amazing feeling,” Smith said. “We wanted it and to get to 5-3, it’s a big deal. It means a lot.”
