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Keep Pounding: Late fumble recovery, Bell’s effort lift Louisa past Orange

Photo by Bart Isley

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It was a night of unlikely heroes for Louisa County. One, an overshadowed defensive back who made his presence felt at the most perfect possible moment. The other, a star who hadn’t practiced all week after an injury in the Lions’ win over Monticello.

 

On Friday in the Jungle, those two players and the rest of Louisa’s battered and bruised roster held on to beat archrival Orange County 22-19 for the eighth-straight time.

 

“We’re (put together with) a little duct tape, some q-tips and a couple of screws, we just keep patching and patching,” said Louisa coach Mark Fischer. “We’ve got kids in there that at the beginning of the year weren’t very close to the middle of the depth chart … but when they’ve gotten opportunities, they’ve kept us afloat. And that’s what we are right now, we’re afloat.”

 

That overshadowed defensive back, senior Kenny Brown, is one player who helped keep Louisa afloat when he made perhaps the play of the game in the fourth quarter with 6:54 to play when the ball came loose as Orange’s receiver fought for extra yardage.

 

“It’s just an effort play and tough luck,” said Orange coach Jesse Lohr. “He made a play and they made a better play.”

 

When the ball fell to the ground, Brown pounced on it, giving Louisa the ball with the Lions up by three. The senior plays in a secondary loaded with established entities like Jordan Cherry and Malik Minor, but on that play in the fourth, he proved he was ready to meet the moment.

 

“I was going to go help on the tackle but then I saw Caleb (Turner) go for the strip so I just waited around and the ball popped out,” Brown said.

 

It was exactly the play the Lions needed with Orange threatening again with a suddenly energized passing game and the potential to take control with a touchdown.

 

“That fumble recovery was huge, if they’d have scored that would have been heartbreaking,” said Louisa County’s Malik Bell. “That fumble recovery was huge.”

 

After Brown’s recovery, Bell did much of the rest of the heavy lifting behind an offensive line that started getting a major push on that drive. Bell rolled his ankle against Monticello a week ago, was forced to the sideline during the second half and was even carried to the team huddle and off the field by coaches and teammates. After a week of rest, he returned the favor by carrying the Lions down the stretch.

 

“I’d never really put any weight on or any pressure on it but I just came out here and played like I normally do,” Bell said. “When the time is needed I put this team on my back — I love this team, they do everything for me and I do everything for them.”

 

He rushed 31 times for 162 yards and three touchdowns, but none of those yards were more critical than the multiple first downs he picked up after Brown’s fumble. Those touches allowed Louisa to melt six minutes and 54 seconds off the clock while Orange futilely burned through timeouts.

 

“That’s what all those long days, that conditioning is for,” said Louisa captain Jordan Cherry. “The offense, that’s what it’s made for, just keep pounding and keep pounding.”

 

The game met expectations as one of the most closely-matched editions of the rivalry and lived up to its expected physical nature with Louisa’s big defensive end Quinton Ragland and Orange’s power back Tre Smith colliding at one point in the first half as part of a series of big hits and hard-nosed play.

 

“It’s hard, it’s usually easier for a big guy like me to hit up top but I’ve got to hit them in the legs to make sure,” Ragland said. “He wanted it and I had to bring it too, I couldn’t let off.”

It was Orange’s passing game though that helped the Hornets turn the tide in the second half, with sophomore quarterback Kenyon Carter throwing for 146 yards and two second half touchdowns on 7-for-14 passing.

 

“I’m just glad he gets a chance in this type of platform, this type of environment to grow up in front of everyone’s eyes and not allow this type of environment to be too big for him,” Lohr said.

 

Carter hit Chris Washington and Jamal Carter for those two touchdowns.

 

Louisa finished with 309 yards on the ground with Job Whalen handling most of what Bell didn’t with 105 yards on 21 touches. Zachary Liddle had six carries for 29 yards as well for Louisa.

 

The Lions hemmed in Smith for the most part, holding him to 23 yards on the ground, but DeAngelo Hunt put together a strong performance with 141 yards on just 15 touches including a touchdown.

 

The Hornets, who are still in pretty good shape to make the Region 5A North playoffs, will look to bounce back from the loss next week against Fluvanna County at home. Louisa County, meanwhile, will close out the regular season on the road against Charlottesville in what promises to be another physical matchup. They’ll likely need all seven days to recover and map out a new plan.

 

“We’ll get back to it Monday and try and heal up by next Friday and plug away again and see what we can do,” Fischer said. “We lost another lineman tonight I don’t know how long he’ll be out but we’ll look at it, re-evaluate the depth chart and come up with something else next week.”

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