Hall-Putnam County comes up short in opener at Orion

ORION – Like every other high school football team in the state, Hall-Putnam County wanted to begin the season with a win.

Although they weren’t able to do so, falling to Three Rivers Conference crossover foe Orion 20-14, the Red Devils had a lead for half of the game and showed positive signs of what the rest of the season will bring.

“They did a good job. They played hard in adverse conditions with the heat,” H-PC coach Randy Tieman said. “We have to move on from this. We have to get it out of our head. You’re mad we lost, but we have to get over it by tomorrow and watch film to figure out what we did wrong.”

Orion scored first at the 10:07 mark in the first quarter when quarterback Kale Filler found Jake Banbridge for a 22-yard reception to put Hall in a 7-0 deficit.

Hall didn’t trail long, as sophomore running back Braden Curran scored on a 56-yard breakaway run with 6:33 left in the first quarter to tie the score at 7.

OHS scored first in the second quarter as the Filler-Banbridge combo connected on a 48-yard pass-and-catch touchdown at 11:50.

Once again, Hall-Putnam County answered at 7:36 in the second quarter when senior quarterback Gianni Guerrini ran a 15-yard keeper to paydirt.

The extra point kick was good from DeAnthony Weatherspoon to give Hall a 14-13 lead.

“I think our running backs ran well. I think there are a couple of them that we have to work on with running a little lower because they’re going to get beat up if they don’t,” Tieman said. “We have to work on getting lower and giving the hit instead of receiving the hit. But I thought they did a good job overall of running the ball.”

After no scores in the third quarter, Orion’s Kaden Edmunds ran in a 2-yard touchdown after a punt return went about 40 yards. H-PC sophomore Aiden Redcliff saved the return touchdown with a hard tackle at the 2-yard line, but the Chargers punched it through on the next play.

With the 20-14 lead, Orion was able to hold off the Hall-Putnam County offense and ice the game.

“We made some mental mistakes,” Tieman said. “We talked about it after the game about cleaning that stuff up. I bet we had six or seven penalties on our offensive line. They were false starts, and we really need to take care of that stuff. That’s a game we should win. I think we had the ball inside the 20-yard line three times and didn’t score. We have to convert those.

“Defensively, I thought we did a good job of getting off of the field on third down. I thought coach Nick Hanck had a great defensive scheme going in, and the kids executed it. That’s a whole year under the same coach and running his system. The kids know it now, and they know what to do.

“We’re going to be a lot better defensively than we were last year.”

Hall rushed for 211 yards on 47 carries. Curran had 72 yards and one touchdown on six carries for 12 yards per carry, while Guerrini (who completed 2 of 5 passes for 15 yards) rushed for 60 yards on 20 carries and Joseph Bacidore had 58 yards on 11 carries.

Hall will play at 7 p.m. at home next Friday for it’s Week 2 Three Rivers Conference crossover game against Riverdale.