BY WENDI REARDON
Clarkston News Sports Writer
Michael Fluegel and JT King carried the Clarkston/Lake Orion rivalry trophy to family and friends waiting for the gridiron heroes to walk off the field.
It was time to celebrate. The Wolves defeated the Dragons, 45-16, last Friday and won a share of the OAA Red title with Southfield Arts & Technology.
“Our league is so good,” said Kurt Richardson, long-time head coach for Clarkston Varsity Football “Winning it four out of the last five years – that’s a great accomplishment. A lot of people don’t say much about winning the league. We have quality football teams with great football coaches in this league. It’s a huge thing and it’s downplayed at times.”
Lake Orion opened the scoring five minutes into the game with a 23-yard fieldgoal.
The Wolves answered with a 1-yard touchdown from King. The Dragons took over possession but didn’t keep it for long as Tieler Houston intercepted a pass on their third try and returned it for 43 yards into the endzone, putting Clarkston to 14-3 on the board with less than a second to go in the first quarter.
Defense turned over possession to the Wolves’ offense again at the beginning of the next quarter. The boys finished control of the ball with a 5-yard touchdown pass from King to Ryan Prisby with 8:04 on the clock.
Three minutes later Lake Orion fumbled the ball and Wolf Brandon Baker picked it up and made a run before stopped on the 15-yard line.
“Turnovers killed them,” said Richardson. “Lake Orion is a better football team than what the score shows. You turn it over against teams in our division and it’s going to kill you.”
The Wolves scored with three minutes remaining in the half with a 1-yard run from Fluegel. Before going to half-time Lake Orion put the score to 28-9.
The Wolves scored three more times in the second half with touchdowns from Fluegel and King in the third quarter and a 26-yard field goal from Zach Mansour, who went 6-for-6 for PATs during the night.
“Our kids played really well,” said Richardson. “Offensively we were balanced. Defensively we did a lot of good things. It was a really nice win.”
King went 7-for-9 in passing for 54 yards and one touchdown. Prisby caught four passes for 35 yards including the touchdown pass. Connor Donahue caught three passes for 19 yards.
Fluegel was the leading rusher with 161 yards on 25 carries and King rushed the ball 12 times for 54 yards.
Gino Paese led defense with six tackles and one sack. Kyle Genter and Prisby had four tackles each. Prisby had one sack. Jake Buchmann, Tyler Retford, Baker each recovered fumbles; Baker had one tackle and three assists.
Carson Stottlemyer had one tackle and four assists. Zach Scott had two tackles for losses and three assists.
“We made too many mistakes, too many penalties. We have to clean that up,” said Richardson. “We are getting there though. Baby steps.”
The Wolves (6-2, 5-1 OAA Red) finish the regular season against Rochester Adams (6-2) this Friday.
“Adams is a good football team, but we are rolling now. And we have them at our place,” Richardson smiled.

  clarkston, Clarkston Football, Varsity Football