Orchard Lake St. Mary's defense stands tall, defeats Brother Rice in triple overtime

Joshua Charles | MLive.com

ORCHARD LAKE--Orchard Lake St. Mary's survived a triple overtime thriller 34-27 over Brother Rice this afternoon in high school football.

Orchard Lake St. Mary's was able to force a fumble on the goal line in the third overtime to improve their record to 3-3 overall and 3-1 in league play.

The Eaglets go ahead score came on a 10 yard quarterback scramble by Robert Bolden.

"Bolden always has the green light to run," said Orchard Lake St. Mary's head coach George Porritt. "They overloaded it and he cut back, it was a great run, a great play by him (Bolden)."

The Eaglets took an early 10-0 lead, but Brother Rice (5-2, 3-2) was able to ride the arm of quarterback Frankie Popp and force overtime with the score tied at 17.

Popp went 25-49, throwing for 365 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. Popp drove the Warriors down to the Orchard Lake two yard line with 33 seconds remaining.

The Warriors were stuffed on three straight plays and had to settle for an Adam Gorski 16 yard field goal to force overtime.

Time and again the Orchard Lake St. Mary's defense held when their backs were against the wall.

After taking a 17-7 lead on their first drive of the second half Orchard Lake St. Mary's saw Brother Rice drive inside their own five, when the defense was able to force a fumble and take over at the four yard line.

With four minutes remaining in regulation Brother Rice attempted a wide receiver reverse pass that was intercepted by cornerback Gary Hunter.

"We knew what we had to do in those situations," said Hunter who finished the game with two interceptions. "We put ourselves in position to make plays and that's what we did."

Popp's arm was aided by his wide receivers, Nate Saldivar-Garcia and Kevonte Martin-Manley both went for over 100 yards.

Manley finished the game with seven catches for 141 yards and two touchdowns while Garcia caught nine passes for 102 yards.

"I give our kids a lot of credit for how they came back," said Brother Rice head coach Albert Fracassa. "We went to overtime and they (Orchard Lake St. Mary's) deserved to win."

The Eaglets were able to control the clock with a steady run game that featured Enrique Pardo. Pardo carried the ball 22 times for 103 yards.

Orchard Lake St. Mary's controlled the time of possession by nearly a two to one margin, but the Eaglets were outgained, 393 - 208.

Orchard Lake St. Mary's will take on Davison next Saturday at home, while Brother Rice will welcome in Indianapolis Cathedral (IN) in an out of conference match-up.

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