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Sports

Ferndale Football Drops Home Opener 22-14 To Lahser

The Eagles can't overcome three turnovers in tough loss to the Knights on Friday night.

The Ferndale High School varsity football team fumbled away its chance to win its home opener on Friday night as Lahser turned three Eagles turnovers into five points and escaped with a 22-14 win.

“You can’t win if you turn the ball over three times,” Ferndale head coach Ryan Dunlap said. “It makes it so hard.”

The Eagles (0-2; 0-2 Oakland Activities Association Blue) maintained a 7-6 halftime lead that could’ve easily been 14-3 if it wasn’t for the turnovers.

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The Eagles scored on its second drive of the game on an 11-yard run by running back Earl Tillford. But a fumble in the second quarter by quarterback Eric Ellis wiped away Ferndale’s early momentum.

On the ensuing possession, Ferndale’s defense pumped up the home crowd with two sacks of Lahser quarterback Spencer McCourt. That gave the offense great field possession to start the next drive at the Knights 41-yard line.

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Ferndale worked the ball all the way down into the red zone before Ellis lost the ball while getting sacked at the 12-yard line.

The Knights (2-0; 2-0 OAA Blue) didn't capitalize, but the Eagles wouldn’t be so fortunate after their second turnover.

Tyler Roth helped put Lahser on the board with a 38-yard field goal with only 1:50 left in the half. Ferndale fumbled on its first play of the next possession. Desmond Paige lost the ball on reverse to give the Knights the ball back within field goal range at the 26-yard line.

“The first two (fumbles) were just unacceptable,” Dunlap said. “Quarterback got sacked and coughed the ball up, that should never happen. We had a little reverse pass and we coughed the ball up.”

Roth cut the Eagles lead down to 7-6 with a 24-yard field goal at the end of the first half.

Ferndale opened the third quarter by forcing Lahser running back Dajuan Burnley to fumble at the 18-yard line, but it couldn’t capitalize on the turnover in the red zone. After a quick three-and-out, a 38-yard field goal attempt was blocked.

“That was a such substitution mistake,” Dunlap said. “Our right guard decided not to go in the game (on the play)”

From there, the Knights tried to play keep away. It put together a 15-play, seven-minute drive that ate up most of the clock in the third quarter. However, Lahser showed it had red zone issues of its own when the drive stalled at the 5-yard line with 1:44 left to go in the third.

Lahser running back Chris McDonald couldn’t convert a fourth-and-one and the lengthy drive ended with no points.

The Eagles hopes of taking a lead into the fourth quarter were dashed when Earl Tillford was hit in the backfield on the first play of the Eagles drive. Ferndale recovered the ball in the end zone and it was ruled a safety to give the Knights an 8-7 lead.

“The defense has to put out the fire,” Lahser head coach Dan Loria said. “When something happens you got to get on the field and you got to put out the fire, change the momentum back. A good defense makes a good offense, that’s always been a focal point here at Lahser.”

The Knights offense scored twice in the fourth quarter to put the game away. Burnley ran the ball seven times in the quarter for 60 yards. He scored both of Lahser’s touchdowns and finished the game with 26 carries and 161 yards.

“No. 27 (Burnley) wore us down a little bit at the end,” Dunlap said. “Our numbers hurt us there.”

Ferndale will be looking for win number one when it hosts University of Detroit Jesuit on at 7 p.m. Friday next week. Dunlap said his secondary will have to be ready to face a much different kind of offensive attack when it takes the field against the Cubs.

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