Red Riders rally to charge into PAC, playoff picture
Despite starting the season with two blowout losses, the Orrville High football team will enter its season-ending game at Triway at 5-4 and look to wrap up a playoff berth.
Nearly every football season has a turning point. It’s that moment when a good year becomes great or a mediocre year becomes bad.
For Orrville that moment took its sweet time arriving, but once it did, the Red Riders turned a corner and haven’t looked back. Trailing by 11 heading in to the fourth quarter of their Oct. 7 game at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, the Red Riders rallied behind junior quarterback Sawyer Hamsher for a thrilling 39-38 season-saving victory.
“The CVCA game was really where it clicked for us,” Orrville coach Matt Zuercher said. “We had a few wins, but those were teams we expected to win against. The CVCA game, really that fourth quarter when we got down about two scores with about (half a quarter) left, we were able to get a big win. It showed all their hard work had validity.”
Down 38-27, the Red Riders cut into the CVCA lead when Hamsher threw a short touchdown pass to Brant Besancon. Hamsher, who threw four touchdown passes, three to Besancon, ran for the winning touchdown with just over three minutes left.
Not since a 49-27 second-round playoff win during its 11-2 season in 2019 had Orrville beaten a winning opponent, a span of 25 games.
There was no such streak this time. A week after beating CVCA, Orrville dropped Canton South 38-35 to improve to 5-4 with only a regular season-ending showdown at Triway (4-5) remaining. Orrville is 11th in the Div. V, Region 17 standings heading into that game. The Red Riders want to wrap up a playoff berth with a win and could still qualify for the postseason even with a loss. Either scenario seemed unlikely just a few weeks ago.
“I can’t say that they really were,” Zuercher said of whether playoffs were likely for his team early on. “Our goal all season, knowing coming in where we were at and knowing the kids we’d be playing, was to continue to get better. Our kids have done a good job of exactly that.”
After starting with a pair of blowout losses at Wooster and against West Holmes, the Red Riders notched back-to-back victories over Springfield and Manchester, each of which has yet to win a game this season. When one-sided losses to Fairless and Northwest — both of which are now 7-2 — followed, the Red Riders’ season was teetering on the brink.
They bounced back with a convincing win over Tuslaw, 45-20, but the pattern had been established: Orrville, as Zuercher said, was only beating the teams it was supposed to. With less than eight minutes left in week eight at CVCA, that pattern looked to hold true.
That the team bounced back from that deficit and continued to roll is a good sign for the future. The Riders are doing things this year with only three seniors seeing much playing time.
Besancon, a receiver/defensive back, running back/linebacker Asiah Smith and lineman Alex Dalessandro could be joined in the playoffs by fellow senior Marquez Bullard, a 300-plus-pound two-way lineman. Bullard has been ineligible to play during the regular season.
“We’ve had a couple seniors at the top, and those guys have done a good job of continuing to lead,” Zuercher said. “For the most part, it’s our kids continuing to work hard and buy in to the things we’ve asked them to do. We’ve worked hard and been more focused.”