Hornets rout Devils

CULPEPER — Cortez Rollins slowly limped onto the field Friday night as Culpeper opened the fourth quarter of its home opener where it spent much of the first three: Deep in its own territory.

He wasn’t the only Blue Devil feeling a little beat-up, though, as Orange County came to town and routed their old rivals 48-8.

“You guys watched that and I have absolutely nothing good to say about it,” said Culpeper coach Mike Williams. “We played horrible, it’s that simple.”

After getting run out of town by Chancellor last weekend, the Hornets (1-1) came to Broman Field with a purpose, and it showed.

“We played a lot better than we did last week,” said Orange coach John Kayajanian. “We made a big improvement from week one to week two and we needed that.”

Orange opened the action with a five-play, 53-yard scoring drive capped off by the star of the show, junior running back Tyrone Ellis, who scored his first touchdown of the night on a 29-yard scamper.

“I was happy to see us run the ball and have some success through the air,” Kayajanian said. “I told the guys in the preseason that we have to mix it up, and I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”

Ellis certainly had the Blue Devils (0-3) all mixed up.

He may have been the smallest player on the field at 5-foot-8 and 170 pounds, but he looked like a pinball bouncing around the Culpeper defense to the tune of 173 total yards of offense and two touchdowns.

“[Ellis] is just fast, plain and simple,” Williams said. “We knew it coming in, but you just can’t coach speed.”

Ellis finished with 111 yards and a touchdown on the ground and 62 yards and a touchdown through the air.

He scored again after taking what should have been a screen pass for a short gain and turning it into a 43-yard touchdown while leaving the entire defense in his dust.

“I told the guys that Culpeper is watching our film and wanting a win as bad as we are,” Kayjanian said. “We had a chance to turn a corner tonight, and we played well enough to do it.”

Well enough doesn’t do the Hornets’ performance justice, especially after how they ended the first half.

Deep in Culpeper’s territory, backup quarterback Tyler Seal scrambled for what seemed like an eternity on a busted play, and gave up at least 20 yards, before finding wide receiver Patrick Curtis on a 27-yard scoring strike.

“I really thought I was going to get sacked,” Seal said. “It was supposed to be an option right and I started twisting around because I didn’t know what to do, but I finally found Patrick and I was really relieved that he found the end zone.”

Orange cornerback Brandon Vann then ended the half by picking off a pass from Rollins and taking it 94 yards for a touchdown to send the Blue Devils into the locker room trailing 34-0.

“We just had to get across to the guys that the game wasn’t over,” Williams said. “If [Orange] can score 34, then we can score 34. We made a couple adjustments and played a lot better in the second half, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

The Blue Devils didn’t quite manage 34 points in the second half, but they did find the end zone thanks to a five-yard run by junior fullback Larry Williams with a little over five minutes left in the game.

Culpeper now has two weeks off before they take the field against Caroline Oct. 2, and Williams plans to use that time wisely.

“We’ve just got to work on building these kids’ confidence up,” he said. “They’ve been beaten down. They got beat down last year, and losing is a habit. So it’s my job to get these guys believing in themselves and break that habit.”