High School Football: Orlando, Pirates bowl over Ortonville

VERNDALE -- Craig Orlando rushed 14 times for 227 yards and three touchdowns to lead the No. 3 seeded Verndale Pirates past No. 6 seeded Ortonville Trojans 44-6 in the Section 4-Nine Man Quarterfinals Tuesday, Oct. 22.

Two of Orlando’s touchdowns came on runs of 55 and 79 yards.

Gideon Ervasti ran for two more Verndale scores and Dilan Orlando scored from a yard out as the Pirates rolled to a 403-290 advantage in total offensive yards.

Verndale beat Ortonville 52-6 Oct. 10 as part of a four-game winning streak.

Ortonville 0 6 0 0 -- 6

Verndale 24 8 6 6 -- 44

First quarter

V-Craig Orlando 55 run (Jake Ismil run) 10:25

V-Dilan Orlando 1 run (Ismil run) 6:08

V-Gideon Ervasti 3 run (Jayden Fink from Dilan Orlando) 1:32

Second quarter

V-Craig Orlando 9 run (Brandon Greenwaldt from Dilan Orlando) 6:19

O-Tangen Zapata 30 pass from Peter Treinen (pass fail) 2:00

Third quarter

V-Ervasti 3 run (PAT fail) 10:00

Fourth quarter

V-Craig Orlando 79 (pass fail) 9:38

Team statistics

Rushes-yards: V 38-347, O 40-115

Pass comp-att-int-yds: V 4-14-1-56, O 14-30-0-175

Total offense: V 52-403, O 54-290

Individual leaders

Rushing: V-Craig Orlando 14-227, Gideon Ervasti 14-72

Passing: V-Dilan Orlando 4-14-1-56

Receiving: V-Jaden Fink 2-39

Overall: V 8-1. Next: No. 3 Verndale at No. 2 Brandon-Evansville in Section 4-Nine-Man Semifinals 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26.