FOOTBALL

Norwich 29, Windsor 14

WINDSOR – With two-way starters Levi Lorimer and Grant Brightman not in the lineup Friday night, Norwich coach John Martinson said the shuffling of his starting lineup looked like a Chinese fire drill early on.

“To be honest, the early part of the game was somewhat of a blur,” Martinson said.

It wasn’t long before the Norwich lineup found its seats in a division-opening victory at Windsor.

Michael Oralls moved from tight end to fullback for Brightman, and finished with 111 yards rushing an three touchdowns. Oralls scored on runs of 13, 30, and 36 yards, the last of those three coming with 2:52 left in the third to raise the Tornado’s lead to 29-0.

“We’ve seen Michael run the ball on JV the last two years, so we knew he could run it,” Martinson said. “We weren’t surprised by what he did. It was a good change of pace, and it opened running lanes for Keagan (Franklin) and Kyle (Edwards).”

Norwich drove for its first score after stopping Windsor. Trent Stone and Matt Burke combined on a sack of Black Knights quarterback Josh Cady to spearhead the NHS defense. Following Oralls’ second score, the Tornado scored with 13 seconds left in the first half as Mike Sutton found Edwards on a three-yard TD pass.

The Norwich defense held Windsor’s top ballcarrier, Isma’il Griffin to just 57 yards on 17 carries, and Windsor’s two scores came in the second half of the final quarter.