Ortonville, MI — ORTONVILLE — The Auburn Hills Avondale Yellow Jackets spoiled Brandon’s party with a 17-14 win over the host Blackhawks on Salute to Service night, honoring fallen Brandon police officer Eric Overall, who was killed in the line of duty in 2017. “That was a big win. That is a playoff football team and to win it on the road on their special night to honor deputy Eric Overall, who was a good friend of mine too, I know they wanted to win it but it was super special coming back our way,” new Avondale head coach Bob Meyer said. Avondale’s running game controlled the ball and the clock in the second half. The Yellow Jackets only managed a field goal after half time, but Hunter Petras’ 25-yard field goal with 7:21 to play proved to be the difference, breaking a 14-14 tie. Petras’ field goal capped a 15-play drive that consumed 9:30. In total, Avondale held the ball for 18 minutes after halftime behind strong play from its offensive line, anchored by Joey Wall, John Paul Elias, and Charlie Kilian “When we needed it, we made the plays. I’m really proud of the boys,” Meyer said. “We talk about doing your job and protecting your brothers, and that’s what they did for four quarters,” he added. The primary beneficiary of all that blocking was senior captain Myles Moore, who piled up 169 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. Avondale’s two touchdowns came on two big plays — a 43-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Herzog to Marion Baxtresser and a 53-yard run by Moore — on back-to-back offensive plays midway through the second period. But outside of those two plays, the Yellow Jackets struggled to finish drives. The Blackhawk defense limited Avondale to just 14 first downs on the evening and held Herzog to just 2-for-6 passing. After falling behind 14-7 due to Avondale’s two big play touchdowns, Briolat engineered a tying drive just before halftime, capping it with a 5-yard touchdown toss to Daniel Protiva with just six seconds to play in the half. But Brandon hardly had the ball in the second half as Avondale was successful with an onside kick to start the second half and chewed up time right from the start of the third quarter. Still, the Blackhawks had one last drive in them. The running of Luke Hanson and Austin Simonsen saw the Blackhawks quickly march from their own 29-yard line with 2:42 to play down to the Avondale 13-yard line with less than a minute to play. But on fourth-down-and-2, Avondale junior Cameron Washington led a swarm of Yellow Jacket defenders through the offensive line and into the face of Brandon’s backup quarterback, Albert Rowe. Washington knocked down Rowe’s pass attempt, and the Yellow Jackets were able to take a knee to finish the game. “We found something at the end there. We had a nice drive put together at the end and had a chance to win on the last play. That’s all you hope for I guess,” Brandon head coach Brad Zube said. “That’s a good football team there. Hopefully, they have good luck in their league and win a lot of games. They’re well coached. They’re very physical, and hats off to them. It was a game of inches at the end there.” With the win, Avondale improves to 2-0 for the first time since 2018.