FORT LORAMIE – Perhaps inspired by the 50th anniversary celebration of their program the Fort Loramie Redskins turned a hot start in the first quarter into a 57-38 victory on Saturday afternoon against visiting Ottawa Glandorf in a showcase of state ranked teams for their 41st consecutive win.
Ft. Loramie, ranked #1 in the Ohio AP Polls for all but one week since the start of the 2019-20 season rode the hot hand of senior Corynn Heitkamp to a 13-0 lead in the first half of the quarter as she connected on a trio from behind the arc.
Ottawa Glandorf’s first basket of the contest came with 2:28 left in the opening period of play on a Chloee Glenn make that cut the lead to 13-2. Senior guard Kelsey Erford accounted for three points in the final :30 of the stanza to send the game to the first stoppage at 15-5 with the Redskins on top.
In the same fashion to the first quarter, Heitkamp struck again for the hosts on a pair from deep to continue to push the lead ahead. Entering play on Saturday the senior guard had connected on just 7 of 50 three point goals but found the bottom of the net on this day on 5 of her 6 attempts.
Free throws by Erford and a basket by freshman Myka Aldrich cut the deficit for the Titans to 17-9 with four minutes remaining but turnovers and quick scores helped the Redskins push out to a 26-11 lead at the halftime buzzer.
“Loramie is a very very solid veteran team that doesn’t make mistakes. Unfortunately we made some early mistakes and dug a hole. When we cleaned up the turnovers, #20 (Heitkamp) started hitting threes and we never really recovered” said OG head coach Troy Yant.
Ottawa Glandorf jumped onto the scoreboard on their first possession of the third quarter on a Kelsey Erford three pointer to trim the lead to 26-14 but again the Redskins had the answer, this time from the inside as the duo of Kenzie Hoelscher and Dana Rose combined for a dozen points and were aided by the final of six makes from beyond the arc by Heitkamp.
Titans freshman Myka Aldrich played big minutes for her team in the third and found herself scoring six of the 10 in the quarter that ultimately gave her a career high eight markers.
“Myka was a bright spot for us today” opined Yant on his freshman.
Though they entered the fourth quarter trailing top ranked Ft. Loramie 41-21 the Titans didn’t give up and fold as the duo of Erford and Erin Kaufman led the blue and gold attack with all 17 points and outscored the Redskins by a point.
Erford scored 11 of her game high 19 points in the fourth quarter and connected on half of her six charity tosses while Kaufman utilized her size for a pair of layups and a jumper from the elbow.
Ft. Loramie’s Kenzie Hoelscher, the reigning Shelby County Athletic League volleyball player of the year took over in the final eight minutes as she turned outlet passes from teammates into eight markers in the stanza to help secure the 57-38 victory.
Looking back at the game Ft. Loramie coach Carla Siegel said “I sometimes compare my team to a roller coaster, we start slow sometimes and finish strong, sometimes we start fast fast and finish slow. Saturday was a “start fast” kind of day for us. Corynn hitting those 3 bombs helped too. I like defense, and everyone probably knows that, and we work hard on each day in practice, but to see them in games applying our philosophies to a brand new team like OG, well, I sometimes I am in awe of their athleticism. OG has some great players that gave us fits at times, and their defense was equally good. We had a tough time getting up shots. That was a great game for us to play at this time of the season.”
Touted as a celebration to honor the history of the Redskins program that has brought home a pair of state championships, the game punctuated just how good the current program is as they moved to 15-0 on the year. Next up for Ft. Loramie is a Thursday/Saturday road trip to Botkins and Lima for a SCAL and non-league battle with the state ranked Bath Wildcats.
“The celebration brought me great joy to see so many of the alumni, some of those players I looked up to when I was younger, some I played with, and then a lot of them are my former players. It’s heart warming and humbling to have all of that in one floor” Siegel said on the celebration between the JV and varsity contests.
Carla Siegel with the win picked up career victory #452 and has been a part of an astonishing 781 games during her time as a player, assistant coach, and head coach of a team that has not tasted a loss in the last 679 days.
Ottawa Glandorf falls to 11-2 on the season and will return to action with the first of their five games in nine days when they play host to Putnam County rival Ottoville on Tuesday evening at the Supreme Court.
Scoring:
Ft. Loramie (57):
Colleen Brandewie 4
Riley Heitkamp 3
Corynn Heitkamp 18
Kenzie Hoelscher 16
Cara Meyer 2
Dana Rose 10
Jadyn Puthoff 4
FT: 6/7
3PT: 7 (C. Heitkamp 6, R. Heitkamp)
TO: 22
OG (38):
Kelsey Erford 19
Myka Aldrich 8
Erin Kaufman 7
Chloee Glenn 4
FT: 11/16
3PT: 1 (Erford)
TO: 20
JV: Ft. Loramie 48-24