Maple Grove having its best season in recent memory did not faze the Osseo Orioles.

Losing key players during the game didn’t slow down the Orioles either.

“We had injuries everywhere,” Orioles coach Derrin Lamker said. “Every second-teamer stepped up and had their chances. It’s a testament to my assistant coaches getting those guys in at practice.”

Neither did a 14-0 deficit early and trailing most of the game faze the Orange and Black as they beat their cross-district rivals 27-26 on Friday, Oct. 10 and handed the Crimson its first loss of the season. It came down to the Orioles stopping the Crimson on a missed field goal at the end.

“This game meant so much to us,” Orioles senior linebacker Cameron Monson said. “It proves we can stick with those bigger players.”

Isaac Collins scored an 8-yard TD for the Crimson at 5:50 in the first quarter after the team had gone three-and-out on its opening possession. Clark Wieneke made it 14-0 on a 31-yard TD.

“We were up 14-0, and we had chances in the first half,” Crimson coach Matt Lombardi said. “We fumbled at their 10 when we were going in. We had four penalties in one drive that pushed us back. We easily could have 21 points on the board at halftime but we only had 14. We had opportunities early and when we didn’t take advantage of those it became a dog fight and it came down to who had the ball last. Give Osseo credit. They just kept going the whole game and at the end they found themselves on top.”

Osseo got on the board for the first time at 11:42 in the second quarter with a 1-yard run by Prince Kruah. It turned out to be the star running back’s lone score of the game as he left with an ankle injury.

“We just have to keep going,” Monson said. “We’ve got athletes. We were ready to put the next guy in.”

Justin Ekiyor filled the void for the Orioles with another big rushing game and a tying TD in the third quarter at 11:27 on a 3-yard run. Martelius Hughes also helped on the rushing attack.

Collins put the Crimson back up about eight minutes later on a 16-yard run for a 20-14 lead, but the kicking unit did not get the extra point. Fortunately for the Crimson, Osseo did not convert their next extra point after a 1-yard Ekiyor TD at 11:21 in the fourth quarter to tie 20-20.

“Give Osseo credits. When there were plays that absolutely had to be made they made them and we did not,” Lombadrdi said. “When there were plays they had to make a stop they did. When an extra point needed to be made, they made them.”

Missed kicks became the difference in the game. The Crimson scored a TD again at 5:48, but a missed extra point left margin at six, 26-20.

“We knew we could come right at them,” Monson said. “We didn’t get too down about them scoring right after because we knew this is our game.”

Osseo capitalized as quarterback Malik Gaillard, who returned from an injury in their previous game at Robbinsdale Armstrong, engineered a game-winning drive. Gaillard threw it to Hughes for a 5-yard TD, and a successful extra point put the Orioles ahead 27-26 with 1:43 left in the fourth.

“We felt more comfortable with him playing,” senior safety Segun Adedeji said of Gaillard.

Maple Grove attempted to win the game on a field goal with only seconds remaining. The Orioles put the pressure on the kicker as he missed wide right in the waning seconds.

“It’s such a crazy feeling,” Monson said. “Time stops. You just realize all of sudden we won the game. We blocked a couple earlier in the game, so we had our hopes on that. We were like, ‘hey, we can do this last one too. So, we were going hard and stuck it together.’”

The Orioles had plenty of fans among the capacity crowd on hand to celebrate with. The two schools are only 15 minutes apart.

“It was just fun atmosphere for the community,” Lamker said.

Maple Grove had come in unbeaten and ranked No. 3 in Class 6A. However, the Orioles maintained the upper hand in the series, winning for the eighth time in their last nine meetings.

“We just practice hard, go in and keep it close and at the end of the game and break away some how,” Adedeji said. “And that’s what happened.”

The Orioles took on Totino-Grace in their season finale on Wednesday for a shot at the NWSC South Division title. Maple Grove wrapped up its regular season with Spring Lake Park on Wednesday. Both games took place after press deadlines. Section playoff action for the Orioles kicks off on Friday, Oct. 24.