The Playoffs Keep on Rolling
The Indians get the BIG win at Wyoming Lee last Friday on the ground. The green machine went into half time trailing 12- 7, but came out and shut down Wyoming Lee. After scoring twice, the Indians were trying to maintain their 20- 12 lead with the forth quarter winding down. With 1:30 left in the game Wyoming Lee had the ball first and goal from the five yard line. The Indians held that f’n line! But on forth down from the two they were called for an inadvertent facemask, which gave the Rebles one more chance from the one. The Indians held that f’n line! Game over! H town did a fantastic job running the ball to scratch and claw their way to a win. So the Indians are going to take on the forth seed Montague who got a big 35 – 7 win over the number one and formerly undefeated Kalamazoo Christian Comets. These kids from Montague are no joke. They are currently sporting a 6- 4 record with all four losses coming at the hands of playoff teams. The scouting report is these kids from Montague don’t want to win, they expect to win. They have the hide the ball type offense out of a lot of different formations. Their main running back is a hard runner with extremely good vision and balance. He’s no blazer, but he is fast enough to get the job done. The Wildcats have put 293 points this year and have the potential to score on the ground and through the air. The defense has the pleasure of putting out a relatively fresh squad. Very few kids play both ways for Montague and the team, in the films I have watched, is very fresh in the forth quarter. The Wildcats have all of the same holes in theirs defense that we do. They run in essence the same defense that Hartford does; although the cornerbacks play very far back off of the line of scrimmage and the defensive ends often line up inside the last man on the line of scrimmage. Plus, sorry I am an offensive minded person, the outside linebackers don’t walk away very far on the receiver side that isn’t covered by a tight end. Whew. With all of that said the defense has given up 251 points this year and are not extremely big in size. SO! Brad do we got a shot? Yes, but not a very good one. The Indians stagnant offense that focuses on the power running game hasn’t worked very well in the last few weeks. Last Friday the Indians completed one pass. We need to be able to move the ball without depending on a power running game. In my opinion the Indians need to stretch the field with the pass. They also need to spread the Wildcats defense with outside runs and an option attack that could and would work very well against them. Any hoo. The game is Saturday at 1:00 in Hartford.
Other Playoff News
Hartford’s potential regional championship opponent will be decided when the Constantine Falcons play at Union City. Last Saturday Constantine avenged a regular season loss to Schoolcraft, blowing out the Eagles 63- 20.
The Gobles Tigers were destroyed at home 30- 7 at the hands of Holton. The Tigers gained only 63 yards rushing the whole game. The acclaimed state title hopefuls in the SAC weren’t the only conference team to lose early, Lawton was beaten badly by MCC. Decatur pulled a come from behind victory to beat Centerville, the Raiders were down by 35 points at the half. The last SAC team to advance was the Martin Clippers. However Martin will travel to Climax Scotts this week, where they have been up ended the last two years in the playoffs.
Mr. Paran’s Mattawan Wildcats lost a tough one at Lakeshore last week. It is unfortunate but it thankfully sets up the biggest match up in the area. The St. Joe Bears who were winless last year up ended the number one seeded Gull Lake to take on their bitter rivals in Stevensville. Yeah I said it! The BEARS take on the LANCERS! The contest will return to Lakeshore where the Lancers came out on top 34- 14. The contest will take place in Stevensville on Friday at 7:30.
Lastly, Dave’s Ovid Elsie Marauders beat Essexville Garber 35- 0. They will travel this week to take on top seed and undefeated Saginaw Swan Valley. Keep the dream alive….Dave!?
Scott Says!
Here is your official guide to the best high school playoff games for the week of October 29. I’ve listed at least 3 good games in each division, with most of the better games occurring in the higher divisions. In parentheses at the end of each line is each teams current ranking in their respected division. If you want to see what may amount to the best football game this post-season, head to Lowell on Saturday for their match-up with Muskegon. Both teams blew-out their first round opponents. Along with Rockford and East Grand Rapids, these are the most talked about teams in the north. Lowell’s QB, Keith Nichol, is phenomenal. He was named player of the year in class A last year, and lead his team to a perfect year as a sophomore. His stats from this past week- 15-24 for 270 yards and 3 TD’s, as well as 116 yards on 16 carries with 2 TD’s. By the way, he’s the team’s best cornerback. Check out the impressive Lowell football site: http://www.lowellfootball.com/links/.
For updated dates and times of playoff football games, go to: www.mhsaa.com
DIVISION 1
Rockford (9-1) at Holt (9-1) Friday, 7 (#3 vs. #8)
South Lyon (9-1) at Canton (10-0)– Friday, 7 (#7 vs. #2)
Clarkston (9-1) at Lake Orion (10-0) (#10 vs. #1)
DIVISION 2
Muskegon (10-0) at Lowell (10-0) Saturday, 1 (#2 vs. #3)
Walled Lake Central (8-2) at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (8-2) – Saturday, 1 (#8 vs. #5)
Detroit Henry Ford (8-2) at Birmingham Brother Rice (10-0) (#9 vs. #1)
DIVISION 3
Escanaba (7-3) at Cadillac (7-3) Saturday, 1 (no rankings, just Jim Webb)
Fruitport (10-0) at East Grand Rapids (8-1) Friday, 7 (#3 vs. #1)
St Joseph (6-4) at Stevensville Lakeshore (8-2) (Rivalry game)
Gibraltar Carlson (9-1) at Chelsea (9-1) Friday, 7 (#7 vs. #2)
DIVISION 4
Grand Rapids Catholic Central (8-2) at Zeeland West (9-1) Friday, 7 (#5 vs. #1)
Dowagiac (8-2) at Battle Creek Harper Creek (9-1) Friday, 7:30 (N/R vs. #8)
Croswell-Lexington (9-1) at Marine City (10-0) (#6 vs. #2)
Highland Park (9-1) at Detroit Crockett (8-2) (#9 vs. Honorable Mention)
DIVISION 5
Ovid-Elsie (7-2) at Saginaw Swan Valley (10-0)– Friday, 7 (For Dave, N/R vs. #4)
Detroit Country Day (8-2) at Madison Heights Madison (10-0) – Friday, 7 (#9 vs. #6)
Birch Run (9-1) at Lake Fenton (10-0) – Friday, 7 (#8 vs. #7)
Onsted (9-1) at Hillsdale (10-0) (#9 vs. #3)
DIVISION 6
Calumet (8-2) 56.889 at Iron Mountain (8-2) Friday, 7 (Both teams Honorable Mentions)
Kingsley (8-2) 66.556 at Suttons Bay (10-0) Friday, 7 (H/M vs. #7)
Constantine (8-1) at Union City (9-1) (#4 vs N/R)
DIVISION 7
Ishpeming (7-2) at Norway (8-2) – Saturday, 2 (#7 vs. #8)
Holton (7-3) at Muskegon Catholic Central (8-2) (Both beat SAC teams)
Decatur (9-1) at Cassopolis (10-0) Friday, 7:30 (#6 vs. #1)
Grass Lake (8-2) at Sand Creek (10-0) Friday, 7 (H/M vs. #3)
DIVISION 8
Martin (8-2) at Climax-Scotts (10-0) (H/M vs. #4)
Crystal Falls Forest Park (7-2) at Iron Mountain North Dickinson (10-0) Friday, 7 (H/M vs. #2)
Waterford Our Lady (8-2) at Sterling Heights Parkway Christian (10-0) (H/M vs. #5)
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