Monday Morning Coffee

Weekend Recap - Once again, congratulations to New Lothrop in winning their first ever football regional championship, a 36-28 classic over Deckerville.
New Lothrop played with a lot of determination, Deckerville played with a lot of heart, but in the end, the Hornets had a little more than the Eagles.

New Lothrop jumped to an early 14-0 lead, were ahead at one point in the second quarter 20-6, before the Ealges awoke from the slumber and poured on sixteen straight points to take a 22-20 lead in the second. A field goal right before the half gave New Lothrop a 23-22, a lead which would remain theirs for the remainder of the game.

A fourth quarter 78-yard touchdown run by Deckerville's Justin Lindke cut the lead to 30-28, before New Lothrop added one more to provide for the final margin. New Lothrop's Mike Vincke found the endzone from 11-yards away, giving the Hornets the win and the Regional Trophy.

I have heard some complaints about Deckerville losing their center in the game due to an injury, and that is why the Eagles' Wes Messing had trouble holding onto the snap in the fourth quarter. That may be the case but I would hate for anyone to look for excuses for the loss in such a wonderfully played game.

Both teams fought hard, and both teams had trouble holding onto the ball in the fourth quarter. Some times the ball just bounces the other way, and sometimes it bounces to the other team. Sometimes you win game like this, sometimes you lose.

Deckerville had a great season, and they shouldn't try to look to blame the loss of this game on an injury. They just came up a little short.

Bobby Layne, the Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Detroit Lions to three NFL championships in the 1950's, had a great saying that sums it up. He once was quoted as saying, "I never lost a game in my life...I just ran out of time." That's what happened on Saturday...Deckerville just ran out of time.


Looking ahead to the girl's hoops playoffs:

Tonight is the night for the 13 area teams in the TCA coverage area. Time to set aside all of the regular season accomplishments, time to forget the regular season records, and time to start the second season.

District 58, Class B at North Branch:
Tonight: Millington has defeated Caro twice and Frankenmuth has defeated North Branch twice and there's no reason to believe that will change. Millington should take care of Caro, and Muth should take care of North Branch. That leaves us with Millington-Cass City on Wednesday, and Muth-Birch Run. If Cass City (the team with three of the best players in the area) shows up, and I think they will, then Cass City should move onto the finals to play Muth, who should be able to defeat a shrinking Birch Run team.
That sets up a Cass City-Frankenmuth District Final on Friday.
Right now, Frankenmuth's Nicole Bade is the best all-around player in this area...Cass City has a good player in Emily Schinnerer, but the Eagles should prevail here to move on to the Alma Regional next week.

District 59, Class B at Midland-Bullock Creek:
Vassar has no chance here against Tri-Valley champion Garber. The Vulcans threw this season in the can early on when they switched coaches after six games when they were in first place, tied with Garber at 3-1 in conference play. Tonight, the drama ends.

District 88, Class C at Marlette:
Nothing interesting here until Friday, when, if everything goes according to how it should, we will get a Marlette-Sandusky rematch in the District Finals. Marlette has two games to tune up, tonight against Brown City and Wednesday against Mayville, while Sandusky gets to feast on Deckerville tonight.
Sandusky has not lost all year, and they won't lose Friday night either, as the Redskins move on to the Regionals.

District 89, Class C at Ubly:
Best game of the area happens tonight, as EPBP Lakers and USA Patriots face off in the first round. Lakers overcame the loss of one of their best players to an injury and coasted through the season on pure emotion, winning the GTW title along the way. But USA has been the better team lately, as Carly Treiber has emerged as a scoring threat to take some of the defensive attention away from Katie Rayl. USA should win.
The Patriots should coast to the Finals on Friday, where they should have no trouble disposing Harbor Beach.
USA moves on.

District 112, Class D at CPS:
Kingston should still win the District title, even with the loss of center Allyson Crousore. Leigha Wilmot is still one of the best players in the area, and the other teams in the Cards district shouldn't pose much of a challenge. The only problem is, without Crousore, Kingston will have trouble moving much further after districts.

District 113, Class D at Owen-Gage:
Owen-Gage has to play perfect to get past North Huron tonight, and I think they will. Then they should eliminate A-F, before falling to Port Hope in the Finals.

MICHIGAN-OHIO ST. - It's finally here...the week before the biggest game in the history of college football's greatest rivalry. Not since 1973 (the year before I was born) have both of these teams been undefeated at this point of the season. ESPN Classic is playing the 1988 game right now (which UM won 34-31.) I think UM is going to win this year as well. The Wolverines have too much firepower, too much defensive speed, and too much to play for. UM is going to enter this game angry, and hungry. OSU has a good team, but after Troy Smith, I can't name another Buckeye. Plus, I hate Ohio St. UM 38-OSU 21.
I will be watching the game at a bar in Gladwin...I'm going to be at deer camp this weekend but I'm going to leave the woods to watch this one.