Friday night roundup

Rockets falter in first round

REESE - Bob Saylor thinks his team may have been eliminated by the eventual state champion.
Only time will tell if Saylor is correct.
The undefeated Rockets ran into a wall against Saginaw Nouvel in the opening round of the State Playoffs on Friday night. The Nouvel defense led the way, limiting the Rockets to just 20 yards of the offense in the first half and forced three turnovers in the Panthers 22-14 win in the Division 6 playoffs.
Nouvel (6-3) moves on to face St. Charles (10-0); Reese is finished in the first round for the second straight season.
"You never know with a team like Nouvel," Saylor said after the game. "They play a tough schedule, and they are always a tough team.
"We just couldn't get anything going against their defense."
Nouvel held Reese to just 15 offensive plays in the first twenty-four minutes of play, and the high-flying Rocket offense was held without a first-half first down for the first time in the 2007 season.
"We had nothing going out there," Saylor said. "They kept us off the field by holding onto the ball for such a long time.
"And turnovers killed us."
After Nouvel stalled on a 14-play drive early in the second quarter, the Reese offense gave the ball right back when the first down handoff from quarterback Josh Bierlein to Will Tack went awry and fell to the wet turf. The Panther defense recovered and the offense followed that two plays later by finding the endzone. Nouvel's Kyle Baranski found some daylight and made his way eight-yards for the score. The extra point gave the Panthers the 7-0 lead.
"We knew we had some adjustments to make at halftime," Saylor said. "We had to try to do something different."
Which is exactly what Reese did, coming out after the break featuring a shotgun, four-wide receiver offense, with the intent to give Bierlein some extra breathing room.
After a Nouvel score on their first possession in the third quarter gave the Panthers a 14-0 lead, the Rockets came right back with a score of their own. Bierlein took an option out of the shotgun and exploded through the middle of the Nouvel defense, outrunning every player in a white shirt for a 67-yard score. The extra point failed.
The Rockets were unable to build on that momentum, though. Nouvel's Christian Miller broke free for a 76-yard touchdown run with 6:53 left to play, giving his team a 22-6 lead, which obviously hurt the Rockets chances, but Saylor was mainly disappointed with his defense on that play.
"That was a third and fifteen play," Saylor said. "You never expect to give that type of big play up in that situation.
"We still had a chance at that point, but our defense needed to hold."
The Rockets responded on their ensuing possession by sustaining their first drive of the game, taking eight-plays to go 69 yards. Bierlein found tight end Derek Saylor over the middle from 14-yards out to make the score 22-12 with 3:54 left to play. On the two-point conversion attempt, Bierlein lofted a pass to the corner of the endzone, connecting with Isaac Zimmer to cut the Panther lead to just eight.
But that was as close as the Rockets would get. The Reese offense would fumble the ball away with just :21 seconds left on the clock, giving away not only the game but also their season.
Bierlein led the Rockets with 76 yards rushing on 10 carries while also passing for 118 going 9-of-20. Zimmer caught eight passes for 87 yards.
"I told the kids to not hang their heads," Saylor said. "I am proud of them. Nouvel is a great team.
"They might just be the eventual Division 6 State Champion."

Other area playoff scores:
Millington 34, Montrose 26: At Millington, the Cardinals came back from a 20-14 halftime deficit to win over the Rams in the first round of the Division playoffs, setting up a showdown next week against Chesaning for the District Title.
Millington (9-1) was led by Dustin Griesing, who scored three touchdowns, rushed for 121 yards on 15 carries and completed 5-of-10 passes for another 73. Griesing also tied for the team lead with tackles (9), sharing honors with Richard Osborn.
Griesing scored on runs of 26, 2 and 37. Corban Stewart rushed for 94 yards for the Cards and two scores, finding the endzone from five yards in the first and from two yards in the fourth, the latter which put Millington up for good over Montrose (8-2).

Chesaning 12, Frankenmuth 3: At Frankenmuth, the Eagles were unable to do two things: score a touchdown and stop Chesaning's Joe Bitterman.
Bitterman rushed the ball 26 times for 141 yards and scored the games only touchdowns, both in the second quarter, as the Indians (7-3) eliminated the Tri-Valley East champions from the playoffs.
Frankenmuth (8-2) was led by Ryan Keith, who rushed the ball 14 times for 94 yards, while Nick Shelton added 41 yards on 16 attempts.
The Eagles only points came via a 28-yard field goal in the second quarter off the foot of Nathan Kraft.

St. Charles 36, Marlette 34: At St. Charles, the Red Raiders' Austin Comment nearly led his team to the upset victory over the top-ranked Bulldogs in Division 6 action, erasing a ten-point halftime deficit to take a 34-30 lead with two scores in the third quarter.
St. Charles (10-0) though would not be denied, as the Bulldogs scored the games only points in the fourth to move to the next round of the playoffs.
Trailing 30-20 at the half, Marlette (6-4) scored 14 points in the third, but was shut out in the final quarter. Comment ran for 106 yards and two scores on 20 carries, completed 5-of-6 passes for 152 yards and returned a kickoff 78-yards for a touchdown in the third quarter.

Ubly 40, USA 14: At Ubly, the Bearcats (8-2) avenged an opening game loss from earlier this season with the big win over the Patriots, eliminating USA from Division 7 action on Friday night.
USA's Brandon Bitzer scored on a 44-yard run in the first quarter and later hooked up with Heath Schmidt from three yards out in the third. USA finishes with a 6-4 record.