Hail, hail to Frankenmuth


Eagles are for real. Well, after watching Frankenmuth dismantle Millington on Friday night, it's safe to say that John Blankenship is without a doubt the best football coach in the area. They convinced me...my vote for the area's Top Ten number one team went to Frankenmuth and after a 23-8 win over the Cardinals on Friday, the Eagles are now tied for the number one team in the area with unbeaten Reese.
F'muth not only won the game...they were dominant! Blankenship's defense completely shutdown the Cards, sacked quarterback Dustin Griesing five times, forced him out of the pocket numerous times and rushed seemingly every pass attempt by the Millington senior.
The Cardinals had no answer for the Frankenmuth 'D'...the only decent play for the Cards was their touchdown.
The Eagles 'D' was relentless in the first quarter so in the second, Millington came out in a five-wide, no running back spread. Griesing took the snap and threw a screen to Garrett Stier, who was lined up wide to Griesing's right. Stier took the ball and appeared to be shot out of cannon, outrunning every Eagle defensive player for a 48-yard touchdown score.
And that bothered me for the rest of the game. Millington undoubtedly had the advantage in team speed...Stier, Tyler Reinert and Griesing are three of the fastest players in the entire area, yet the Millington coaches did not use that to their advantage.
Other than on returns for special teams, no effort was made to get the ball into the hands of Reinert. Stier only had something like three catches. And Griesing was left hung out to dry too many times by forcing him to take the snap under center while the constant threat of the Eagles blitz loomed up front.
There appeared to be no halftime adjustments made by the Cardinals...while the Eagles did what they had to do to win. Not to mention that Frankenmuth's Ryan Keith took over.
Keith rushed for 86 yards, caught four passes for 67 yards and scored all three touchdowns for Frankenmuth. Keith also led the Eagle defense with eight tackles, a fumble recovery and an interception. The kid won the game and the Tri-Valley East title for Frankenmuth.
Which brings me back to Blankenship. In just his second year back as the head man in town, Blankenship has brought the school it's first outright TVE title since 1997 (they tied with BR and Mill in 2000), and more important than that, he has these kids playing disciplined football.
The Eagles never turned the ball over against Millington...I don't ever remember them getting flagged for a penalty...and I never saw them waver once when Millington cut the lead to 10-8. They kept their eyes on the prize, and that is a testament to their coach. Millington may have, according to a lot of people, more talent than Frankenmuth, but, for right now, the Eagles are a better team.

Rockets claim Sugar Bowl. After Reese's dominating 38-6 Sugar Bowl and GTW title-clinching win over USA last Friday, I am really looking forward to this Friday night's game when the Rockets play host to Birch Run. This will really help to make things easier when it comes to voting on a Top Ten list for the area. Millington and Frankenmuth both defeated Birch Run, Muth had a tough time with it where the Cards beat the Panthers quite easily.
So, when we see how Reese performs against the bigger Birch Run team, that should allow us to gauge the Rockets that much easier. Jon and Christian from 92.1 will call this game live, and we will talk about it on the Mix 92.1 Pre-Game show, the best pre-game show in the Thumb that starts at 6:30.

Comments

Unknown said…
Looks like Standish was a little bit better than any team in the Thumb.
Oct 21, 2007, 5:33:00 PM
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