And then there were two...
Thumb Top Five after Week 6
1. Ubly (6-0): Bearcats' just keep churning out yards, points and wins this season. Jordan Kaufman had a huge game against Brown City on Friday, rushing for 189 yards and two touchdowns. This week's matchup with Deckerville should be the highest attended game in the Thumb for the 2008 season.
2. Deckerville (6-0): The Eagles' Marcus Kemp is having a monster year. On Friday, he scored four touchdowns while rushing for 137 yards in just three quarters in a 42-6 win over Marlette. Kemp will need all of that and more if his team is defeat Ubly in Week 7.
3. Millington (5-1): A let down was to be expected after the Cardinals emotional win in Week 5. A loss to Birch Run was not exactly what coach Tim Furno wanted from his team last week. Still, Millington is the Thumb's premier program, as Furno had led his team to a winning season for each of the last 20 years now.
4. Cros-Lex (5-1): The Pioneers avoided the upset bug by rebounding in Week 6 with a with a 35-0 win over Armada. A Week 9 showdown with Millington is looming in what could be battle between two of Thumb's best teams.
5. Cass City (5-1): It seems no one wants to win the GTW title this season. The Red Hawks lost to BCAS last Friday night, but coach Cuthrell still has team one win away from a playoff berth. And they are still in control of their own destiny as far as winning the conference title goes.
The best of the best
Speaking of Millington, I said in last week's podcast that I thought there might not be another team in the Mid-Michigan area that has had more consecutive winning seasons than coach Furno has at Millington. Turns out I was right, depending on where your boundaries are for Mid-Michigan.
Christian thought that maybe Saginaw Nouvel had more consecutive winning seasons than Millington, but after checking out the records on-line, Nouvel had a 4-5 season back in 1998.
So the Panthers are out.
Turns out, the only school in the entire area with a longer string of winning seasons is Oxford. Including this season, Coach Bud Rowley and the Wildcats have now put together 27 consecutive winning seasons.
But, Oxford is in Oakland County, hardly an area that is widely considered a part of Mid-Michigan. I only even checked Oxford because of its association with the Flint Metro League, a conference they have been a part of since 1984.
Quick history lesson
For those of you wondering, Oxford and Millington have played in the past. The two schools were in the same conference, the South Central Thumb League, from 1956-62. The schools have met on the field a total of 10 times, with Oxford holding a 5-3-2 advantage in a series which has been dormant since 1963.
The SCTL consisted of Millington, Oxford, North Branch, Brandon and Imlay City. The conference was disbanded after Oxford left in 1962.
There doesn't appear to much of a chance of this old rivalry being renewed. Since 1962, Oxford has grown in enrollment to a current student count of 1,287. Millington, on the other hand, has 553 students, so this is one matchup that has a very little chance of ever happening again.
1. Ubly (6-0): Bearcats' just keep churning out yards, points and wins this season. Jordan Kaufman had a huge game against Brown City on Friday, rushing for 189 yards and two touchdowns. This week's matchup with Deckerville should be the highest attended game in the Thumb for the 2008 season.
2. Deckerville (6-0): The Eagles' Marcus Kemp is having a monster year. On Friday, he scored four touchdowns while rushing for 137 yards in just three quarters in a 42-6 win over Marlette. Kemp will need all of that and more if his team is defeat Ubly in Week 7.
3. Millington (5-1): A let down was to be expected after the Cardinals emotional win in Week 5. A loss to Birch Run was not exactly what coach Tim Furno wanted from his team last week. Still, Millington is the Thumb's premier program, as Furno had led his team to a winning season for each of the last 20 years now.
4. Cros-Lex (5-1): The Pioneers avoided the upset bug by rebounding in Week 6 with a with a 35-0 win over Armada. A Week 9 showdown with Millington is looming in what could be battle between two of Thumb's best teams.
5. Cass City (5-1): It seems no one wants to win the GTW title this season. The Red Hawks lost to BCAS last Friday night, but coach Cuthrell still has team one win away from a playoff berth. And they are still in control of their own destiny as far as winning the conference title goes.
The best of the best
Speaking of Millington, I said in last week's podcast that I thought there might not be another team in the Mid-Michigan area that has had more consecutive winning seasons than coach Furno has at Millington. Turns out I was right, depending on where your boundaries are for Mid-Michigan.
Christian thought that maybe Saginaw Nouvel had more consecutive winning seasons than Millington, but after checking out the records on-line, Nouvel had a 4-5 season back in 1998.
So the Panthers are out.
Turns out, the only school in the entire area with a longer string of winning seasons is Oxford. Including this season, Coach Bud Rowley and the Wildcats have now put together 27 consecutive winning seasons.
But, Oxford is in Oakland County, hardly an area that is widely considered a part of Mid-Michigan. I only even checked Oxford because of its association with the Flint Metro League, a conference they have been a part of since 1984.
Quick history lesson
For those of you wondering, Oxford and Millington have played in the past. The two schools were in the same conference, the South Central Thumb League, from 1956-62. The schools have met on the field a total of 10 times, with Oxford holding a 5-3-2 advantage in a series which has been dormant since 1963.
The SCTL consisted of Millington, Oxford, North Branch, Brandon and Imlay City. The conference was disbanded after Oxford left in 1962.
There doesn't appear to much of a chance of this old rivalry being renewed. Since 1962, Oxford has grown in enrollment to a current student count of 1,287. Millington, on the other hand, has 553 students, so this is one matchup that has a very little chance of ever happening again.
Comments
Great post regarding Millington v. Oxford as it rekindles some early memories. As a youngster (very young, mind you) I can remember those games. One year (probably '62 or '63) Oxford had a 7 ft. basketball center. Millington's tallest player was about 6-1'. As I recall, the Cardinals hung tough before losing. Yes, time changes all, including the sizes of communities.
The D-7 District "will be very competitive?" How? Ubly has rolled up every opponent (and, if anyone really thought Deckerville would be a challenge, you don't have a clue about HS football).