Friday Night Kickoff

It's week three of the high school football season.  A few surprises have already have happened.

Did you really expect to see Otsego and Vicksburg at 2-0 in the Wolverine Conference while South Haven and Gull Lake were 0-2.  Need I remind you that Gull Lake is the defending Wolverine Conference Champions.

St. Joseph Head Coach Elliot Uzelac is good friends with New England Patriots Coach Bill Belicheck, it seems almost ironic that a major part of each team is out for the year with an ACL injury.  St. Joe already has shown that despite the loss of Bock, the Bears running game is in good shape with Drake Smith taking up the load.  Smith was slated to be the starting running back last year but a knee injury gave Bock the starting position.   Now that Bock is out, Smith is showing that the Bears are still dangerous.  After wins over Battle Creek Harper Creek and Marshall, the Bears will head on the road and face 2-0 Portage Northern at McCamley Field in Portage.   Just like the Bears, the Huskies are 2-0 and have been explosive on offense, beating Benton Harbor 45-12 in week 1 and then blasting Mattawan 49-6 last Friday.  The Bears defense will have to contend with a potent Northern offense.

Lakeshore finally gets to have a normal schedule this week.  After playing their first game on a Thursday night against Coldwater, and then on Saturday night at Jackson Lumen Christi.  The Lancers finally have a Friday game.  Why mess with success, Maybe the Lancers should have all over their games on Thursday or Saturday, after all they have won both of their games so far, 48-0 against Coldwater and 17-0 against Lumen Christi. 

There were some questions surrounding the Lancers coming into this season, after all the Lancers only returned 3 starters from last year.  The Lancers coming off of a season where not only did they lose to St. Joseph for the first time in 15 years, but then to lose by 35 points to the Bears in the playoffs.   The Lancers answered those questions and silenced most of the critics with a 17-0 shutout victory at Jackson Lumen Christi.  In all reality, the game was over after just 15 seconds, as Coco Johnson ran the opening kickoff back 99 yards for the touchdown.  The opportunistic Lancer defense forced three Lumen Christi turnovers, and after two games, the Lancer 'D' hasn't given up a single point.  The Lancers will finally play a Friday game at Battle Creek Lakeivew.  One of only two games the Lancers will play on natural grass this season.

Benton Harbor may not have any victories yet under Maurice Burton, but it's not for a lack of effort.  The Tigers major week 1 problem was all but eliminated going into the game at Kalamazoo Central.  The first part of any play is the snap from the center to quarterback.  Well after that was solved you could see what the Tigers are really capable of.  A 7-6 defeat to Kalamazoo Central sent the Tigers to 0-2 on the season, if moral victories counted then Tigers would have one.  KC scored 47 points in a 47-0 win over Mattawan in week 1, the Tigers defense limited the Giants to just 7 points, and if not for a failed 2 point conversion, the Tigers would be celebrating their first win since the 2006 season.  But all is not lost for the Tigers.  The quick Tiger offense could put up some big numbers this week at 0-2 Battle Creek Harper Creek.  The Tigers defense will have to contend with a Wing-T offense of Battle Creek Harper Creek that only has scored 11 points in two games.  The Tigers key on defense is to stick to their assignments and don't chase.  The Beavers will play "hide the ball" all night long.  The Tigers speedy defense should give them an advantage.

Lake Michigan Catholic's season ended last year with a blowout loss at Cassopolis.   The Lakers were defeated 63-18 a year ago in Cassopolis.  Cass needed a facemask penalty on fourth down to keep what would end up being the game winning drive alive as Jeffrey Anderson scored on a 2 yard touchdown run with 61 seconds left and DaShaun Curtis added the 2 point conversion to give Cass a 15-14 win over LMC.  The same LMC team that Cass defeated by 45 points a year ago.   Give LMC credit. everybody was convinced that LMC was going to end up the same way they had in the playoffs last year.  Nobody gave LMC a prayer in this game (I know, bad pun), I admit I didn't give LMC a shot.  But they proved me wrong.  They didn't win the game, but the Lakers responded and showed that the Lakers are a team to contend with...  Need proof.  Cass Coach Andy Hubbard told the South Bend Tribune. "We didn't want to put the ball in their hands in overtime."  I guess that teams know that stopping LMC's single wing offense is no easy task.

Random thoughts...

Wolverine Flip Flop
What is going on in the Wolverine Conference?  Gull Lake and South Haven are both 0-2, while perennial conference doormats Otsego and Vicksburg are 2-0?

Titan Killers???
Since joining the Big 16 in the 2006 season, Jackson Lumen Christi has only lost 2 regular season games... Both to the Lakeshore Lancers.