CONSTANTINE – Michigan Center came up with some big plays both on offense and on defense to overcome Constantine’s three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust rushing attack in a 28-18 win Saturday in a Division 6 district final.
Michigan Center quarterback Kaydin Hiland came up with some of the big plays on his own, for instance a 62-yard touchdown run to put the Cardinals in front for good.
“Huge holes, honestly, we got our blocks down,” Hiland said. “Once we got to the second level, our wide receivers and running backs came in and made there blocks, so it was a huge gap the whole way.”
That touchdown put Michigan Center in front 14-12 and came 19 seconds after a Constantine touchdown briefly gave the Falcons the lead.
“We had some good momentum going and a couple things had stalled out on our end,” Michigan Center coach Troy Allen said. “We were confident we were still going to get a chance to score, and we had [Hiland] in the backfield, and the kids know there’s a lot of big-play potential, and obviously he put it on his shoulders on the first play. That was nice for the coaching staff, we didn’t have to be 12-7 long, which was nice.”
Hiland added another rushing score later in the fourth quarter on a five-yard run, a score he set up himself with a 37-yard carry breaking several tackles two plays earlier.
Hiland also had a fourth-quarter passing touchdown, hitting Avery Nahal on a post route over the middle for a 28-yard score.
Constantine (10-1) had answers for most of what Michigan Center was trying to do for most of the game.
Constantine ran 56 rushing plays, 22 of which went for 2, 3 or 4 yards. The balanced attack saw Bennett VanderBerg carry 12 times for 76 yards and Lukas Hagenbuch carry 13 times for 74.
“We found some things we liked, but unfortunate penalties put us behind the sticks at times,” Constantine coach Shawn Griffith said. “That caused us to have to turn the ball over. That happens.
“I told the kids, don’t let this define your season, you had a great season. Hats off to our seniors here who played through COVID as juniors and this year play well enough to win league but fall a bit short.”
The Falcons put together scoring drives of 11, 11 and seven plays
But Michigan Center’s defense came through with needed stops, forcing Constantine to go three-and-out twice in the second half.
“I feel like we did great up front,” Michigan Center lineman Noah Mast said. “We worked all week to shut it down, and came out here and did that.”
Hiland led Michigan Center with 19 carries for 143 yards (16 carries for 153 yards when not counting the kneel-down plays on the last possession of the game) and completed 8-of-15 passes for 103 yards.
“We picked up our blocks, we did our assignments, we ran the ball hard,” Hiland said.
Michigan Center struck first on a scoring drive set up by a fumble recovery. With the Cardinals starting deep in Falcons’ territory, Mitchell Corwin found the end zone three plays later on a nine-yard carry, with Reid Scaife adding the extra point.
Constantine responded, putting together an 11-play, 63-yard scoring drive with Hagenbuch scoring from 31 yards out, initially taking the handoff and heading up the middle, but finding some open space to his right and racing around the Michigan Center defense, winning a race to the pylon to score.
The two-point conversion was no good, so Michigan Center still led 7-6.
Constantine had a golden opportunity with its next drive to take the lead. After holding Michigan Center on fourth-and-inches near midfield, the Falcons reached the Cardinals’ 18 before a third-down pass to the back of the end zone for Carter McGee was too far downfield for him to reel it in and get his feet inbounds.
On the ensuing fourth-down play, the Falcons attempted a halfback screen pass, but the Cardinals made the stop to take over.
Constantine eventually took the lead on a one-yard plunge by Hagenbuch on the opening drive of the third quarter.
“We weren’t too concerned to be honest,” Griffith said. “I thought we’d come out and controlled. We had a couple other drives where we moved the ball and moved the sticks and thought we were playing good, solid football. We had the ball coming out [of halftime]. It certainly wasn’t gloom and doom at halftime being down by a point.”
But Michigan Center’s Clayton Clark picked up 21 yards on the ensuing kick return and Hiland went the rest of the way on the first play from scrimmage.
Constantine scored on a one-yard dive by Hetmasberger, a touchdown set up by a 53-yard pass from Hetmansberger to McGee on a fourth-and-6 play earlier in the drive, but Michigan Center’s Daylen Hinkle recovered the onside kick, and Hiland scored a few plays later.
Michigan Center (10-1) stopped all three of Consantine’s two-point conversion attempts. In their last five quarters of football, going back to the district semifinal win over Jonesville, opposing teams are 0-for-4 on two-point conversions against the Cardinals.
Alex Hunt, who stopped the all-important two-point conversion attempt in the win over Jonesville, made another big play against Constantine, intercepting a pass on the Falcon’s last possession of the game.
“We figured out it was a pass and were all pass rushing,” Hunt said. “I saw my teammate, Logan Heath, right in the quarterback’s face. He tipped it and I saw the ball go flying up and got under it and made the catch.”
"center" - Google News
November 07, 2021 at 04:31AM
https://ift.tt/31EDciX
Michigan Center gets big plays to stop Constantine - mlive.com
"center" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bUHym8
https://ift.tt/2zR6ugj
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Michigan Center gets big plays to stop Constantine - mlive.com"
Post a Comment