MHSAA football playoffs: Belleville pummels Saline, 65-14, in matchup of top quarterbacks

Utilizing his vast array of playmakers all over the field, Belleville junior quarterback Bryce Underwood had a field day in Saturday’s Division 1 district final showdown against Saline.

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound junior guided the host Tigers to a 30-point halftime lead and Belleville made it 36 straight victories dating back to the 2021 season, ultimately cruising to a 65-14 win for the two-time defending state champions.

In his QB duel against Saline senior C.J. Carr, the Notre Dame commit, Underwood was razor sharp during the opening half, going 15 of 19 for 191 yards and two touchdowns.

He also had a running game to complement the Tigers’ passing game as Michigan commit Jeremiah Beasley proved to be a bulldozer, rushing for 69 yards on nine carries and a pair of TDs.

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Rated the top junior QB in the nation for his class, Underwood finished the game going 21 of 25 for 312 yards and four TDs.

“We wanted to come here to prove that we have the better quarterback and that was the goal all week,” Belleville coach Calvin Norman said. “We said wanted to say, ‘Hey, we have one of the best quarterbacks in the country, not just in the state, but in the country.’ Nothing to take anything away from Carr because he’s a great football player and throws the ball beautifully. He threw a couple of beautiful passes, but we wanted to make this game as a big statement to let everybody know that Belleville is ready to play football."

Underwood, somewhat surprised to learn he threw for over 300 years, quickly gave credit to his receiving corps.

“They were amazing, we work every day at practice,” he said. “We have great receivers, there’s nothing else I can do but get the ball to them. Every game I want to give it the best effort I have and be better than the last week that I had.”

Carr, meanwhile, was pressured throughout the first two quarters going 11 of 23 for 99 yards and an interception in the first half. He was picked off two more times in the third quarter. The senior was 19 of 33 for 210 yards.

“Our main goal was not to keep it close,” Underwood said. “And we did that having that as our goal all week to keep him under 250 yards and not even a touchdown. And that’s what we did.”

Belleville (11-0) added three more TDs during the third quarter — a 10-yarder to Kevin Simes and an 11-yarder to Jalen Johnson. Raymonte Adams also added a 2-yard TD run. In the fourth quarter, Joseph Stephens III had a 98-yard kick return for a TD after Saline got a 13-yard scoring run by James Rush.

Jalen Johnson, a 6-foot-3, 170-pound senior, was a standout on both sides of the ball for the Tigers, who spent a lot of time watching film all week on Carr and the Hornets.

“We really wanted to stop their trick plays and that was the key,” he said. “We didn’t want him to get out of the pocket and contain him, and we did a pretty good job of that.

“Bryce was great, phenomenal, best quarterback in the nation, number one. There was no letdown at all. Scoreboard speaks for itself.”

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On the first play from scrimmage, Carr hit Caid Fox in the slot for what appeared to be short gain, but he juggled the ball on the catch and it was ruled a fumble instead of an incompletion by the officials. The Tigers’ Andre Thomas scooped it up and ran 22 yards for a TD just 13 seconds into the game to make it 7-0.

The Tigers then made back-to-back stops on third- and fourth-and-1 at their own 9 on Saline’s next possession after Carr hit LaDainian Woods on a 58-yard strike.

“The reality of it today — to be honest — is that we were overmatched,” Saline coach Joe Palka said. “Maybe we get a different start. Video hindsight, we get an incomplete pass and we keep moving and maybe it’s a different start. It’s just one of those days, we told the kids. Today, they were better than us. They outmatched us. I thought we kept battling, but today was just too tall of an order.”

Belleville then went up 10-0 with 5:11 remaining in the same quarter on Brayden Lane’s 44-yard field goal.

On the ensuing kickoff, Fox found a huge hole up the middle and ran 78 yards for a TD getting a key block from Austin Abbate at the end of the run cut the deficit to 10-7.

“We just made a mistake, one of the players took it upon himself to run down the field and he was my safety guy,” Norman said. “So, there was no safety valve on that special team. But again, we prepare everybody in all three phases of the game and it kind of showed today. I’m proud of the whole team and I’m proud of the coaching staff.”

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With 51.1 seconds to go in the first, Beasley capped a 10-play, 66-yard TD drive with a 1-yard run, but the extra point was blocked due to a high snap from center leaving the count at 16-7.

To start the second quarter and leading 16-7, Belleville got an interception from Desmon Yharbrough near midfield and scored four plays later on a 16-yard TD strike from Underwood to Julian Johnson to make it 22-7 with 9:32 to go.

The Tigers struck again on an 11-yard TD run by Beasley after Underwood connected on 3 of 4 passes on the 57-yard drive. Johnson followed by running in for the two-pointer on a fake PAT attempt to make it 30-7 with 6:32 to go in the half.

And with only 1:01 left, Underwood engineered an 83-yard, six-play drive culminating in a 10-yard TD pass to Jalen Johnson to put the Tigers comfortably ahead 37-7.

Other than giving up a kickoff return for at TD, the Tigers were hitting pretty much on all cylinders. Belleville now plays Northville (10-1) in a rematch of the KLAA championship in the final regular season game won by the Tigers, 42-0.

“We go week by week, we understand what’s in front of us,” Norman said. “We know that. Everybody that we play is going to give us their best game, so we’ve got to come to practice every day and we got to work hard. We just can’t be good, not be great, we’ve got to work at that elite level that we try to achieve every day when we come to practice.”

Meanwhile, the prolific career of Carr came to a crashing halt. His heir apparent at the position with the Hornets (9-2) is his sophomore brother, Tommy.

“The four years he’s been with us on the varsity level has just flown by,” Palka said of the future Notre Dame QB. “Just a phenomenal competitor. We asked him today, ‘Hey, what about coming out and give your brother a little bit?’ He was like ‘No, I want to finish it.’ That tells you all you need to know. He’s in there for the great times and it was a tough one today, but he wanted to stay in there and finish it with his teammates.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MHSAA football playoffs: Belleville cruises by Saline in top QBs game