Brown out: Midland back runs for 293 yards in 1st action of season as Chemics top TC West 35-14

Sep. 29—TRAVERSE CITY — Traverse City West's homecoming turned into a surprise party for Jalen Brown.

West battled back from an early 14-0 deficit to knot up the game in the third quarter; but Midland (4-2) scored twice in a span of 20 seconds, and a pair of Titan turnovers led to touchdowns for a 35-14 final Friday at Thirlby Field.

Brown, playing in his first game this season because of disciplinary action, ran the ball 39 times for 293 yards, with 184 of that coming in the first half.

"At the end day, he was the best player on the field and it showed," West first-year head coach James Wagner said.

The Titans (2-4) did slow him down in the second half, as he gained 109 yards on 19 carries, with much of that coming on four chunk plays. In the first half, he seemed good for 5 yards on most carries, as 13 of his 20 first-half totes went for 5 or more yards.

The clean sweep the Traverse City schools hoped for turned into a deadlock. Each TC program beat their Midland opponents a week ago, but the Chemics and Chargers returned the favor this time around. Dow topped TC Central 35-13.

Last week, Central held the Chemics to 73 rushing yards, without Brown in the lineup. Brown surpassed that total by the first play of the second quarter.

"We felt like we didn't play our best last week," Midland head coach Eric Methner said. "Credit to Traverse City Central. They played tough at our place. But we left a lot of plays on the field and that one really stung; so for our guys to come up here and bounce back and play in front of a huge crowd for their homecoming and to persevere and battle the way they did, I'm really proud of them."

The road doesn't get any easier for West, which travels to Saginaw Valley League-Blue leader Mount Pleasant (5-1, 4-0 SVL-Blue) and Central Michigan quarterback commit Logan Borodychuck next week.

"They're the best team in the conference right now," Wagner said. "Their quarterback is a stud, and we have to be sharper. We have to play our best game of the season."

West trailed Midland 14-0 after an Isaiah Henderson quarterback sneak and a Brown 38-yard run in the second quarter's first play. From there, the Titans held the Chemics off the scoreboard until the final seven minutes.

Midland bottled up West's run game, holding the Titans to negative-4 yards on 10 carries in the first half. Owen Hendrix would end with 42 yards and Parker Kirschner 22.

Hendrix was 9-for-19 passing for 154 yards, linking up with Sam Schutte for an 84-yard score in the second quarter for West's first points.

The Titans didn't have a run go for more than 2 yards until well into the second quarter, stringing together an impressive nine-play drive that ended in a Hendrix 2-yard keeper. Dougie Rice's extra point knotted up the game at 14-14 with 6:02 left before halftime.

Midland took a 21-14 lead on Brown's 6-yard TD run, and then Noah Wall jumped a route for an interception on the next play.

"They got going a bit on the jet sweep, and we had to make a couple of adjustments, but we did a nice job of that," Methner said. "We made some plays in the secondary. Noah Wall, big, big interception, jumping the slant after we took the lead. That was that was a huge play for us."

Brown bounced a run to the outside for a 25-yard TD on Midland's first ensuing offensive play for a quick 28-14 lead.

"They had it bottled up," Methner said. "He was just kind of hiding behind people, and then he bumps to the outside and he was off to the races."

Brown picked off a pass two plays later, and Henderson hit Wall for a 26-yard touchdown with 2:30 remaining for a 35-14 lead.

Wagner said he sees the Titans making the playoffs if they can win out and finish 5-4.

"This league is going to be competitive ballgames week in, week out," he said. "It's going to be the team that makes plays down stretch that is going to be the difference, and that's how it was tonight."

Mildand's offense looked totally different with Brown in the backfield. Henderson and Wall gained a combined 720 yards in the first four games in his absence, but Brown's workload in his debut saw the senior handle more than 40 touches.

"We said, 'You're not banged up like a lot of these other guys are, so you should be ready,'" Methner said. "That ball's not very heavy, so he can carry it."

The Chemics also ran different plays with Brown in the game than previously with Henderson and Wall as the primary ballcarriers.

West learned Wednesday that Brown would be playing, but the Titans didn't have any tape from this year with Brown. Last year's film was with a different line.

"They ran in a completely different scheme from what we've seen," Wagner said. "They ran some of their stuff that they had run, but it was from different formations and kind of threw our kids off. Then they also implemented a new scheme with inside zone (blocking)."

Drew Esper led West's defense with 10 tackles. Noah Dumon added eight. Both missed last week's 24-21 win over Midland Dow.

Kyler Brunan and Roman Leask added six tackles each, with Lucas Anglin, Brady Vaughan and Brayden Popa each logging five solo stops.

"They have tough kids, and they always play hard," Methner said. "It didn't surprise us one bit. They're not going to lay down. They're going to keep coming, credit to them. But I was really happy with the way our guys got off the ball."