Clarkston, Lowell remind the world they're still major factors in MHSAA football

After the first two weeks of the season, it seemed that the Week 7 neighborhood matchup of Lake Orion and Clarkston would determine little more than local bragging rights.

While much was expected from Lake Orion, Clarkston’s expectations weren’t much, especially after the Wolves began the season 0-2, losing to Northville and Southfield A&T.

“Northville is a good football team and I think a lot of people maybe didn’t know that,” said Clarkston coach Justin Pinter. “They’re solid, they have some size and they play hard. Southfield, even though we lost, I think it helped with buy-in.”

Well, everyone is all-in now as Clarkston hosts unbeaten Lake Orion for the OAA Red championship Friday at 7.

All of this is possible because Clarkston extended its winning streak to four with a 44-36 victory over West Bloomfield, which left Clarkston and the Dragons as the only unbeaten teams in the Red.

Beating West Bloomfield (4-2, 2-2) will do wonders for Clarkston, which was outmanned on the offensive line, but it certainly didn’t show in the trenches.

“Those guys are some big kids up front and we only average about 200 pounds across our offensive line,” said Pinter. “We talk about competing and playing hard and getting a hat on a hat. We weren’t missing blocks. That was the key thing — you can’t get blown back and you can’t miss.”

RANK 'EM: Top MHSAA teams in each division after Week 6

Clarkston didn’t miss much, but it did give up a 69-yard touchdown run by the Lakers' Kamren Flowers early in the first half.

“Once he got outside it was going to be a problem,” Pinter said. “When he got outside, his speed was next level. They’ve always had talented kids and he looks like he’s next in line for them.”

Griffin Boman had a pair of 2-yard touchdowns for Clarkston, which took a 19-14 halftime lead when Des Stephens threw a 5-yard TD pass to Brody Kosin.

The game turned on the first possessions of the third when West Bloomfield marched to the Clarkston 3-yard line, but was stuffed on fourth down from the Clarkston 1.

On its first-down play, Boman took a handoff and flipped the field — and the momentum — motoring 50 yards.

“They kind of jammed up the middle,” Pinter said, “and he saw an opportunity to bounce it outside.”

Quarterback Brady Collins completed the 99-yard drive with a 13-yard TD pass to Kosin and Clarkston took a 27-14 lead.

“We did a good job of limiting the big plays in the second half,” said Pinter. “That stop we got on fourth-and-1 was obviously kind of a game-changer. It took away seven for them and on the next play we were able to go 50 yards. That was a huge change in the game.”

It has been a huge change in the season for Clarkston, which has been able to figure out how best to use the weapons in its arsenal.

Right now, the Wolves are playing as well as anyone in the OAA Red.

“We did a little bit of everything,” Pinter said. “We ran the ball a lot. Griffin Boman’s been our primary back and we were able to get him going. And we got our quarterback a couple of good runs.

“We’ve been trying to find ways to get Des the ball more including putting him in the backfield and he just makes plays any time he touches the football.”

Stephens and his teammates will need to make more than a few plays when they host rival Lake Orion with the OAA Red title on the line.

The best offense ... is a really good offense

Lowell’s battle against Division 2’s No. 1 Byron Center came down to a number’s game for Lowell coach Jacob Henige.

Henige studied the numbers — the number of plays — and knew his team had to play keep away.

He discovered teams average about 45 plays against the Byron Center defense, which really isn’t enough over a course of the game for an offense to be effective.

Lowell had to find a way to try to wear down the Byron Center defense, which doesn’t get tired against so few snaps.

“They’re a good defense, but we had to keep their offense off the field,” Henige said. “We had to maintain possession and see if we could hit some explosive plays if we made them defend 50 to 60 plays. We ended up getting 72 plays.”

The Red Arrows also wound up getting a crucial 28-14 victory.

Lowell also needed to win the turnover game, which is hard to do against the effective Byron Center offense.

So the Red Arrows manufactured a turnover off a kickoff.

The score was tied late in the second quarter when it recovered the ensuing kickoff, which was not a typical onside kick attempt, thanks to kicker Todd Parcheta.

“We do a sky kick, 25 to 30 yards down the field,” Henige said. “He’s like a golfer hitting with the wedge. He gets some air under it, skies it up. We make the opposing team figure out if they’re going to fair catch it, or if they’re going to catch it and make a run with it.”

That time Byron Center flubbed the ball and it led to a Lowell recovery and touchdown and a 21-14 advantage at the half.

When Lowell converted the opening possession of the third quarter into a touchdown it had a 28-14 lead and for all practical purposes school was out.

Henige's game plan was to keep coach Marc Sisco’s offense on the sidelines.

“Coach Sisco’s system, he’s got a track record, it speaks for itself,” Henige said. “We knew we couldn’t let their offense stay on the field. The previous week, against Forest Hills Central, they had 70 plays to FHC’s 37. We couldn’t allow that to happen.”

Thanks to the defense, Lowell quarterback Jackson Reisbig had more than enough opportunity to control the game with his running and passing and he put on a show.

He carried the ball 34 times and gained 218 yards and scored all five of Lowell’s touchdowns. He also completed 7 of 8 passes for another 82 yards in a thoroughly dominating performance.

“He had a really good season last year as a junior,” said Henige. “he had 1,000 yards rushing and a 1,00 yards passing so we were expecting a lot out of him. And he’s really exploded these last three weeks.”

Lowell’s lone loss came in Week 3 against East Grand Rapids, 42-14. But over the last three games, Lowell’s offense is averaging over 38 points a game.

“Since then we’ve regrouped, modified some things offensively,” Henige said. “Basically we said we had to add some elements to our offense and we think it will fit him even more and he’s gotten really comfortable the last three weeks.”

The Red Arrows didn’t totally revamp their offense, but they did return to some of the things that were effective when Lowell was a yearly threat to get to Ford Field.

“It’s stuff like the shotgun, pistol, not always under center, veer,” Henige said. “We’re using RPOs and the kind of stuff we were doing in 2015-17 when I was the O-line coach. It’s not the same, but it’s some similar stuff.”

The Lowell upset of Byron Center makes a complete mess of the OK White and supports its claim to be the most balanced league in the state.

Like the MAC Red where Macomb Dakota, Utica Eisenhower, Chippewa Valley and Romeo are all 3-1 in conference play, Byron Center, East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills Central and Lowell are all 3-1. Also, all of the White teams are 5-1 overall. 

“I’ve been telling people all year the OK White’s as tough, top to bottom, as it’s been since I’ve taken over as head coach,” said Henige, in his fifth season as head coach. “You can’t take a week off or you’ll be in a fistfight.”

Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1. Order his book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MHSAA football roundup: Clarkston, Lowell pull off big upsets