Michigan high school football playoffs: Mason's rally from getting 'punched in the mouth'

MASON — Junior quarterback Cason Carswell was not the least bit surprised when DeWitt’s defense forced a quick three-and-out and then its offense marched down the field to take a quick 7-0 lead over his Mason team.

These teams met in Week 2 with Mason racing to a 35-0 lead on its way to an easy 42-22 victory.

“We knew coming into the game this was a whole new DeWitt team and the first game truly didn’t matter,” Carswell said. “They came out and punched us in the mouth a little bit, but it was all about how we bounced back.”

The Bulldogs "bounced back" like they were on a trampoline.

Mason thoroughly dominated DeWitt, 42-7, to claim its third straight Division 3 district title. It sets up Friday’s 7 p.m. regional final at Walled Lake Western, which Mason defeated, 30-7, in Week 9.

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“I didn’t think this was going to be us steamrolling them and when you look at the statistics they did move the ball on us,” Mason coach Gary Houghton said. “It was just that our guys stepped up and made some key stops at some key times and we got the ball back.

“Things just went our way with our guys being in the right place at the right time in some key situations.”

The Mason players were coached to be in the right place at the right time, which is what happened to cornerback Cole Ries.

DeWitt had the ball at Mason’s 15 when Ries made a brilliant breakup of a fourth-down pass in the end one.

“We knew a couple of games ago, our secondary got beat a lot on the inside,” Ries said. “So coming into this game we knew we were going to watch it so I saw him break inside and I said I was going to bait the ball a little bit — run a little slower than usually I do — but I baited it and he made a throw and I jumped it.”

Ries also caught a 15-yard TD pass on a play that went awry when Carswell scrambled and was hit as he released the ball.

“I saw Cason roll out and Cason is an incredible quarterback,” Ries said. “He is so smart with the ball. I knew he was going to try to throw it away, but he got hit when he threw the ball and the ball went straight up in the air.

“I thought: ‘This ain’t good.’ My first thought was to just bat the ball down. But then there was nobody within like 5 yards of me so I was going to go up and grab the thing.”

Running back AJ Martel gained 71 of his 113 yards on a 71-yard counter on the first play of the fourth quarter as the game officially became a rout.

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“Grant Gilchrist pulled and logged the end just like he told me he would before the play started,” Martel said. “I read his block because I trusted his judgement so I followed him, got through and then it was a track meet and I’m a state champion so I’m used to that.”

Last spring Martel won the state title in the 300 hurdles; he just might win a title of a different sort this fall.

Martel’s touchdown began the running clock and moved the Bulldogs closer to the state semifinals, where they have lost to Detroit King the last two years.

“Well, I was a little tired late in the game, but that was exactly what we wanted right there,” Martel said. “That was the nail in the coffin. We wanted the running clock, we wanted to get out of here and kind of make a statement that we’re not done yet.”

A wild win for Southeastern

The craziest finish in the state occurred when Detroit Southeastern trailed Ann Arbor Richard, 22-20, with about 10 second remaining, and Southeastern lined up to attempt a 30-yard field goal.

Richard blocked the ball, which went straight up into the air. The Richard players went wild, but the ball came down and was caught by holder Antonio Mayo, who pitched the ball to Julian Liddell. He ran the ball into the end zone with 2 seconds remaining.

“Their kids were celebrating,” Southeastern coach Courtney Dinkins said, “while we ran the score in.”

Making this more interesting is that Southeastern hasn’t exactly had a lot of success with field goals.

“We’ve made none, actually,” Dinkins said. “But we kick extra points, though, but no field goals. We actually practice extra points every day. We kick them, we make them, we move them back for field goals.

“It was within his range, so that wasn’t a problem.”

Southeastern hosts Flat Rock at 7 p.m. Friday.

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Eleventh heaven for Corunna

Corunna managed to notch victory No. 11 for the first time in school history when it beat previously undefeated Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, 28-17, in a D-5 district final.

Much of the pregame hype surrounded ND Prep quarterback Jake Tuttle, who had impressive stats: 111 of 141 for 1,525 yards and 29 TDs with only two interceptions.

Well, Corunna has a darn good quarterback of its own in Wyatt Bower, who has been dramatically overlooked.

“That was the matchup we were looking at all night,” Corunna coach Steve Herrick said. “Obviously, Tuttle is fantastic, but Wyatt matches his statistics for passing, completion for completion, touchdown for touchdown.”

Bower has thrown for 2,100 yards and 24 TDs this season and has added another 900 yards and 15 TDs rushing.

The Corunna defense limited Tuttle to 19-for-39 for 221 yards and two scores. Bower completed nine of 18 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown while carrying the ball six times for 40 yards.

Bower’s twin, Tarik, caught five passes for 156 yards and his 73-yard TD with 10 minutes left in the game sealed the deal.

Jaden Eddington is a key two-way performer. In addition to gaining 88 yards and scoring three TDs, Eddington added 13 tackles from his linebacker spot.

Combine the Bower twins with Eddington and you’ve got a special nucleus.

“The Bowers are incredibly talented,’ said Herrick. “They’re competitive 6-1, 180-pound athletes who won a state championship in track because of those two guys.

“They’ve got all the skills and all the ability. And you mix in Jaden Eddington, the hammer and running back and linebacker, and it’s a pretty good mix.”

The Cavaliers play on Nick Annese Field, named for the hall of fame coach who built Corunna into a powerhouse in the 1960s and ‘70s.

Herrick believes the late Annese would be a big fan of this team.

“The No. 1 thing about our team that Nick would appreciate is we’re just physical as heck,” he said. “Our kids come and hit every week and that’s what we hang our hat on.”

Clarkston never quits

There were oh so many opportunities for the Clarkston football team to accept that it would spend Monday collecting equipment.

Unbeaten Lake Orion had led for virtually the entire game and was ahead 31-17 with about six minutes left.

Clarkston responded with a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to cut the lead to six, but Billy Roberson returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown and a 37-25 lead.

“Being down six thinking if our defense can get us a stop, now we’ve got a chance,” Clarkston coach Justin Pintar said. “But they return the kickoff and now you’re down two scores.”

Clarkston got one of the scores back when sophomore quarterback Brady Collins hit Brody Kosin with a short pass. Kosin made a defender miss and scored on an 80-yard play with 3:30 left.

Lukas Boman recovered the ensuing onside kick and Clarkston was still in business — until it faced a fourth-and-22 with just over a minute remaining.

That is when Pintar thought back to a year ago and a similar situation against Davison. Clarkston attempted to throw a Hail Mary into the end zone, but the pressure on the quarterback prevented it from reaching the end zone.

“We didn’t have the time to do it last year,” Pintar said. “So we learned from that. We said we don’t need to get it into the end zone, we just need a first down because there’s time left.”

This time, the Wolves designed the Hail Mary to get a first down, not a touchdown, featuring either the 6-foot-6 Kosin or 6-3 Des Stephens.

“Every week we rep our Hail Mary for situations,” Pintar said. “We had to get  past the 20 and put it up there for them and let our big guys go up and make a play.”

Basically, Kosin, who plays basketball, went up for a rebound and came down with the ball and a 29-yard gain to set up Griffin Boman’s touchdown run with 47 seconds left for the victory.

Clarkston made the playoffs with a 4-5 record. One of its victories was a 44-36 win in Week 4 over West Bloomfield — its opponent Friday, at West Bloomfield.

Last week, West Bloomfield defeated Utica Eisenhower, 24-6. In Week 9, Ike beat Clarkston, 36-19.

“There’s a lot of balance and good teams in Division 1 so if you don’t play well you’re going to get beat,” Pintar said. “It reminds me of the NFL where there’s a lot of parity. You see these scores and you wonder how this makes sense, but if you play well you can beat these teams, but if you don’t, you’re going to lose to them.”

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: Michigan high school football playoffs: Mason' big bounce back in D-3