Michigan high school football: Saline's CJ Carr picks apart Brighton in 42-3 Week 1 rout

Float like butterfly and sting like a ... Hornet.

Saline, behind the near-pinpoint accuracy of senior quarterback CJ Carr, certainly lived up to its school nickname Thursday, zapping Brighton in a lopsided season-opening 42-3 victory on the road in a matchup of preseason top-25 teams.

Using both a short and vertical passing game attack to his advantage, the Notre Dame commit threw for 309 yards as the Hornets, coming off an 8-3 playoff season, had their way on offense.

The 6-foot-3 Carr, who worked just three quarters before handing over the reins to his brother, sophomore Tommy, completed 21 of 28 passes with a touchdown and an interception (by Landon Sinclair in the third). CJ Carr also ran for another TD.

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“CJ has so much of a command of things right now,” Saline coach Joe Palka said. “We make the play call. We’re all on the same page. He gets us in the right protection. He puts the running back in a good spot.”

After Saline took a 21-3 lead into the half, Isaiah Harris scored on a 1-yard TD run to make it 28-3 with 6:41 remaining in the third quarter, with the Hornets taking just seven plays to score.

Saline then took advantage of a Brighton turnover (low snap on a punt attempt) to go up 35-3 just over two minutes later on a 7-yard run by James Rush and the rout was on. Issa Zain capped Saline's scoring on a 5-yard TD run in the fourth.

Ironically on Saline’s first drive of the game, Carr, nearly had his first throw get nabbed by a Brighton defender eyeing a potential pick-six. But instead, Louisville commit Dylan Mesman was the recipient of a 12-yard grab and a first down.

“We started off on a scary note for sure,” Carr said. “Luckily, we have a great tight end who was able to come down with the catch and bail me out a little bit. From there, kind of went upwards and we’re really excited for the win.”

To start the second quarter, Brighton was stymied on fourth-and-4 on a tackle by Camden Pawlick. That set up a seven-play, 67-yard drive ended by Carr’s 5-yard keeper with 4:50 left in the half for a 21-3 lead.

During that series, Carr converted a key 28-yard pass to Caid Fox on fourth-and-12 to keep things alive. Carr finished the half 15-for-17 for 251 yards.

Brighton quarterback Grant Hetherton moved his Bulldogs down the field before intermission, accounting for 145 total first-half yards, but Brighton missed a 34-yard field goal to end the half.

But Hetherton was no match for Carr. On Saline’s first drive, Carr — who nearly had his first throw get picked off — went 6-for-6 for 55 yards as the nine-play, 80-yard march was capped by a 15-yard TD run by Rush.

Saline took its second drive down to the Brighton 23, but Evan Daily came up with a big third-down sack of Carr for a loss of 7 yards to stymie the scoring threat.

“We had to be aware of the QB runs because he (Hetherton) was really the whole offense,” Pawlick said. “He was the main point. We had a lot more guys rotating in and we a lot more fresh legs, so we’re just going to be able to fly around and make plays.”

Brighton then responded with a 39-yard field goal from Braeden Chiles with 8:07 to go in the first, but Carr threw a bubble screen to LaDainian Woods, who raced 80 yards for a TD on the final play of the first quarter to put Saline up 14-3.

“It’s really good when you have athletes where I can dump it down and they can take it 80 yards,” Carr said. “It was a really good play and I’m excited to have the guys on the field that can do that.”

Brighton, coming off an 8-2 season and a KLAA West Division title, couldn’t get any consistency on both sides of the ball.

“We looked like a bunch of young guys getting out there for the first time under the lights,” Brighton coach Brian Lemons said. “I was expecting more, but I’m sure these guys are going to bounce back. The sad part is that we’re moving the ball and just make a mistake . . . you can’t do that. Not at this level of football, you can’t make mistakes and expect to be able to move ball consistently.”

Keeping Carr in check was the first order of business for the Brighton defense, but was easier said than done.

“The tough part is you know how important every possession is on offense,” Lemons said. “And if we can’t move it consistently then he (Carr) is going to be on the field more and then he can take advantage of that. They did a great job of executing.”

Meanwhile, the Saline defense was able to match its highly touted offense.

“On defense it was amazing, everybody was like flying around and making plays,” said Pawlick, a junior defensive lineman. “Somebody could miss a tackle, but I knew somebody was going to be there.”

And for a season opener, Palka was generally pleased with the team’s overall effort.

“We’ve got a lot of people who can run on our defense,” he said. “I think you saw that as the game progressed tonight. And we’ve got to be able to do that against the top teams we play. I won’t say we are there, but we know what our niche is in playing a game like this. We bent a little bit, but I think we gained confidence in our game a little bit.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan high school football: Saline picks apart Brighton, 42-3