Volleyball pics

Here is a look at last night's action between Ubly and Marlette.

Week Six picks

Brown City at Ubly
Harbor Beach at Sandusky
EPBP at BCAS
Cass City at Reese
Dryden at North Huron
Owen-Gage at CPS
Bad Axe @ USA

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

Usually, this would be the time and space where I posted Friday night football pictures. But instead I thought I'd post some photos from today's Akron-Fairgrove Invite.

Back on the USA bandwagon

This has been a funny football season. Maybe with volleyball during the week instead of girls basketball, maybe the moon is full, but it seems like one week a team is a favorite to make a long playoff run, then they lose one they shouldn't and the world turns on them, only to be back on the bandwagon again after another important victory.
This is the story of USA, who knocked off Cass City 34-14. As I said in the area's best high school pre-game show, the Thumb Tailgate Show on 102.1 WLEW, this series has not really been as good as the hype would indicate. This is the 13th staright win in the series for the Patriots, who once again won by over 20.
For USA, Brandon Bitzer was electric as he was 17-for-24 passing for 305 yards with three passing TDs and a one yard rushing score.
If Bitz was the MVP, Heath Schmidt was the unsing hero. Schmidt had six receptions for 93 yards, had a pair of INTs and came in for a play at QB when Bitz had a cramp and completed his only pass attempt for 32 yards.
Lance VanHoost also had a solid effort with 101 rushing yards and 93 receiving yards, while Ryan Zimmer had two catches for 75 yards, including a catch that he ran for over 70 yards.
What makes thi win even more impressive is that USA did this with only 14 healthy players... well that isn't exactly true. One of the three healthy players on the bench, was in and out of the game with breathing trouble due to asmatha (Travis Blunt).
The Pats were also without Tim Holland, Carl Bednarski, Erik Kuhl and Shane Schmidt. I think the fifth injured player was Ryan Willard, but I am unsure.
The list of injuries troubling the Pats include an ACL injury, a separated shoulder and one player who has a problem with a heart valve. Coach Gary VanSumeren said the team will only dress 14 for the rest of the season.
The good news for the Pats is with games remaining against BV and Pinconning, USA can expect two more wins giving them 5. I think the Reese game is a loss, putting them at 5-3.
The win they need will have to come next week against Bad Axe, where for the second straight week the Pats will be in a must-win situation.

Football pick standings

1. Coaches Take (2) 11-2 .846
2. Two Cents Worth (3) 15-3 .833
3. Christian Selich (2) 10-2 .833
4. KBechtel (2) 10-3 .769
5. Chiuk Czlek (2) 9-3 .750
6. Pigskin (3) 13-5 .722
7. Me (4) 17-7 .708
T7. Mumbles (4) 17-7 .708
9. Sicotte (3) 12-6 .667
T9. Eddie Fury (3) 12-6 .667
11. Sportsdude (1) 4-2 .667 (If he doesn't pick this week, he will not have enough weeks and will be eliminated).
12. Dave Bossick (4) 15-9 .625
13. Andrew Selich (3) 11-7 .611
14. Rick Glaza (4) 13-11 .592

Week Five's Elite 8

Here is our new poll, which will also appear in this week's paid publications.
1. Harbor Beach 4-0 (Last week=1)
2. North Huron 4-0 (4)
3. Bad Axe 2-2 (6)
4. EPBP 2-2 (7)
5. USA 2-2 (2)
6. Cass City 2-2 (5)
7. Ubly 2-2 (3)
8. Owen-Gage 0-4 (8)

Week Five Picks

After a wild week four, what will happen in week five? This could be a tough week to make some picks. Here are the games:
BCAS @ Bad Axe
USA @ Cass City (Who knows why I am making this pick?)
Marlette @ Harbor Beach
A-F @ Owen-Gage
North Huron @ CPS
Ubly @ EPBP

Pictures from Friday Night under the lights

Here is a look at some pics from Friday night's action between Harbor Beach and Ubly.

Ubly defensive coach Jim Becker tries to fire up the team.
QB Adam Glaza prepares to handoff.

Harbor Beach QB Tom Sorenson scrambles for a few yards.

Pirate Eric Wilson makes a tackle.

Tom Sorenson celebrates a touchdown from Brett Buchholz (45).

HB's Brion Gornowich

Brion Gornowich finds a hole.

An Ubly runner looks to pick up some yards during a late rally.

My takes on Friday's action

For those who haven't been listening to what I've said over the last couple weeks, here is the message again... Harbor Beach is the real deal. They walked all over Ubly tonight in a true beatdown.
Now don't think I'm disrespecting the Bearcats, but Harbor Beach just physically dominated them to the tune of 318 yards rushing. Brett Buchholz had three scores, while Brion Gornowich added two.
Gornowich left the field near the end of the third or early in the fourth (with some unknown injury) and coach Troy Schelke said the team doctor thought he would be fine, which is a big relief to the team. They will need a big, bruising back like Gornowich to help eat clock against Marlette next Friday. The Red Raiders were 40-6 winners over Sandusky who have officially become the worst team in the GTE after Brown City beat Mayville this week 34-26.
Marlette beat Cass City last week 60-33, the same Red Hawks who were double OT losers to Bad Axe. The Hatchets should make a move over the Red Hawks in next week's Elite 8 poll, but they MAY end up behind Lakers.
That's right, EPBP who is 7th in last week's poll may jump over both BA and CC as they walloped USA 32-8. That result has to be even more shocking then the margin of victory in the HB/Ubly game.
Back to that game, while Gornowich's injury does not appear to be serious, Grant Pichla broke his tibia on the second play of the game and will miss the rest of the season. His basketball season may be in jeopardy as well.
While may Ubly fans will look at the score and point to Pichla's absence as the reason for it, well they are right and they are wrong. With Pichla in the game, the team is better on offense and defense. Defenses can't key on Cody David, Nathan Forman and/or Mitch Cleary as much as they did.
However, would he have been the difference to bring Ubly to a win... no. He has had many great games, but he can't play every position on the field. And truly the game was lost, because the Ubly defense had no ability to stop the Pirates on offense.
Their run game is incredible, but their defense is even better. Harbor Beach has allowed an average of six ppg this season and over the last 102 games prior to tonight's contest (or 10 years worth of games), the Pirates have only allowed 14.4 ppg. That is impressive, because those stats include years when Harbor Beach had losing records and didn't make the playoffs.
The Aftermath:
In my mind, Beach won the GTE title tonight. Although Marlette and Deckerville will be tough, the Pirates are a class above both of those teams.
The Bearcats minus Kaufman (who will be getting his collarbone checked out at the doc's on Monday) and Pichla, will really have to fight to make the playoffs this year. They are 2-2 and will beat Brown City and Sandusky, but would need two out of three wins against EPBP, Deckerville and Bad Axe.
It would have seemed easy in the past, Lakers and the Hatchets have been gimmes in recent years, but not anymore.
USA... what do we make of USA? Impressive against Ubly and BCAS and played well in a loss to HB. So how did they ever lose to Lakers? My first question was who was hurt, who quit the team or who was out for other reasons, because it simply didn't seem logical that EPBP could knock off USA with such ease otherwise. Not to take away from the Lakers, but USA is a proven commodity and the Lakers haven't been in recent years.
Now with this win, EPBP becomes a potential playoff team. At 2-2 they need four more wins. They aren't getting it against Reese, but have very winnable games against Ubly, BCAS, BAd Axe and Sandusky. Even if the team split those games and went 4-5 it would be an improvement, but I smell playoffs... if they keep this up and beat Ubly next Friday.
The Hatchets, who are now 5-1 against CC in week four games, can make the playoffs by winning 4-of-5. They've got their loss to Reese out of the way already,and should get wins over BCAS and Sandusky, leaving them needing two wins out of the remaining three games to make it to the post-season: Ubly, EPBP and USA. After what we've seen this week, all of these opponents are beatable.
As for the Red Hawks, they are not out of the hunt either. They've got a tough opponent in USA next week and Reese the following week. If they could come out of the game with the rockets at 3-3 they have the scheduled wins coming against BCAS and BV. Almont, who is off to a 3-0 start (no result in from their game yet), would be a tough to have to beat to get in.
Let's not forget our friends in the NCTL North Huron and Owen-Gage (sorry but I couldn't connect them earlier on). North Huron crushed rival 50-0... so much for the Cardinals streak of consective playoff appearances... that one officially ended tonight folks, even if there is a lot of season to play. This win should set up a week 7 showdown on Saturday afternoon with Peck, which will decide an outright NCTL champ. I give the Warriors the edge in that game and think they finish the season at 8-1 or 9-0.
As for the Bulldogs... here was a team that looked like they might not win a game this season and might lose to A-Fairgrove, who was competitive with CPS in week three (the Vikings were 44-24 losers to Dryden)and they stick with Memphis. I think that was an aberration and more a sign of how the team go up for a game with a team they have a lot of bad blood with. I don't know if they can susatin it. I still they they go 0-9, but more importantly I think this proves once and for all the biggest all time fraud in high school football is Memphis.
Every year this C team hiding in the D league NCTL, gets destroyed by someone in football when they play teams who are "their own size." Now the Yellowjackets got a lot of credit for the comeback win against Kingston, but then they almost lose to the Bulldogs. I think Memphis just isn't as good as everyone thinks.
Sorry it took so long for this post to go up, but I have been working on it for like an hour.

Make your picks

Sorry these picks were so late. WE'll extend our normal deadline to allow them to come in right until game time. However, the time on the stamp must be before 7 p.m.
The games:
EPBP at USA
Memphis at Owen-Gage
Cass City at Bad Axe
Kingston at North Huron
Harbor Beach at Ubly

I'll update the standings tonight or in the next few days...

Football photo galleries

Here are some pics from this past Friday's football action. For pics from volleyball, soccer and cross country this past weekend, check out our paid publications.

Opening a can of whoop a**

Well that might be a little too honest, but North Huron really put it to Owen-Gage in a 45-0 win.
This should have set up a nice battle for first place in the NCTL, between the Warriors and Kingston, however after the Cardinals lost 21-14 to Memphis the game may have less title implications.
But it still matter to the players who want to beat Kingston for the second straight time; something that has happened since the Warriors got back-to-back wins in 1983 and 1984.
Offensively, North Huron marched down the field on six plays to score for the the first time with little resistance. The question at that point was, how long 'til their was a running clock.
Well it can't start until the second half, but North Huron held a 39-0 edge heading into the half.
Ed Wisneski and Kurt Dhyse each scored twice for the Warriors, while Kevin Rice, John Schramski and Anthony Irvine also reached paydirt.
For Owen-Gage, the Bulldogs couldn't get anything going on offense or defense. The only things that was going, were their players to the sidelines as at least two players went down with injuries, including Caseville's David Grates who was carried to the team bus over the shoulder of a teammate due to an ankle injury.
Bulldogs coach Jason Pierce is disappointed how the season is going. He had hopes of being a playoff contender after going 4-5 last year, but has seen a roster that started at 40, dwindle to around 18. He said the young players would do anything for the team, while some of the other players don't seem to care as much.
As for North Huron, a lot of people seemed to think this would be a down year after everything they lost, including All-Thumb Coach of the Year Mark Manenti. But according to coach Travis Fischer the team heard all those comments about 07 being a down year and it just motivated them to work harder in the off-season, which is 100 percent apparent at this point.
In my opinion, North Huron wins the league and goes undefeated. They looked that good tonight!

Elite 8

Here is a look at the Elite 8 following week two:
ELITE 8
1 Harbor Beach Pirates 2-0
2 USA Patriots 1-1
3 Ubly Bearcats 1-1
4 North Huron 2-0
5 Cass City 2-0
6 Bad Axe 1-1
7 EPBP 0-2
8 Owen-Gage 0-2

Now some people will wonder why 2-0 Cass City or North Huron has jumped up into the second spot. Here is my thinking... couldn't penalize USA more than a spot for a one-point loss to a tough HB team; couldn't drop Ubly after a win over Marlette, NH and CC win and maintain their spots.
It is quite the qundry to be in, but in week four this will all shake out and we'll start to see some major movement.
As for the bottom half, the Hatchets impress with a win over BV, but need to have a competitive game against Reese to maintain their spot.

Week three picks

Here is the schedule for week three:
Owen-Gage @ North Huron
Bad Axe @ Reese
USA @ BCAS
Saginaw BV @ EPBP
Ubly @ Mayville
Cass City @ Marlette
Brown City @ Harbor Beach

My only question is... how many of us are going 7-0 this week?

Week two picks standings

After two weeks of competition, here is a look at the Outpick Ogryski standings:
Twocentsworth 6-0 1.000 (1)
Coachestake 5-1 .833 (1)
Mumbles 8-4 .667 (2)
Tied at 4-2 .667 (1): Jon Sicotte, Sportsdude, KBechtel, Eddie Fury and Pigskin
Tied at 7-5 .583 (2): Dave Bossick, me
Andrew Selich 3-3 .500 (1)
Rick Glaza 4-8 .333 (2)

Glaza picked a week's worst 2-4 for the second straight week. Twocentsworth had the first perfect week.