The third time is the charmBY CHRIS OGRYSKI
EDITOR
HOWELL – Heading into last Saturday’s showdown with Reading, Ubly was 0-2 in semifinal appearances, losing 20-14 to Traverse City St. Francis in 2003 and 42-21 to Grass Lake in 2006.
The Bearcats, not wanting to come up short a third straight time, physically dominated the Rangers and wore out the opposition en route to a 47-8 victory.
“We felt we could be physical with them,” Ubly coach Bill Sweeney said.
“They have some exceptional athletes, but we figured if we tackled, blocked and were physical with them, we could wear them down,” he added. “I think that is what happened.”
The Bearcats got the ball on the opening kickoff, but for the second time in two weeks, they stalled on their initial possession and were forced to punt. “Offensively, we didn’t start out too good,” Sweeney admitted about his team’s first drive.
While the offense struggled early, the defense tried to pick them up. Just over two minutes into Reading’s drive, Brandon Sorenson picked off a pass from Ranger’s QB Joe Hubbard. Despite throwing for nearly 1,000 yards and 14 TDs during the season, Hubbard was just 2-for-13 passing against Ubly.
A lot of the credit for that success has to go to the D-line, which not only got good penetration, but also opened holes for other players to get in and pressure Hubbard. “Today was definitely our best defensive game (of the season). Everyone was all over the place,” defensive tackle Eric LaBuhn said. “There was not one weak link; everybody was making plays.”
Steven Weber added, “It is about the line and how they penetrate. That just makes space for me and the other backs to get in there, get after that quarterback and get him on the run.”
Sweeney thought the team’s success was due to execution of a strong game plan. “We played great defense and (defensive) coach (Jim) Becker put together a great plan against them. I thought the play of our defensive line would be the difference in the game and it was,” he explained.
As for the line’s effort, Sweeney singled out LaBuhn for his strong play on that side of the ball. “That is the best I’ve seen Eric play all year. He was all over the field, hustling,” he said.
He added, “Eric’s just a great football player. When you get 300 pounds moving like that, it is tough to stop.”
“Coach just came out saying we need to pop them; we need to set the physicality right away,” LaBuhn said. “That’s what coach wanted me to do and I did it for him. It all played out from there.”
The defensive effort on that first Reading possession not only gave the Bearcats momentum, it also gave them a short field to work with, which they took advantage of. Only 1:48 into their drive, Ubly scored on a 41 yard touchdown strike from quarterback Jordan Kaufman (3-for-7 passing for 68 yards and two scores) to Weber (two catches for 61 yards). It was only his second TD catch of the season.
“Coach has been getting on me to pick it up. Last week (against Royal Oak Shrine) I really thought I picked it up in the second half and it carried right over,” Weber said.
As for the catch, Weber said, “We never really passed (throughout the season) that much unless we absolutely needed it. We need it to today, I came through (for the team) and it felt great.”
He added, “It was amazing (to score for my team in this game); the best feeling in the world.”
Sweeney said the team’s decision to throw early and more often, was due to a hole they saw in the defense. “Offensively, we saw how they brought nine or ten guys and thought we could complete passes,” he explained. “We’re just patient with that kind of stuff.”
“In games like this, we want to hit it big with the pass and we had a couple (in this one),” Sweeney added.
Ubly added the extra point to take a 7-0 lead with 6:09 left in the first and got the ball back less than a minute later when the Rangers were once again forced to punt with 5:17 left in the quarter. The Bearcats turned the ball over later in that drive, when they failed to convert a fourth and one on the 46, but redeemed themselves on their next possession, when they scored on the first play of the second quarter on a 35 yard TD run from Justin Cleary (106 yards rushing on 16 carries) to take a 13-0 edge (the extra point was no good).
Overall, Ubly rushed for 356 yards on 58 carries and had 424 yards of total offense on the day.
The Bearcats would extend the lead to 19-0 later in the quarter, when Alex Peruski reached pay dirt following a six yard score (the two-point attempt failed) with 6:09 left in the half.
Peruski led the Ubly offense with 123 yards on 16 carries and two scores, while Kaufman added 105 rushing yards and Mitch Cleary 16 yards on five totes.
“Yeah I scored a couple of touchdowns, but you can’t score if the blocking isn’t there…and we can’t score if we don’t have the ball,” Peruski said, crediting his teammates for their efforts.
He added, “It was another great game for the defense. You can score (some points) when you have the ball so much.”
The key to Peruski’s success on Saturday was his ability to use his speed and make quick moves in order to elude the defenders. “When you are 135 pounds (like me) you can’t power over people, but if they can’t catch you they can’t tackle you, so you just have to be shifty,” he explained.
Ubly had hoped to tack on one final score before the end of the half, but for one of the first times this season, they stalled in the red zone and turned the ball over on downs. “We didn’t execute it that well (the fourth down play),” Sweeney said of a failed screen pass. “We did a real good job (moving the ball), we just didn’t execute the last play.”
He added, “We have to get better at that kind of stuff, but that is going to happen against a 12-0 opponent; they were tough.”
What looked like a first half anomaly suddenly looked like a more serious problem, as the Bearcats struggled to score in the red zone on their first possession of the second half, as well. Reading took the ball to start the half, but the Rangers were forced to punt less than two minutes into the third quarter. Ubly drove the ball down the field, but failed to convert a fourth down attempt and turned the ball over at the three.
While Sweeney was disappointed with the inability to punch one in near the end of the half, he was less bothered by the lack of score to start the second half. “We wanted to get up by 27 at the half; we wanted to get up over three scores,” he explained. “We were disappointed that we didn’t.”
He added, “We came back down and still didn’t, but eventually we wore them out and made plays.”
“The second one, we kind of wanted to play that close to the vest, because up 19-0, even if we don’t score, they still have to go over 90 yards, so that one I wasn’t really concerned with.”
Ubly eventually broke through in the red zone as they scored on their next possession on a two yard run from Mitch Cleary with 1:01 left in the third to take a 26-0 lead following a successful extra point.
From there, the offense found another gear, outscoring Reading 21-8 over the final 13 minutes.
With 9.6 seconds left in the third, John Walker recovered a fumble on the 10 yard line and the Bearcats turned that into six when Kaufman hooked up with Eric Booms on a seven yard strike with 11:14 left in the fourth. Following the extra point, Ubly held a commanding 33-0 advantage. The Rangers finally broke through when they recovered a Kaufman fumble with 9:24 left in the game. Reading’s Trevor Ryan got his team on the board with a 48 yard run, while Trevor Morris added the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 25.
After the fumble and the Ranger score, Sweeney challenged Kaufman, who responded in a big way, running the kickoff back 81 yards for the score. “We have a really good football team and they just rise to the occasion,” he said.
“Jordan, he fumbled and I told him, ‘Someone needs to make a play,’ and he goes and returns the kickoff for 81 yards,” Sweeney added.
“He can just do it all.”
Ubly got their final points of the game, when Peruski scored on an 18 yard scamper with just over seven minutes left in the fourth. The extra point gave the Bearcats a 47-8 edge.
After the final seconds ticked off the clock, the players and coaches finally realized what they had accomplished…they had made it to Ford Field.
“It will probably hit me later (what we’ve done),” Sweeney said. “Right now I’m just relieved we won.”
LaBuhn added, “This is what we wanted to do and we came out and did it. All of those hours in the weight room have finally paid off.”
Peruski was nearly speechless when asked about what had transpired. “It is a dream; I’m in shock and I can’t stop smiling. And to do it with a bunch of my friends, you can’t ask for anything better than that,” he said.
As for their upcoming showdown with Traverse City St. Francis, a state runner-up in 2007 and the team that eliminated Ubly in the semifinals in 2003, Sweeney knows it will be a difficult task. “They will be the best team we play all year. They’re going to be tough,” he explained.
“We just have to show up and play Ubly football and if that is good enough…”
Ubly Notebook
BY CHRIS OGRYSKI
EDITOR
Traverse City St. Francis has had the Thumb’s number in recent years, winning their last three match-ups against Greater Thumb Conference opponents. The Gladiators beat Harbor Beach 42-0 in 2007 in the semis en route to a finish as state runner-up in Division 7. In 2005, they beat USA 28-14 for the state title and in 2003, they ended Ubly’s season with a 20-14 win in the semifinals.
TCSF’s only loss to a GTC school came in 1998, when they lost to the Patriots 16-8 in the finals.
*****
It has been 36 years in the making.
With a win in the finals on Saturday, Ubly could make school history as only the fourth undefeated team in the last 50 years. In 1972, the Bearcats finished a perfect 9-0 with 367 points scored (41 ppg average), while allowing just 54 (six ppg allowed on average).
Ubly also had perfect seasons in 1965 (8-0) and 1966 (9-0). In 1967, the Bearcats were 6-1-2, making the team 23-1-2 in that three year stretch.
Currently, Ubly is 22-4 over their last 26 games, which dates back to the end of the post-season run for the Bearcats in 2006.
*****
Ubly has outscored opponents in the post-season by a margin of 190-36 or by an average score of 48-9. Of those four opponents the Bearcats have faced in the post-season, the last three have been undefeated heading into their matchup with Ubly.
As for St. Francis, they have scored 191 points (48 ppg on average) in four playoff games, but allowed 75 defensively (19 ppg on average), including 48 to Merrill in a 70-48 win in the district finals.
*****
With 47 points against Reading, Ubly becomes the top scoring offense in a single season in Thumb history with 616 points. The previous high was set in 2004, by the state champion USA Patriots, who accomplished their feat in a perfect 14-0 season.
The Bearcats have also moved up in the MHSAA record book for points in a season, as they are now eighth all-time with a chance to move up into the top five with a solid effort on Saturday.
Ubly coach Bill Sweeney finds this situation laughable, because he has been criticized throughout the season for only mainly running three plays. “I get a kick out of it,” he said.
“I used to hear a lot about running a fourth play from all the prognosticators. But 600 points on three points isn’t bad for a year,” he joked.
Sweeney added, “We run a system, we run a program and it is nice to have that affirmed. The kids buy into that and obviously when you score 600 points it shows that.”
While Sweeney was impressed with what the offense has accomplished, he doesn’t want people to forget what the defense has done this season either.
“We’ve been a great offensive team all year and our defense has progressed,” he said.
He added, “We started out as a good defensive team and we’re becoming a great defensive team, so I’m really more excited about that. The defense (against Reading) was just unbelievable.”
*****
It was a difficult week of practice for Ubly as they were hampered by a heavy snow fall early in the week. Last Monday, the Bearcats were forced to practice at Cass City and on Tuesday, local business owner Shawn Wright cleared off a portion of the practice field so they could continue to work on what they needed to.
While it made things difficult, the players weren’t going to let it affect their preparation for the game. “We just had to take what we had and made the best of it. They cleaned off that little spot and that was all we needed,” Eric LaBuhn said.
*****
In looking at the Ubly offense, the Bearcats have rushed for 4,703 yards as a team. Jordan Kaufman has led the ground game with 1,596 yards and 22 scores, while Justin Cleary added 1,113 yards and 12 TDs and Alex Peruski 819 yards and 13 TDs.
Kaufman has also passed for 757 yards and 16 scores this season bringing his total yards to 2,353 and when you add in his kick return TD, he has 39 scores.
As for Peruski, he has emerged as the second or third option in the run game, after starting the season as the fourth back. Peruski realizes there are games where he will get more carries and times when he will get less.
That doesn’t faze him, as his only concern is winning. “I have no problem not getting the ball. If we are winning, I don’t care if I get the ball zero times, but if I need to take the ball, I’ll run the ball,” he said.
*****
Did you know that offensively, Ubly’s most successful quarter is the second? They have scored 252 of their 616 points in that quarter or 41 percent of their offense.
As for their worst quarter, it is the third, where they’ve been held to 73 points or 12 percent of their offense.
As for opponents, they have had their most success against the Bearcats in the third, where Ubly has allowed 59 of the 130 points they have surrendered all season (45 percent). In the second quarter, opponents have been held to 12 total points or less than a point per game.
That means in the second quarter, the Bearcats have outscored opponents by 240 points (252-12) this season.
*****
BY CHRIS OGRYSKI
EDITOR
Traverse City St. Francis has had the Thumb’s number in recent years, winning their last three match-ups against Greater Thumb Conference opponents. The Gladiators beat Harbor Beach 42-0 in 2007 in the semis en route to a finish as state runner-up in Division 7. In 2005, they beat USA 28-14 for the state title and in 2003, they ended Ubly’s season with a 20-14 win in the semifinals.
TCSF’s only loss to a GTC school came in 1998, when they lost to the Patriots 16-8 in the finals.
*****
It has been 36 years in the making.
With a win in the finals on Saturday, Ubly could make school history as only the fourth undefeated team in the last 50 years. In 1972, the Bearcats finished a perfect 9-0 with 367 points scored (41 ppg average), while allowing just 54 (six ppg allowed on average).
Ubly also had perfect seasons in 1965 (8-0) and 1966 (9-0). In 1967, the Bearcats were 6-1-2, making the team 23-1-2 in that three year stretch.
Currently, Ubly is 22-4 over their last 26 games, which dates back to the end of the post-season run for the Bearcats in 2006.
*****
Ubly has outscored opponents in the post-season by a margin of 190-36 or by an average score of 48-9. Of those four opponents the Bearcats have faced in the post-season, the last three have been undefeated heading into their matchup with Ubly.
As for St. Francis, they have scored 191 points (48 ppg on average) in four playoff games, but allowed 75 defensively (19 ppg on average), including 48 to Merrill in a 70-48 win in the district finals.
*****
With 47 points against Reading, Ubly becomes the top scoring offense in a single season in Thumb history with 616 points. The previous high was set in 2004, by the state champion USA Patriots, who accomplished their feat in a perfect 14-0 season.
The Bearcats have also moved up in the MHSAA record book for points in a season, as they are now eighth all-time with a chance to move up into the top five with a solid effort on Saturday.
Ubly coach Bill Sweeney finds this situation laughable, because he has been criticized throughout the season for only mainly running three plays. “I get a kick out of it,” he said.
“I used to hear a lot about running a fourth play from all the prognosticators. But 600 points on three points isn’t bad for a year,” he joked.
Sweeney added, “We run a system, we run a program and it is nice to have that affirmed. The kids buy into that and obviously when you score 600 points it shows that.”
While Sweeney was impressed with what the offense has accomplished, he doesn’t want people to forget what the defense has done this season either.
“We’ve been a great offensive team all year and our defense has progressed,” he said.
He added, “We started out as a good defensive team and we’re becoming a great defensive team, so I’m really more excited about that. The defense (against Reading) was just unbelievable.”
*****
It was a difficult week of practice for Ubly as they were hampered by a heavy snow fall early in the week. Last Monday, the Bearcats were forced to practice at Cass City and on Tuesday, local business owner Shawn Wright cleared off a portion of the practice field so they could continue to work on what they needed to.
While it made things difficult, the players weren’t going to let it affect their preparation for the game. “We just had to take what we had and made the best of it. They cleaned off that little spot and that was all we needed,” Eric LaBuhn said.
*****
In looking at the Ubly offense, the Bearcats have rushed for 4,703 yards as a team. Jordan Kaufman has led the ground game with 1,596 yards and 22 scores, while Justin Cleary added 1,113 yards and 12 TDs and Alex Peruski 819 yards and 13 TDs.
Kaufman has also passed for 757 yards and 16 scores this season bringing his total yards to 2,353 and when you add in his kick return TD, he has 39 scores.
As for Peruski, he has emerged as the second or third option in the run game, after starting the season as the fourth back. Peruski realizes there are games where he will get more carries and times when he will get less.
That doesn’t faze him, as his only concern is winning. “I have no problem not getting the ball. If we are winning, I don’t care if I get the ball zero times, but if I need to take the ball, I’ll run the ball,” he said.
*****
Did you know that offensively, Ubly’s most successful quarter is the second? They have scored 252 of their 616 points in that quarter or 41 percent of their offense.
As for their worst quarter, it is the third, where they’ve been held to 73 points or 12 percent of their offense.
As for opponents, they have had their most success against the Bearcats in the third, where Ubly has allowed 59 of the 130 points they have surrendered all season (45 percent). In the second quarter, opponents have been held to 12 total points or less than a point per game.
That means in the second quarter, the Bearcats have outscored opponents by 240 points (252-12) this season.
*****
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