These top photos were by Steve Jias...
The stars are lining up for Ubly to make a deep run in the playoffs.
Yeah, Bearcats fans, I said it...when you watch this Ubly team you get a feeling you are seeing something special. That is what happened tonight as the Bearcats ran all over Dryden in a 40-8 win over the Cardinals.
All season, Ubly has been a team that could rely on anygiven player at any given time and that was proven again tonight as Alex Peruski, probably the team's third or fourth back on the depth chart, was the team's leading rusher with 97 yards on 10 carries and three TDs, while Mitch Cleary added 123 all-purposes yards including a four yard rushing score and a 64 yard TD reception.
Offensively, the team's 46 points puts them at 537 overall and within 45 points of passing USA (581) as the all-time highest scoring team in the Thumb area. With 73 points, the team gets into the 600 club, which only nine other teams have ever done.
As for the star's aligning, Ubly plays Royal Oak Shrine, a team they beat in 2006 22-21 on the Grant Pichla play, the two-point conversion that gave the team the one point victory. Shrine beat Rochester Hills 35-0 to advance, but ROS struggled to beat Waterford Our Lady...early this season, knocking them off 42-31. If Deckerville handles WOL tomorrow as expected that should give Ubly fans some confidence that they can beat Shrine.
Not getting too far ahead, but...the team favored to make a run to the state finals, Travis City St. Francis beat Merrill 70-48 to win their district. Many people felt Merill was down this season, so if nothing else, it show that the Gladiators can be scored on and possibly shows they are not as dominant and fearful as most of us built them up to be.
That is a lot of speculation on my part and they have to keep winning before anyone would have to worry about that team.
Shrine should give them a battle, but let be the first to say that game, which will take place on Saturday @ 1 p.m., Ubly wins that game big, just not as big as some of the other games this season...36-16.
As for audio, here are post games comments from:
Ubly coach Bill Sweeney...
And Dryden's coach as well...
Here are my photos from the game:
Here are some thoughts from Sports Editor Steve Jias on the game:
OK Chris…..the checks in the mail.
I thought after seeing the Dryden O rack up 50 some points earlier in the year with their impressive – or so I thought wing T offense, I thought for sure they would at least score 16 measly points. But I was wrong and you will have a crisp new Lincoln in your hand on Monday and I will have to live without my Mocha.
Seriously - Congrats to the Bearcats for capturing what we all knew would be a District Title. They have been impressive all year but still have a few goals they need to take care of.
The Bearcat had another impressive offensive showing as they scored almost at will in the first half. They picked up big chunks of ground on most of their plays and made it look easy.
Kaufman was his typical be everywhere on the field self making things happen for Ubly. The D as mentioned earlier was smothering. They were solid and gave up only one big play on a bomb from the Dryden QB which led to their only score.
Dryden made a late drive which may have led to the score that saved me a Lincoln, but the stingy Ubly D denied them and Dryden turned the ball over on downs.
Chris – Dryden did score half of what I said – would you settle for half?
These top photos were by Steve Jias...
9 comments:
Cardinals were a joke tonight, typical NCTL vs. GTC man handling!
Dryden isn't in the same class as Ubly.
Who else has been in their league smart guy? Deckerville and Marlette? No one. So why don't u get off the NCTL's ass and show a little face huh?
anon: who else has been in the league with Dryden?
Beating up on the likes of Akron Fairgrove, CPS, Owen Gage and Kingston plus a non league schedule of Mayville and Burr Oak isn't going to get it done.
Dryden needs to be in a league that has more competition if they expect to make any kind of post season run.
Beating up on the above mentioned teams year in and year out does NOTHING. Where as getting beat by and beating the likes of USA, Harbor Beach, Deckerville year in and year out provides the experience and strength needed to make a long playoff run.
The trend that Memphis started by getting smacked by GTC teams will only continue if Dryden and Memphis stay in that conference. Is there a better fit right now? I don't know but if I'm Dryden or Memphis and I expect to be a annual playoff participant, I would be looking around.
I think Dryden fans are in denial as to whats going on and especially after what happened last night. Accept it, you have a long way to go to be a serious contender in division 7 or 8.
Hell, I'll go out on a limb and say that Dryden will be lucky to finish 5-4 next year.
Good job Ubly!
Look at the tape anon, Ubly exploited everything Dryden tried to do. My gosh, the Ubly backs could have walked instead of run thru the defensive line numerous times, the holes were that big. Ask anyone out there, I bet Ubly was ready to play 4 more qtrs. Dryden was gassed!
observer, AGREED!
So the GTE was down a little this year, look at the overall picture and tell me how many teams over the last 10 years come out of the GTC and went to the semi-finals and how many from the NCTL made it past the first or second round(mostly due to the schedule or perrenial weak teams)?
The GTC is a conference recognized across the state for power football whether they are having a down year or not.
The problem here is that GTC backers are sick and tired of watching NCTL teams receiving respect because of what the GTC has done in football. How could anyone in their right mind have Dryden listed on a local power poll in third. This was ahead of Lakers, Sandusky, Cass City, Vassar, Marlette, etc. Any of those teams would have easily beaten Dryden. They were slow off the ball and ran straight up. If they played like that all season in the GTC they would have been out of players by the end of the year. There were 2 or 3 football players from NH alone who were athlete of the week in Trib, yet no one from Ubly made it until last week. It is like some reporters in the area over hype the NCTL for some reason. That doesn't mean you either Chris:) The County Press does an excellent job. I feel that is the reason that people are on the NCTL's ass.
the things that gets me going is how Mike Bogan at the Tribune, wants and is pushing for a mega conference. Are you kidding me? So that North Huron and Memphis and Dryden can have their lunch handed to them every week by current GTC teams? That would make for some pretty sick football and lower the quality of play overall, aside from the fact that all it would do is pad the win totals for Harbor Beach, USA, Deckerville, Lakers and Ubly to name a few. And those schools DON'T want that! Ask Ubly why they dropped North Huron from the schedule for a prime example. Sure the rivalry was nice but it did nothing to prep them for the playoffs and in fact it hindered their chances at home field playoff games by playing a D team.
I know Deckerville and BCAS are D teams now (I think they were C teams when they started in the GTC)but the bonus points you get from them if you beat them is pretty good considering they usually are playoff teams too.
The whole idea of the mega conference would ruin Thumb football!
Ubly did not drop North Huron. After the 2003 game, NH's "former" coach was upset because he felt Ubly ran the score up. Ubly had their 3rd string backfield in the game and left them in for the PAT. NH felt that Ubly went for 2 so that they could hit 50 points. Sweeney left the backups in instead of bringing the starters back in to kick the PAT. North Huron dropped Ubly, which hurt Ubly the next 2 years because they had problems finding a replacement.
hey what happened to mhsaa tv i heard they filmed the game did they
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