NEWS: Harbor Beach rallies with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to stay undefeated and beat Brown City, 34-21.
VIEWS: The Pirates certainly earned this victory.
Brown City led 21-20 after three quarters, and was driving for another score in the fourth quarter, when Harbor Beach’s Aaron Ginther picked off a pass and stalled the Green Devils’ drive.
Moments later, Sloan Klaski scored the go-ahead touchdown for the Pirates.
Eli Kraft sealed the game for the Pirates with another interception in the fourth quarter. He later scored on a 50-yard run to make for the winning margin.
Kraft was a difference maker, throwing for 144 yards and rushing for 152 of Harbor Beach’s 260 yards on the ground.
Harbor Beach’s offense has all sorts of big play potential.
Defensively, though, this was the first week the Pirates were pushed — and the Green Devils certainly did a lot of pushing.
Brown City racked up 325 yards on the ground, including 252 yards from tailback Nate Primeau.
“It came down to a fourth-down play late in the fourth quarter and Harbor Beach made a play to move the chains,” said Brown City coach Scott Banks. “Kraft is tough to defend and we did not get enough pressure on him.
“I thought our kids played their hearts out. Primeau had one of the best games I have seen from a high school running back. Harbor Beach had trouble bringing him down.”
NEWS: Marlette moves to 4-0 overall with an easy 52-8 victory over Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port.
VIEWS: Marlette quarterback Kolby Lange has been a man among boys so far this season.
Against the Lakers, he rushed for 90 yards and three touchdowns on 10 carries. He also was 13-of-19 passing for 171 yards and two more scores.
Overall so far this season, Lange has completed 71 percent of his passes for 616 yards and six touchdowns. He’s also rushed for 573 yards and 10 TDs.
Defensively against the Lakers, Marlette allowed just 33 yards rushing on 26 attempts.
NEWS: A pair of important Greater Thumb East games are on tap this Friday when Marlette hosts Sandusky and Harbor Beach travels to Ubly.
VIEWS: To date, these are the two biggest games in the Thumb.
The Marlette-Sandusky game pits two of the area’s best quarterbacks in Lange and Sandusky’s Justin Mills.
Like Lange, Mills has put up some impressive numbers, including last week’s performance against Memphis when he threw for 260 yards and three TDs.
The Harbor Beach-Ubly game features the Pirates’ high-powered offense against the Bearcats’ stingy defense.
The Bearcats own a mini three-game winning streak over the Pirates. We will preview this game later this week.
NEWS: Unionville-Sebewaing Area is atop the GTW standings after a hard-fought 20-13 win over Cass City.
VIEWS: The Patriots trailed 13-6 at the half, but rallied with two third-quarter touchdowns.
USA has a pair of excellent running backs in Brandon Harper and Tim Zube. Harper had 117 yards on 20 carries against the Red Hawks while Zube chipped in 114 yards on 22 totes.
Quarterback Jake Beachy was impressive, as well, throwing a pair of touchdown passes to Dan Rieck.
Honestly, I am not sure how good any team in the GTW really is. USA narrowly beat Bay City All Saints, and was blanked by Ubly in the season opener. Reese was dominated by Harbor Beach a few weeks ago, but the Rockets then came back and beat up Vassar, 28-12, this past Friday.
Who’s the best in the West? I really don’t know.
NEWS: Bad Axe picks up its first win since Week 7 of the 2009 season with a 40-0 shelling of Bay City All Saints.
VIEWS: Congratulations to Mark Manenti and his Hatchets. They endured quite a bit of scrutiny over the first three weeks of the season, but came out last Friday and ran all over the Cougars.
In talking with many people in the Bad Axe community, they all say Manenti is the right person for the Bad Axe job. It may take a year or two, but they say the Hatchets will turn the corner soon.
NEWS: Deckerville leads the North Central Thumb League after a 53-0 blanking of North Huron.
VIEWS: Until someone knocks off the Eagles in NCTL play, it’s not even close.
Up next for Deckerville is Saginaw Buena Vista, which has yielded 199 points in three games this season, including 75 against Lincoln Alcona last week.
NEWS: Volleyball is in full swing, with several teams starting the season strong.
VIEWS: The GTW is loaded with volleyball talent, with at least four teams figuring to battle for the top spot.
Right now, USA seems to be the early favorite, but Cass City, Bad Axe and Reese all have the potential to take the title.
In the GTE, it seems like Ubly and Marlette are the teams to beat. They actually have an important showdown Thursday night in Ubly.
In the North Central Thumb League, Caseville and Port Hope are tied atop the North Division at 2-1. Deckerville and Carsonville-Port Sanilac are both 3-0 in the South Division.
NEWS: Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port and Marlette have staked their claim for the top spots in the GTC soccer races.
VIEWS: The Lakers lead the GTC North Division at 5-0 while the Red Raiders are atop the South Division at 3-0-1. Those two teams actually play at EPBP today.
Meanwhile, Harbor Beach, Bad Axe and USA are still in contention in the North Division, but will need some help to catch the Lakers.
NEWS: Area cross country teams are off and running, as well.
VIEWS: We will have our first listing of our area cross country honor roll in the paper Wednesday.
Mike Bogan is the Daily Tribune’s editor. He also serves as sports editor.
4 comments:
Good review Mike.
Seems like blogs are a thing of the past. No comments...come on people.
I stated in a previous post ...congratulating the Hatchet's on they're win over BCAS and that the Lakers would be a "piece of cake". An Anonymous poster chastised me by putting up billboard material for the Laker coaches. He couldn't be more correct. I apologize, but, I'm afraid its to late. The Hatchets will just have to overcome my faux pal.
Brings up an interesting story of a game played long, long ago when the Vanderbilt Commodores were behind a "Northern" opponent at halftime. The coach besieged his minions to uphold the memory and dignity of their ancestors who fought and died against those very same evil forces from the North. The players responded and brought that Vanderbilt football team to a come from behind victory.
Their coach never told them that his Uncle was a Union General in that "war between the states
You're correct Chiuk. Lakers have a bad team this year, along with a couple bad new coaches. Wish we would kept Manenti over here. In all fairness though, Lakers have played all quality teams so far this year. Exception of USA which has a good team, but not great. Look at Lakers schedule & they still have a chance of going 4 - 5, which is more than likely what USA will finish up at after they trounce Bad Axe Friday & loose out the rest of the season.
Trounce Bad Axe , who are you kidding
Hatchets, are going to be a surprise around the thumb pretty soon, and we are very proud to have Manetti and Jeric as our winning numbers!!!!
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