Oh What A Night!

Actually, what a couple of nights. On Thursday, the Bedford Freshman and JV football teams travelled up to Ann Arbor to take on the Huron River Rats on their turf. Both teams emerged victorious, with similar scores--20 to 14 for the Frosh and 21-14 for the JV, although the games were paced very differently. The Freshmen were dominant--the game was nowhere near as closely played as the score indicates. Matt is the backup quarterback, and when his good friend Aaron went down with an injury, he had to step in. He did a very good job, but timing was a bit off on a couple of plays, which resulted in fumbles by either him or the RB, ending drives deep into River Rat territory. A field goal attempt by first year player Nick Harvey just missed as well. What a terrific group of kids! They all played well.

JV was a close game from start to finish. The great off-season conditioning Coach Wood ran really made the difference. The JV RR were visibly exhausted in the 4th quarter. The defense did their job when it counted most! Having watched all 3 games in this series, I'd have to say the Huron JV team was the best of the 3, and it was encouraging that our boys played as powerfully as they did.

Then there's varsity. It was a crazy day, but oh, what a night! It was a designated "white out" game, and the football moms sold over 1000 themed t-shirts for the occasion. We originally had ordered something like 600. We had to do several special orders. The last one arrived just in time for the pep rally. Trying to get them distributed was a circus. Then we had a lasagna malfunction when it came time to feeding the boys, so more chaos.

At game time, the stands were full. I went over to the other side to see the impact of the "white out." It was very cool--probably 85% of those in the stands were wearing white, and the home side of the field basically glowed. I took a couple of pictures, but they don't do it justice.

No one thought our boys could pull this one off--no one other than the families and the coaches seem to have confidence in the team. The first half was a defensive battle--the Mules scored pretty quickly and Huron answered, then the defenses held tight. The second half was a different matter. Nate Davis and Doug Harmon had the offense going on all cylinders. They put on quite a show. The O-line was impressive. While some think they are undersized, they did a good job of leveling the "big boys" across the ball. Our kids may not have the pounds or height of some of our opponents, but they are like a brick wall and they know how to execute!

And what can you say about our defense??? AWESOME, AWESOME evening boys!!! Big plays when things got tight (the interception on the 1 yard line changed the whole rhythm of the game!) and consistent pressure kept the Huron offense on the sideline for most of the game.

Go Mules, and thank you! You made us proud!