Indians brush off Adrian, need one more win to guarantee playoff appearance

One more varsity football victory will advance Tecumseh High School to the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 2 playoffs as the Indians defeated the Adrian Maples 31-12 on Friday, Oct. 17, to improve to 5-3 overall. The Indians took a 17-0 lead after the first quarter and outscored the Maples 7-6 in both the second and third quarters. Neither team scored a point in the fourth and final quarter.Defense was the name of the game for the Indians. After being forced to punt on their first possession, Tecumseh pressured Adrian’s quarterback Joel Hill on his first down of the evening and he fumbled the ball. The Indians recovered the ball on Adrian’s 30-yard line and opened scoring a few plays later (9:36) with Piet Stohschein centering the ball through the uprights for a 3-0 lead.“Our defense played great, no question about it,” said Tecumseh coach Al Romano. “They got a lot of pressure up front that our D-line put on and then we blitzed a lot of people. We probably had a season-high in sacks and pressures and picks.”Tecumseh put 24 points on the board before Adrian was able to respond.“It was just absolutely great defense and extreme pressure on their quarterback all night,” said Romano. Wyatt Cadmus hit the end zone for the Indians on a 44-yard run for the game’s first touchdown with 5:33 left in the opening quarter. Stohschein gave the Indians a 10-0 lead with a solid point after touchdown (PAT) kick. Chris Hawkins stepped up on defense for Tecumseh by stopping Adrian in its tracks with a pick-six interception that he returned from the Maples’ 42-yard line with 3:07 on the clock in the first quarter. Stohschein connected on the ensuing PAT and Tecumseh held a 17-0 lead heading into the second quarter.For the last three games the Indians have had at least one bad snap on a punt that gave their opponents great field position. They did it again early in the second quarter against Adrian with a snap that was lost and downed on Tecumseh’s 20-yard line. Only this time the Indians’ defense stuck the Maples on a fourth down and one-yard situation and took the ball over on downs on their own 12-yard line.Later in the quarter on a third down and six-yard set up on Tecumseh’s own 46-yard line, Indian quarterback Jakob Coker threw a pass to Jordan Patterson and he took it all the way to Adrian’s end zone for a touchdown.Patterson had just been brought up from the junior varsity team and wore Nate Brady’s former number, 40.“When Landon [Pelham] was out we were looking for ways to fix some of the things we were doing and Jordan, we felt, was our best candidate on the JV team for what we needed. And he stepped up. What a way to start his career, huh?” said Romano of bringing the sophomore up to the varsity team.“We needed some help on the offensive line and Nate was going to move there regardless,” said Romano. “So that’s why Nate wore 67. That was already in the plan.”Stohschein centered the ball through the uprights and Tecumseh held a 24-0 advantage with 8:52 left in the second quarter.Brady sacked Adrian’s quarterback three times and pushed the Maples back to a fourth down and 26-yard situation on the Indians’ 30-yard line when Hill completed a pass to Austin Laskowski in the end zone.The Maples mishandled the snap on the PAT and the kick never reached the goal posts, setting the score at 24-6 with 4:04 left in the first half.The Maples scored their second and final touchdown in the third quarter (10:33) with Hill throwing a 16-yard pass to Mitchell Dempsey. Adrian attempted a two point conversion pass but failed, setting the score at 24-12.Cadmus scored the game’s final touchdown with 7:38 remaining in the third quarter on a 35-yard run. Stohschein added the final point on a good PAT kick.“We ran our clock offense in the first half, we ran our clock offense early in the fourth quarter where we’re eating up as much time as we can and trying to keep it simple,” said Romano. “A win’s a win. I don’t care if its one point or 40 or whatever.”On Friday the Indians travel to Carleton Airport and face a Jets team that’s 3-5 overall and 2-5 in the Huron Conference.“We’re just going to keep doing what we do and hope like heck it’s dry,” said Romano of the final game of the regular season. “We haven’t had good success over there with the weather. It’s dark and dreary over there. Sometimes, with an offense like ours, it’s been a miserable place to play. We’re just going to have to make sure we can do some other things in case the weather is bad as it gets this time of year.”

Tecumseh Herald

 

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