Indians finish 5-5 overall after losing 46-7 against DeWitt in D3 pre-district game

Halloween was a spooky adventure for Tecumseh’s varsity football team on the road at DeWitt on Friday, Oct. 31, for post-season play in the Division 3 pre-district game.The hosting Panthers tricked and did not treat the Indians well, ending Tecumseh’s season with a huge 46-7 victory.Size and determination powered DeWitt past the Indians as the Panthers used their ground and kicking game to accumulate all of their 46 points before allowing the Indians to score late in the final quarter.“It was just a matter of not being able to cash in against a good football team. Take nothing away from them. They’re pretty good,” said Tecumseh coach Al Romano.Tecumseh accumulated slightly less rushing yards than Dewitt with 306 to the Panthers’ 366 but failed to convert when in the red zone. The Indians had four first downs inside DeWitt’s 10-yard line.“We played pretty well,” said Romano. “We had opportunities to score some points but couldn’t get it done. But, you know, they only give up eight points a game.”The Panthers have scored 381 points in 10 games while allowing their opponents just 80.DeWitt won the coin toss and opted to kick off with a very strong wind at their backs to open the game. “It killed us, really” said Romano of the harsh, windy conditions. “We made a couple mistakes against it and we couldn’t throw the ball.”It was so cold during the day that snow flurries fell to the field a couple of times.“They’re defense buckled down when they had to,” said Romano. “They moved the ball okay. We had some problems with the field position in the first quarter with the wind. That first quarter start, seventeen to nothing, kind of put us in a hole.”The Panthers were limited to a field goal in their opening offensive possession but scored two touchdowns and hit both point after touchdown (PAT) attempts to finish the first quarter with a 17-0 lead.Sixteen more points were added by DeWitt in the second quarter with a Safety on a blocked punt, two touchdowns and two good PATs. The Panthers keep the Indians off the scoreboard for a 33-0 lead by the end of the first half.The Panthers’ rushing attack was slowed in the third quarter with Tecumseh limiting DeWitt to just one touchdown. The Indians rushed the Panthers’ kicker on the ensuing PAT and it went wide left of the posts to send Tecumseh into the final quarter down 39-0.Bo Yobis scored DeWitt’s final touchdown on a 43-yard run with 3:38 remaining in the game.Tecumseh replaced its starting quarterback, junior Jakob Coker, with senior Jacob Treadway, in the final quarter to try and keep the Indians from getting shutout. The senior quarterback handed the ball off to senior running back Wyatt Cadmus at the nine-yard line and he ran it into the end zone with 2:14 left on the clock. Foreign exchange student Piet Stohschein, of Germany, made good on the following PAT kick and finished all scoring.“The score wasn’t indicative of the game,” said Romano. “We missed a couple of tackles, had them stopped at times. They had two big runs and then we gave them two short fields because of the conditions. But, that’s part of football. They handled it better than we did.“The big thing is our kids played hard for four quarters against a pretty good football team,” Romano added.It was Romano’s fourth season with the Indians. His first year, 2011, the Indians went 2-7 overall and 1-4 in the Southeastern Conference. Every year since he has led the Indians to post season play. Last year Tecumseh advanced to the regionals and finished 9-3 overall with a loss to Battle Creek Harper Creek. The year before, in 2012 the Indians advanced to the district final but lost to Eaton Rapids, going 8-3 overall.

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