- Michigan
Five top football games for Week 5 of the 2018 season
Here are some of the top games across the state for Week 5 of the 2018 regular season:
Davison (4-0, 2-0 SVL Blue) at Grand Blanc (4-0, 2-0 SVL Blue)
This should be a doozy.
The Cardinals jumped into the top 25 rankings after a Week 1 win over Southfield A&T, and Grand Blanc joined them, after blowing out Flint Carman Ainsworth last week.
“Look, Davison’s a whole different kind of team. Big rival. They run a whole different type of offense, so it’s right back to the drawing board,” Bobcats coach Clint Alexander said after last week’s win, noting the tough stretch of Carman-Ainsworth, Davison and Lapeer in consecutive weeks. “Yeah. It’s fun. Where I came from (Woodberry Forest School in Virginia), I told kids somebody could beat you every week. It was fun. You just knew you got done with one powerhouse, and you had the best team in Carolina, and now you’re playing the best team in Jersey. I’m kind of used it. I’m hoping the kids can get used to it, because we’ve got a tough stretch.”
Tylor Leedom was 11-for-16 passing for 244 yards and four touchdowns, adding a scoring run, while Ryder Brotebeck helped the Bobcats churn clock in the second half. His Davison counterpart, Cannon Hall, was his usual productive self, throwing for 121 yards and two scores, and running for 134 and three more TDs.
These two teams have met 58 times, with Grand Blanc holding a 33-24-1 margin, but only once — in the playoffs in 2016 — since the dissolution of the Big 9 after the 2011 season (Grand Blanc left in 2009). Grand Blanc won six straight in the late 1990s, early 2000s, but Davison has won seven of the last 10.
Canton (3-1, 3-0 KLAA West) at Brighton (3-1, 3-0 KLAA West)
This game is for the West Division lead, as neither team has lost since the crossover opener — Canton falling to Livonia Churchill in new coach Andy Lafata’s debut, and Brighton narrowly losing to Belleville.
After several huge games, Chiefs fullback Steven Walker was a bit more subdued, with 98 yards and two scores on nine carries. Scrambling dual-threat Brighton QB Will Jontz ran for a touchdown in the Bulldogs’ 24-7 win over Plymouth, and the Brighton defense hasn’t given up a point since Week 1 (Plymouth’s TD came on a pick-six).
Brighton has never beaten Canton (0-5 all-time) — lost last year 35-10, which was Brighton’s only loss of more than three points (two losses by three points, two by one).
After Friday, Canton has Novi (1-3, 1-2), Howell (2-2, 2-1) and Hartland (2-2, 2-1), while the Bulldogs have Northville (1-3, 0-3), Salem (1-3, 0-3) and Howell (2-2, 2-1).
Clinton Twp. Chippewa Valley (4-0, 2-0 MAC Red) at Macomb Dakota (4-0, 2-0 MAC Red)
This could be one of those “imposing your will on the opponent” type of game. Chippewa Valley pulled back from what had been a shootout to just grind out drives in a win over Utica Eisenhower, while Dakota — which has weapons in QB Mark Tocco and RB Dustin Solomon — has predicated its offensive success on a big, nasty offensive line.
Whoever wins those battles in the trenches probably wins this game.
And whoever wins this game controls its own destiny in the Macomb Area Conference Red Division, with two divisional games left. The rest of the way in the division, both teams have to play Romeo (3-1, 2-0), while Dakota has Eisenhower (1-3, 0-2), and Chippewa Valley has Sterling Heights Stevenson (2-2, 0-2).
Chippewa Valley won four of the first five meetings between these schools, after Dakota first opened in 1996, as well as both meetings last year (regular season, 37-7, and playoffs, 45-20), but there was a stretch from 2005 to 2013 where the Cougars — who won two state titles in that span — won 13 straight, including six playoff meetings.
Novi Detroit Catholic Central (3-1, 1-0 CHSL Central) at Birmingham Brother Rice (3-1, 0-1 CHSL Central), Saturday 7 p.m.
One of the classic rivalry games in the state, obviously — especially when you consider the series is 31-30-1 in (slight) favor of Catholic Central, which has won the last three.
Both teams are reeling a bit, trying to figure out some issues at quarterback, and rebound from a lackluster loss in the last two weeks. With Rice, it was Greg Piscopink struggling in a 13-0 loss to Warren DeLaSalle, the Warriors’ first loss in his 11 career starts. With CC, it was the Shamrocks having to find ways to fill in for the injured Marco Genrich, but Jack Beno apparently did a creditable job in CC’s bounce-back, 42-7 win over Detroit U-D Jesuit. The Shamrocks struggled in a 34-10 loss to Toledo Central Catholic two weeks ago, after Genrich went out.
Both teams have yet to play Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, while CC still has to face DeLaSalle on Oct. 12.
DeWitt (4-0, 2-0 CAAC Blue) vs. East Lansing (4-0, 1-0 CAAC Blue)
Despite sitting just 11 miles apart, this will be the first time these two schools have met in the regular season (they’ve faced off five times in the playoffs
DeWitt has won 13 straight league titles, the last seven of those in the CAAC Red, but now the Panthers are in the Blue for the first time, joining the big boys, having just crept over the 1,000-student mark two of the last three years. From 2009-2013, the Panthers made it at least as far as the D3 semis every season but one, falling in the 2013 title game, the last of five championship-game appearances.
East Lansing is 4-0 for the first time since 2012, and coming off their second nine-win season since that stretch from 1997-2003 when the Trojans went 64-19, making four trips to the semifinals in seven seasons.
The difference between these two might be experience on the offensive line — DeWitt has it, East Lansing did not, coming into the season. While DeWitt has dominated defensively, allowing just more than a touchdown per game, and won each of its last three by five scores or more, the Trojans have had just one blowout win, a pair of two-score wins, and a three-point win two weeks ago over Grand Ledge.
