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Stellar defense leads West Bloomfield to first district title in school history, 41-7 over Waterford Mott
Waterford – While Friday night’s district final between Waterford Mott and West Bloomfield showcased two State Champs! Mr. Football Award candidates in West Bloomfied quarterback Bryce Veasley and Waterford Mott signal caller David McCullum, it was the Lakers’ defense that stole the show.
The West Bloomfield defense limited McCullum to under 100 yards of total offense and limited a Mott offense, which was averaging over 40 points per game this season to just one touchdown as the Lakers claimed their first district title in school history with a 41-7 win to advance to the regional finals next weekend.
West Bloomfield head coach Ron Bellamy praised the play of his team’s defense for its ability to slow down the Mott offense and added that the defense’s speed played a key role in bottling up Mott’s dangerous senior quarterback.
“I don’t think he (McCullum) saw a defense as fast as ours,” he said. “He’s an incredible athlete, he broke some on us, but we came back and made some plays to push them back. Kudos to our defense, we have a fast aggressive defense and it’s fun to watch those guys.”
In the regional final, West Bloomfield (9-2) will face Utica Eisenhower (11-0), which defeated Rochester Adams 10-6 on Friday night.
Coming out of halftime with a 20-7 lead, West Bloomfield added to its lead as an interception by Nick Seidel gave the Lakers the ball at the Mott 15-yard line and just three plays later, Veasley scored on a 1-yard run to push the lead to 27-7 with 5:$2 left in the third quarter.
Seidel, who now has nine interceptions on the year, said that his own team’s prolific offense, which features three Division 1 receivers helped prepare the West Bloomfield defense for a dangerous Mott offense on Friday.
“We game-planned for them at their best,” he said. “McCullum is a heck of a quarterback, he does a heck of a job, all of their receivers are lethal threats and we game planned for them. We face the best receivers in the state (in practice) and our big key was to focus in the pass and we did that.”
Veasley finished Friday’s game with 141 yards on 12-of-18 passing and also rushed for 53 yards and a touchdown in the win for the Lakers. Veasley’s counterpart, McCullum, was held to 51 yards through the air and completed just 6 of his 24 pass attempts and rushed for 64 yards in the loss for the Corsairs (9-2).
Later in the third quarter, West Bloomfield would continue to pull away as senior running back Collin Heard notched his second touchdown of the game, on a 3-yard run to extend the Lakers’ lead to 34-7 with just over two minutes left to go.
In the fourth quarter, West Bloomfield would put the game out of reach with 5:33 left when Shamar Dennis scored on a 7-yard run to make it 41-7.
“We’re growing and we’re trying to build our program the right way,” Bellamy said of West Bloomfield claiming its first ever district title. “It’s about accountability and development and that’s what we want to teach our young kids. These kids are having the time of their lives and this is an unbelievable journey and hopefully we’re going to keep it going.”
In the first half, West Bloomfield would build a 20-7 lead following touchdown runs from Heard and Dennis, as well as a pair of field goals from Nick O’Shea. The Lakers rushed for well over 200 yards as a team on Friday night with a game-high 159 yards coming from Heard.
Mott’s lone touchdown of the game came with 3:03 remaining in the first quarter when Marcus Guerrero scored on a 43-yard scamper to tie the game at 7-7.
