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Wyandotte Roosevelt Survives A Fourth Quarter Showdown with Oak Park to Move On In The Playoffs
The third week of the Division II Football playoffs kicked off last night and in a matchup that everyone looked forward to – Oak Park versus Wyandotte Roosevelt – an offensive battle was not in the cards. Wyandotte Roosevelt, was coming off a 9-0 shutout win against Truman, faced down Oak Park, who survived an overtime 19-12 win against Southfield. And so it was – a battle of defenses. And the game went down to the wire, but Wyandotte Roosevelt pulled out a fourth quarter game winning drive to win it, and with a strong defense, defeated Oak Park 10-6.
Oak Park received the ball first and they certainly didn’t waste any time scoring. Due to some great pitch and catch between quarterback Delonte Johnson and receivers Drew Johnson and Brain Williams, Oak Park was able to get in the red zone territory early. capitalizing on a plow in run from the 1 from running back Malik Washington. The extra point was missed, with Oak Park leading 6-0 with 7:06 left to go in the first half. The first half continued as battle of defenses as both Oak Park and Wyandotte Roosevelt both struggled to move the ball and score.
With less than four minutes on the clock in the second quarter, Wyandotte Roosevelt was finally able to put a nice drive together in get in the red zone. Wyandotte Roosevelt was unable to score a touchdown but kicker Jacob Simpson was able to execute a 38 yard field goal to make it 6-3. Oak Park tried to put one final drive together to end the half but quarterback Delonte Johnson was picked off by defensive back Austin Petravicius, bringing an end to the first half.
Heading into the second half, Wyandotte Roosevelt received the ball first but was unable to do anything with it which would continue to be the pattern for Wyandotte the entire third quarter. With seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, Oak Park was beginning to move the chains but due to a low snap, quarterback Nate Sims fumbled the ball which Wyandotte was able to recover. Wyandotte capitalized on the turnover with 1:31 left on the clock when quarterback Kevin Matejko connected with a wide open Brandon Sowards for a 31 yard touchdown. After converting the extra point Wyandotte led Oak Park 10-6.
However Oak Park was not content to go down without a fight. With 54 seconds left in the game quarterback Nate Sims connected with Joshua Friday for a 40 yard gain putting Oak Park in red-zone territory again. But in the end, the Wyandotte defense dug in – holding off Oak Park in the closing minutes to secure the 10-6 victory.
Wyandotte Roosevelt will play Brother Rice in the Division 2 Semifinal on Saturday, November 17th at 1:00pm at Gibraltar Carlson High School
