Hard to believe it already the next to last game of the
regular season. This week DeWitt travels
to Lansing Waverly for a conference match-up against the Warriors. In most years this game would be considered
to be a game that could just be overlooked as Lansing Waverly has not had a winning
season since they made the playoffs in 2012 with a 6-4 record. But in this roller coaster ride of a year of 2020
nothing can be overlooked. Waverly enters
the game with a 2-2 record, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Their two losses came from playing Holt in
week 2 and only losing by 6 and then having to face East Lansing the next week
and only allowing 17 points, the fewest allowed against East Lansing so far
this year. But the Warrior’s defense
faces a big challenge in stopping the Panther’s offense led by Tyler
Holtz. Can they hold DeWitt’s score down
and allow their offense, who have only averaged 16 points per game, to step up
and give them the winning edge. Only 48
minutes of football will be able to tell.
DeWitt once again won the coin toss and deferred to the
second half. Waverly got the ball first
and started off with a 21-yard pass on their first play from their own 28-yard
line. After that they struggled for yardage
and had to punt. DeWitt didn’t seem to
have a problem getting yardage and scores four plays later on a 4-yard run by
Andrew Debri with Brandon Soltis tacking on the extra point.
Waverly’s second drive doesn’t go any better as before they
can even get a first down Nate Cole’s pass is picked off by Tommy McIntosh and
run back 15 yards for a pick-six. Brandon
Soltis tacks on another extra point to now go up 14-0. Waverly does better on this series and
manages 60 yards over 9 plays before having to punt back to DeWitt with 3:49
left in the first quarter. DeWitt
manages to move the ball from their own 16 all the way to the Waverly 20 before
the ball is turned over to Waverly with a call that a pass was a lateral that
was dropped and picked up by Waverly.
This stops DeWitt’s drive prematurely and gives Waverly another
chance. They move the ball from their
own 28 all the way to the DeWitt 16 before turning the ball over on downs 13
seconds into the second quarter.
DeWitt’s drive spans 13 plays over 84 yards and almost six
minutes before scoring on a 4-yard run by Andrew Debri with Brandon Soltis
tacking on another extra point. It is
starting to appear that Waverly does not have a answer for DeWitt’s
high-powered offense. Waverly only
manages eight yards before turning the ball back over to DeWitt on a
fumble. DeWitt capitalizes on this going
35 yards culminating in a 6-yard TD pass from Tyler Holtz to Luke Bresser with
just over three minutes left in the half going up 28-0.
Waverly has another 3 and out after only gaining two yards
and punts back to DeWitt leaving them just over two minutes in the half. DeWitt only needs 38 seconds to score again
on a 22-yard pass from Holt to Nicholas Flegler. This time the extra point kick is wide left
to make the score 34-0. Waverly tries
hard to score before the half making some quick passes only to be thwarted by
Cooper Brumfield intercepting a long pass just as time is expiring on the half.
DeWitt gets the first possession of the second half and in
just four plays, aided by a personal foul against Waverly, DeWitt scores once
again on a 13-yard pass from Holtz to Bryce Debri. This time the extra point try is wide right
to leave the score 40-0. With the running clock now the second half goes
quickly with DeWitt scoring once more on their next possession on a one-yard
Connor McKean run with 1:20 left in the third quarter for the final score of
the game.
DeWitt has a total of 390 yards in the game, 167 rushing and
223 passing, while holding Waverly to only 115 yards split evenly between rushing
and passing. Unfortunately, Waverly also
has 3 turnovers, 2 interceptions and one lost fumble to DeWitt’s 1 lost
fumble. DeWitt averaged 8.2 yards per
pass while holding Waverly to only 2.7 yards per play. DeWitt made 6 of 8 third down conversions
while Waverly was only 2 of 11. Both
teams are plagued by penalties with each team having 8 for over 70 yards total
each. The officials in the game seemed
unreliable as many questionable calls were made against both teams and a number
of times, they would signal penalties or time-outs on the wrong team. Some times two different officials would signal
different calls on the same play with no clear signal on the penalty or outcome
before just marking off yardage. It was
often difficult to understand what had just happened on a play.
DeWitt, now 5-0, goes next week on to face Stevensville
Lakeshore (4-1) whose only loss comes from Portage Northern. Waverly, now 2-3, goes on next week to play
Kalamazoo Loy Norrix who is still winless this season.
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