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10/21/07-Football
Running reminder for Rice
By JEFF KUEHN Of The Oakland Press
DETROIT-- Thirty-eight yards.
That was a little nugget Birmingham Brother Rice coach Al Fracassa kept reminding his players all week long leading up to Saturday's Catholic League A-B championship game against Orchard Lake St. Mary's at Ford Field.
Thirty-eight was the number of rushing yards the Eaglets held the Warriors to in a 40-21 thrashing in Week 5.
"They heard about that a couple of times this week," Fracassa said following the Warriors's workman-like, 45-14 pounding in the rematch.
"We just came ready to play some football tonight," Fracassa added. "There really wasn't much more to it than that. Our guys wanted to play and we showed it. It's a great win to get going into the playoffs."
Both teams will find out a 6:30 pm today who they'll face in the first round of the playoffs. Brother Rice (7-2) will compete in Division 2 while the Eaglets (6-2) will do battle in Division 3.
How ready were the Warriors this time around?
After bolting to a 28-14 lead in the opening half, Brother Rice scored 17 unanswered points to win going away.
The turning point came when the Eaglets faced a fourth-and-2 at their own 24-yard line just three minutes into the second half. St. Mary's decided to go for it instead of kick it away.
Junior defensive lineman Vinnie Celani stormed through the line for a quarterback sack at the 15-yard line.
That led to a 26-yard field goal by Ryan Kelly giving Brother Rice a three-score cushion.
The Warriors added two more scores -- a 2-yard run by senior fullback Jaddou Mazen with 5:46 to go in the game and a 30-yard interception return by junior defensive back Danny Henigan with 4:49 to go.
"The first time we played (St. Mary's) we were coming off an emotional win over Catholic Central and they kind of blindsided us," said senior QB Andy Lentz. "We found out that day there's really only one way to play this game -- as a team. Since then, we've played with a new spirit, a new direction."
Saturday's win gave the Warriors their 14th A-B championship.
"This is a good way to get, because it gives us momentum going into the playoffs," said senior running back Caulton Ray. "Other teams will see this and know that they will have their hands full."
Held to 38 yards the first time around, the Warriors rushed for 199 en route to 300 yards of offense in the rematch. Ray finished with 165 yards and a pair of touchdown on 23 carries. Not to be outdone, Lentz threw for 137 yards and a pair of scores, completing 11-of-16 passes.
St. Mary's was held to 204 yards of total offense. Dominique White rumbled for 48 yards on 13 carries to lead the charge.
After giving up a 14-point lead, the Warriors responded with two, impressive drives in the final 6:32 of the opening half.
First, Lentz connected with junior wideout Mark Makoski from 14 yards out as Brother Rice moved 72 yards in seven plays after the Eaglets tied the game.
Then, senior defensive back Nick Thomas put the Warriors in position to score again before the intermission by intercepting a pass that gave them the ball at midfield.
From there, the Warriors needed just over a minute and eight plays to score on a 2-yard by Ray.
Brother Rice got on the board first, scoring on each of its first two possessions of the game.
The Warriors took the opening kickoff and marched 74 yards in just seven plays, Ray capped the drive by going around the left end for the final 6 yards.
Brother Rice increased the lead to 14-0 when Lentz connected with Ron Dorsey-Austin on a 23-yard scoring pass to cap a 58-yard drive in seven plays.
St. Mary's used two big plays to crawl back into the game. First, sophomore quarterback Robert Bolden eluded a fierce rush and found junior wideout Dion Sims for a 45-yard bomb as the Eaglets needed just three plays to complete a 76-yard drive. Then, St. Mary's pounced on a fumble at the Brother Rice 23-yard line just four plays after narrowing the gap to 14-7.
Seven plays later, senior running back Dominique White went over the top from 2 yards out. Sean Graham added the extra point and just that fast the score was knotted at 14-all.
Little did anyone know at the time, that would be the last time the Eaglets would dent the scoreboard.
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