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12/5/07-Football
Together till the end
Orchard Lake St. Mary's football ends year in epic final
By Brad D. Bates
C & G Sports Writer
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DETROIT — Seniors on the Orchard Lake St. Mary's football team can truly say they gave it everything they had in their final game.
After the Eaglets fell 46-39 in their Division 3 state championship to East Grand Rapids Nov. 24, they can say they gave more than anyone before them.
If anyone doubts it, they need only look at the record book as the five-overtime thriller was a record breaker.
“I looked at my kids Monday, and I saw them upset with losing. But I saw kids that knew they gave it their all,” coach George Porritt said Nov. 28 at St. Mary's.
“You could see it in their faces, they said, ‘We gave it our all, and East Grand Rapids beat us in a classic game.' I could see that they knew they did what they had to do as players and a team, and that's refreshing to me.”
The final was neck and neck through four regulation periods. St Mary's (10-3) led 7-0 after a first-quarter touchdown from running back Dominique White, which was answered just before halftime by a touchdown run from East junior Joe Glendening.
The Pioneers (13-1) took a 14-7 third-quarter lead on another Glendening score, which St. Mary's answered less than three minutes later when junior Sam Fiorini scored from 8-yards out knotting the score at 14-14. It remained that way when regulation ended.
“I knew that it could go a couple overtimes,” Porritt said. “They were very good, and we were executing at the time. It was going to be a dogfight through the whole thing. Each team had players capable of making plays, and they were making those plays.”
The squads traded field goals in the first overtime and then touchdowns in the second, with White putting the Eaglets up 23-17 on a 2-yard rush on fourth down.
“I was so tired, I didn't even know it was fourth down,” White said. “They handed me the ball. I was feeling I had the game in my hands, so I had to get in.”
The play, which was called by the Eaglets' players, was just one example of the close-knit bonds and faith among the players.
“We were in the timeout and wanted to give the ball to Domo,” senior captain and right guard Mike Kaiser said. “The offensive line said, ‘We want Domo to run the ball and see what he does.'”
East answered as senior quarterback Calvin Blair connected with junior tight end Chris Blair, which tied the game at 24-24, sending it to a record third overtime.
“When I was looking at the scoreboard and it read, ‘No state championship in Michigan has ever made it past two overtimes,' I thought, ‘What if we go two overtimes,'” White said of his thoughts after regulation.
“Then I said, ‘That's not going to happen.' Next thing I know, it's the fourth overtime.”
The teams sent it to a fourth overtime after trading touchdowns in the third. That's when things got really interesting.
After St. Mary's sophomore quarterback Robert Bolden opened the fourth OT with a 1-yard score on fourth down, Porritt decided to fake the extra-point kick and go for two points with senior holder/quarterback Kris Morris throwing to junior wideout Dion Sims, a move most Eaglets weren't made aware of.
“I thought something happened and someone sneaked through on defense,” White said. “I didn't know what he was doing. It was scary. But when he caught it, it was nice.”
That play made the overtime even more tense. But from that environment, the Eaglets found a few unlikely friends — the Pioneers.
“I was cramping up bad from the neck down, but there was something that kept me in (the game),” White said. “After a while, (the Pioneers) were helping you up saying, ‘Don't give up,' and we're telling them not to give up because we're making history together.”
The Pioneers responded to the Eaglets' two-point conversion with a touchdown and two-pointer of their own, forcing the fifth overtime.
East scored first on Glendening's fourth touchdown of the game. St. Mary's then saw its season end when it failed to convert from the 9-yard line.
“It was a neat thing to watch two teams just playing on guts,” Porritt said. “There was a lot of mutual admiration, and that's a great thing about high school sports. People on the outside got to see that.”
It was a fitting end to 2007 for the Eaglets, who with the loss of a number of elite skill-position players to graduation last season responded with a dedication to their coaches and a commitment to a grind-it-out style of football.
“The character of the individual is that they understand they've got to work together and listen together and do all the things right,” Porritt said. “When you're talking about kids with blocking schemes doing everything right, they've got to communicate with each other.
“It's fun to watch that with a good offensive line going to work. We weren't real big, and a lot of times its how kids develop together and do things together that's real fun to watch.”
Those lessons of togetherness and communication were furthered by the five-overtime loss, perhaps in a way a regulation win could never have done.
“That's what you hope athletics is all about,” Porritt said. “It makes you stronger, and it's not all about winning and losing. It's about making you stronger and tougher in life.
“You don't just get that out of a game, you get that out of a season and seasons of playing.”
Copyright 2007, St. Mary's Preparatory, Orchard Lake, Michigan. All rights reserved.
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