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9/28/2008-Football
St. Mary's beats Brother Rice
By SCOTT M. BURNSTEIN
Special to the Oakland Press
LATHRUP VILLAGE — It has been a tough year so far for the Orchard Lake St. Mary's football team. The Eaglets lost an overtime heartbreaker last week against Catholic League rival Warren DeLaSalle and got trounced by East Grand Rapids in a season opening rematch of last year's Division III state championship game, in which they lost in a five overtime thriller. Since the beginning of the season, the Eaglets have also lost two of their best players, all-state wide receiver Dion Sims and running back/linebacker, Justin Semmes, both of whom are expected to return by the end of the year.
None of this seemed to bother them on Saturday evening, as they rallied from both first- and second-half deficits, to beat Birmingham Brother Rice, another arch-rival from the rough Catholic League, 31-28, in a game that was a see-saw battle.
Throughout the contest, the two teams exchanged leads on four separate occasions, three of those times coming in the final half of play.
Eaglets' senior running back, Sam Fioroni, rushed for two touchdowns and a game-high 158 yards on 30 carries and the St. Mary's defensive front recovered a key Brother Rice (3-2) fumble deep in its own territory with under five minutes remaining, to garner the hard-fought victory.
Prior to the fumble recovery it appeared that the Warriors, who had the ball at the Eaglets' 20-yard line, were going to, at the very least, have an opportunity to kick a game-tying field goal.
“We needed this win bad,” said overjoyed St. Mary's coach George Porritt, whose team improves its record to 3-2. “Following last week against DeLaSalle, we were really on the cusp of losing our season. By no means was this easy, Brother Rice is a great team and have some great players. Obviously, they have an outstanding coaching staff too.
“At times, I didn't know if we were going to pull it out. But these kids showed a lot of heart and got it done when it counted on the field. This league is so tough, you never know what's going to happen. Last week we lost a close one, this week we won one. Our defense came up huge in the final few minutes and we just hung in there. This type of win, will make us a better team down the road.”
Whenever Brother Rice took a lead in the contest and appeared to be in control, the Eaglets showed resolve and wrestled the lead back for themselves. After jumping on top 14-3 in the second quarter, courtesy of a pair of Fioroni 2-yard rushing scores, St. Mary's gave up two touchdowns in the final three and a half minutes of the second quarter — both on runs by Brother Rice's Danny Henneghan — and found itself down 15-14 at halftime.
The Brother Rice lead at the break proved to be short lived, though, as St. Mary's senior wide receiver Rodney Woodland took the opening kickoff of the third quarter 96 yards for the score to give the Eaglets a 21-15 lead.
The Warriors took the blow in stride and promptly drove down the field on their first possession of the half and tied the game back up at 21 apiece, when junior quarterback Frankie Popp found junior receiver Kevonte Martin-Manley for a 17-yard touchdown pass.
Eaglets senior kicker Keegan Dupack booted a 30-yard field goal, on his team's final possession of the third quarter to give St. Mary's a 24-21 lead.
The Warriors responded with another touchdown on another connection between Popp and Martin-Manley, this one from 14-yards out, and jumped back in front 28-24 with 11:24 to play in the game. But St. Mary's wasn't through and put together a nine-play drive to the Brother Rice goal line that concluded with a 1-yard keeper from junior quarterback Robert Bolden that gave the Eaglets the lead for good at 31-28 with 6:05 left to play.
Any chances of a Warrior comeback, similar to their fourth quarter rally last week against Novi Detroit Catholic Central, that saw them overcome a two-touchdown deficit in the game's final three minutes, ended when Eaglets' linebacker, Mike Padula recovered a Brother Rice fumble with 4:21 on the clock.
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