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11/29/2009--Football
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DETROIT-- Quarterback Robert Bolden gets a lot of the headlines for Orchard Lake St. Mary's, and rightfully so. But senior Gary Hunter has a knack for making big plays at the right time.
Against DeWitt in the Division 3 semifinals, the 5-foot-8 cornerback had an interception for a touchdown that helped break the game open.
In the finals at Ford Field Saturday, against an East Grand Rapids team that beat St. Mary's in the first game of the year, Hunter seemingly did everything to try to prevent East Grand Rapids from winning its fourth straight state title.
He had a long reception for 49 yards, which led to St. Mary's first touchdown. Then, at the end of the first half, Hunter picked up a bouncing kickoff at the 13 and ran it back to his 2-yard line. But then he reversed field and took it all the way to East Grand Rapids' 24, setting up a potential score. It looked chaotic, but Hunter felt no pressure.
"I did it by instinct; the play was up the middle," he said. "But they squibbed it to me, trying to keep it away from me, and I took it to the outside."
Coaches often refer to third down as the money down. If that's the case, Hunter can be considered a money player. He came up big on both sides of the ball.
At the 31, and with East Grand Rapids' Ryan Elble rolling out of the pocket, looking for Josh Drummond, Hunter came out of nowhere -- from 15 yards across the field -- to intercept a pass that would have been a touchdown.
"I read the quarterback's eyes, he was looking at that receiver the whole time," Hunter said. "I knew I was going to make it."
"He's a great football player," St. Mary's coach George Porritt said. "He played his rear end off today. Our defense played well all year."
On a third-and-8, and his team trailing 17-14, he made a diving catch that kept the drive alive. It resulted in St. Mary's taking a 21-17 lead. On East Grand Rapids' next possession, he broke up a third-down pass that he thought sealed the game.
After East Grand Rapids took a 24-21 lead with over a minute left, Hunter just knew he would have a chance to touch the ball, to make another big play. If his broken right wrist wasn't going to stop him, nothing would.
"Whenever I get an opportunity to touch the ball, I try to score every time," he said.
Sadly for Hunter, he never got the chance. A lost fumble ended the last drive for St. Mary's. Hunter, while fiddling with the soft cast on his broken wrist, struggled with his feelings.
"It's so horrible you can't put into words," he said. "In the end we didn't stop them. There was a couple of plays I could've made."
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