- kevin: go blue...
- kevin: go blue...
- bigD: Mrs. Portis-Easton.....
- Gloria portis-Easton: U R 2funny! U jst ke...
- bigD: I never stole your "...
- bigD: Uh...YEAH? lol....
HUSKIES WELCOME VICTORIOUS CONNELL!
Thursday Night at Memorial Stadium in Port Huron Michigan, it was a football game with intangibles we don’t see every day. A team that rarely (if ever) faces off against our Port Huron Northern Huskies – The Rochester/Stoney Creek Cougars (from the OAA or Oakland Athletic Association White Division) came to town and actually didn’t look bad. The problem for them was that for the first time in close to 10 years, the Huskies looked good. VERY GOOD! Why? Simple. Enter a new Husky Head Coach in Pat Connell, a new offensive system that he immediately installed (a more wide open, pass happy look) and even a new outlook on defense (switched from a 5-2 to a 3-4 defensive set-up). The results speak for themselves as the Huskies took down the Cougars – 23-13 showing the Port Huron football world that a new coach can sometimes make all the difference in the world. Indeed it was the first ever victory in the first ever game for a new Northern Coach who has these Husky players believing in themselves again. Here’s how Thursdays game went as I saw it (THE BIG D for CPHS CHANNEL 6 IN PORT HURON)…
The story of this game was the 17 second half points scored by the Huskies in the victory. Unfortunately for PHN, their expected starting senior QB – Matt Davis went down with injury in a pre-season scrimmage a week ago. Sadly, doctors told him he’d more then likely never play football again. GOOD LUCK MATT! Knowing they’d be without their starting QB, who would the Huskies turn too? Surely they were dead in the water? NOT SO FAST! Enter the speedy, athletic, converted WR – Alex Johns-Moore as the brand new Husky QB and in my opinion, for a first year QB making his first ever start, Alex looked fantastic. His numbers weren’t tremendous (9 for 21 for 125 passing yards) but he clearly made all the plays when he had to (also 21 for 60 yards on the ground). Johns-Moore ran for a TD and also threw a pair of them to WR – Macauley Hill. I had no idea how fast Hill was but this converted end-around runner from a season ago has become the Huskies’ number 1 wideout. Man oh man, what a difference a year and a brand new offense can make for a player like Macauley! Hill actually dropped a long fly pattern pass early that may have been 6 points but when the Huskies got away from Hill’s long fly routes and started using Hill over the middle more often, it seemed to make all the difference on a Stoney Creek team that seemed ready to defend the outside, but had problems on the shorter routes. Hill had 2 TD receptions 1:16 apart in the third quarter. Johns-Moore also ran a TD in from 16 yards out and it was at this point that I think people began to realize ALEX IS FOR REAL!
It was Hill who put the game into perspective afterwards claiming that the Huskies D “KILLED IT”. Obviously when you begin a new coaching tenure and you elect to change your offensive scheme, it won’t be successful overnight. Thus, the PHN defense is going to have to pick up their game and boy, did they ever. The strong, aggressive play of the LB’s was more then noticeable. Austin Picering, Tyler Corrigan and Kenny Sanders flat out got the job done in the new 3-4 set-up. Husky Defensive Co-ordinator – Brett Vandrew claimed that the Stoney Creek QB – Alex Jones wasn’t the QB that Northern scouted before the game. That makes it that much more impressive. It’s no big secret…this year as in most years the Huskies are a smaller team then their competition and often times must rely on their athleticism to win games. No doubt about it, that’s what happened tonight defensively. Hopefully the Huskies will bring it defensively next week as well! Thursday night The Huskies will face MAC BLUE favorites – Grosse Pointe South at Memorial Stadium yet again and THE BIG D will again be in the booth to call the game. It’s going to be a tough task which is why it was great that game 1 saw a tough Stoney Creek team. Nothing comes easy and NOTHING SHOULD.
As the final seconds of the game were ticking down, new coach, Pat Connell wore the contents of the water cooler. The Husky players didn’t exactly hide it very well on him and he probably saw it coming but who cares? As a head coach, when you win your first ever game that you coach in it really doesn’t matter how cold the water/Gatorade (or whatever it was) feels or even how cold it is outside when you get drenched. For Coach Connell, it had to feel good! This was a different Husky team. They had a different swagger. There seemed to be a different flow to the game that I haven’t seen out of this team in years. Say goodbye to the boring, same old option veer system and enter the run and gun, baby!
Without a doubt there’s a new found faith in Port Huron Northern now as a football team that, in my opinion has been 10 years in the making. Under new Head Coach, Pat Connell, the Huskies truly are HUSKY. On the game and the victory, Coach Connell simply claimed, “I feel like I’m on hollow ground.” That’s ground that the Huskies have seldom been on this last decade, but moving forward under the tutelage of Coach Connell, indeed, skies the limit. Congratulations to both the Huskies and Coach Connell on a turn the corner game that showed the Port Huron faithful that the Huskies are again a force to be reckoned with in the MAC BLUE!
NOTE: Pictures in the above article are property of the Port Huron Times Herald. From top to bottom … The Huskies sideline during Thursdays game, QB – Alex Johns-Moore, Darien Haeck making a tackle, WR – Tyler Smith catching a deep one and new Husky Head Coach – Pat Connell.
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