HUSKY D DESERVES AN “A”

Posted by bigD | August 28, 2009 .

I’ve been down and out for so long I almost forgot I had this page. HA…ALMOST. With more time on my hands nowadays it’s time to start the madness again. Michigan – High School Football began on Thursday Night and as always, so did my play-by-play duties for Port Huron’s CPHS – Channel 6. Indeed the Big D was back in the saddle again, just like this page. Without further adieu, here is what happened Thursday Night in what was a close, low scoring affair from Port Huron’s Memorial Stadium…

There was a whole lot of good news for the Port Huron Northern Huskies on this night. Unfortunately there was also a ton of bad. So which do you want first? Alright, the bad news is that the Husky offense had only 141 total yards for the entire football game and in order for this team to have a winning season they’ve got to improve in this area BY A TON as the season continues. The good news is…WHO CARES, BIG D? A WIN IS A WIN and PHN won the game 14-7 over a visiting St. Clair Saints team that walked away very frustrated in the end. Congratulations are in order for Port Huron Northern’s Defense which almost COMPLETELY shut the door on the Saints in giving up just 87 total yards for the football game (just 23 at halftime). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that any total offensive numbers under triple digits is an excellent total for a defense but then again it didn’t exactly take Barry Sanders to beat the Saints on this night. Instead it basically took 3 big plays.

The first big play came on the opening kickoff return of the 2nd half as Northern’s Alex John’s-Moore took a reverse handoff from Husky teammate, Tyler Smith and ran it all the way to the Saint 36-yard line. Just like that the Huskies were in business and it couldn’t have come at a better time. This was the one big play that everyone was expecting that would blow the game wide open and begin the scoring, which, needless to say didn’t exist in the first half (0-0 at halftime). The return led to the first score of the game as 4 plays later, Husky - Darien Haeck had a 20 yard TD scamper to put PHN on the board - 7-0. The second big play was a Matt Davis interception, setting up a 1 yd rushing TD for Kenny Sanders on the first play of the 4th quarter and that was all the Huskies needed for scoring on this night. Considering how unsure of themselves and turnover happy that the PHN offense looked it’s a good thing 14 points was indeed all they needed. Northern fumbled the ball 3 times but each time, the Saints couldn’t capitalize on the turnovers and put points on the board. Instead, the Husky D continued to step up and bail the pathetic offense out time after time after time in this one. In fact, I gave both the CPHS – Channel 6 offensive and defensive players of the game to the entire PHN defensive unit because without them it’s clear the Huskies would be 0-1 instead of 1-0.

The third big play came late in the 4th quarter to decide everything and was the 2nd of Northern’s 2 interceptions. Indeed, the 2nd pick saved the game as Husky – QB, Punter and even DB, Mark Perez stepped in front of a poorly thrown ball by Saints QB – Joel Seddon at the 3 minute mark and that was all she wrote. As mentioned, the offensive numbers in this game would be totally shocking to the outside observer but to longtime Husky fans, sadly it has become the trend at Northern where an unsuccessful option style offense continues to dominate the play-calling but certainly not the scoreboard. PHN had just 141 total yards in the game (just 45 at halftime) and 126 of the 141 yards came on the ground. The lone Saint TD came on a 21 yard Joel Seddon pass to Matt Stone. Both offenses ran the same boring option look and I found myself repeating the same boring play-by-play calls for the same boring plays all game long for both teams. I guess as long as you win, who cares and hats off to the Huskies because they were victorious.

Husky Head Coach, Casey Kuscera was very pleased on the play of his winning D. “We wanted to talk about getting Husky defense back and flying around to the football,” Coach K claimed. In my opinion, the standout player defensively was Husky – Tyler Corrigan (2 and ½ sacks) who claimed after the game that his Huskies had a defensive game plan to just “Hit em hard and hit em often.” Boy, did they ever and Corrigan was the leader of the hard hitting show. There were a number of times that Corrigan also came on the blitz in perfectly timing Seddon’s snap count. At times it seemed like Corrigan was in the offensive backfield before Seddon could even blink (I don’t even think he did). The biggest question that I have after calling this game is as bad as the Husky offense was… WHERE ON EARTH WAS THE ST. CLAIR OFFENSE? Towards the end of the game when the Saints needed to move the ball the most, they did. The problem is if it was that easy in the second half to open up the flood gates a little with Seddon then why wasn’t this done in the first half for St. Clair? They were clearly moving the ball better and in my opinion, this team, offense and QB are held back because of the option system that they play. Hmmm, sounds familiar doesn’t it, PHN?

Saints’ Interim Head Coach – Jim Venia filled in for regular Head Coach – Bill Nesbitt who suffered a stroke on Aug. 16th yet was apparently up in the booth at Memorial Stadium still calling plays and into the game proving that nothing can keep a good high school football coach down. Certainly, our best goes out to Nesbitt who makes his coaching season debut Sept. 18th at the St. Clair opener. GO GET EM!!!

As much as there are a lot of good things the Huskies can take away from this one, there are also a lot of things they have to work on, particularly holding onto the football and not turning the ball over so many times. Let’s face it, when better teams come into Memorial Stadium this season, dinking around like that will do nothing but lose football games and as good as this Husky D may be after one night, the fact is they can’t stop teams forever and the opposition will only get better. The main thing that I, THE BIG D look at though when it comes to this game is this… Two years ago this Husky team was 1-8. Last year they were 4-5 and by all means could have been 6-3. Any win is a good win when you’re trying to improve on nothing and let’s face it folks, for now the Port Huron Northern Huskies are an improved football team record wise and let’s be happy about it. At this point, 1-0 is truly all that matters. OH WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN, BIG D? Nah, not tonight. There were Huskies on the prowl and indeed they got NASTY for Port Huron Northern!!!

NOTE: All pictures in this article were taken by the Port Huron Times Herald. In order from top to bottom, left to right and front to back … Huskies, Otis Freeman, Alex Johns-Moore and Kenny Sanders, Mark Perez, Tyler Corrigan tackling Saints QB Joel Seddon, Seddon again and Kenny Sanders again.

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HUSKY D DESERVES AN “A”

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