NO ROSES FOR ROSEVILLE!

Friday night was a game of momentums and the Big Reds capitalized on the biggest momentum swing of them all. Going into the locker room at halftime, the Big Reds found themselves in a 13-13 tie with the visiting Roseville Panthers, who at that point hadn’t even won a game yet. Let me just say though that this Roseville team sure didn’t play the first half like an 0-5 team and the scoreboard certainly emphasized that fact. Again, it was the 3rd quarter where the Big Reds took over the game and absolutely blew the Panthers away in one big swoop. The Big Reds were led yet again by Chris Tatti who ran for 137 yards, 2 TD’s and he also kicked a 32 yard field goal and 4 extra points. Who the hell can contend with a player like that? Every single game he could be labeled the #1 star. It gets boring after awhile to keep naming him the top player day in and day out but what he means to this Big Red team can’t be explained on all levels. That being said, Tatti limped off the field midway through the 4th quarter and everyone held their breath. Nothing more was heard about the injury and many people are still crossing their fingers on that one. Tatti can’t win games by himself though and without a doubt this was a great team victory for Port Huron.

The Big Reds jumped out to a 10-0 lead (a 3 yard Steve Sawyer TD reception, a Tatti 2 point conversion run and a Jon Mathews safety) and did exactly what I said they had to do – Get a big lead early and then grind it out with Tatti throughout the 2nd half. It didn’t go that way though as the Panthers went on a big 13-3 run of their own to close out the half. You talk about big WR’s. How about Roseville’s Dominique Pointer? How about 6 foot 4, 190 plus? Pointer has the ability to dominate a football game and the Big Reds certainly had trouble defending the big guy. Pointer’s 30 yard TD reception that tied the football game was the last bit of scoring before halftime leaving the Big Reds normally stingy pass defense puzzled. I said it many times on the broadcast, Big Reds #1 CB – Michael Johnson hardly ever gets beat but when you give up 3 inches of height and size it’s a battle you just aren’t going to win. And for the most part, he didn’t. As mentioned, the 3rd quarter absolutely belonged to Port Huron. They came out on fire right from the first minute. Tatti demonstrated his usual magic with 70 yard and 23 yard TD scampers and the 3rd quarter also had the key play of the game in it as Justin Kindle returned a 25 yard interception for a TD. In Charles Woodson-like fashion, Kindle jumped up, in front of a Roseville WR, brought the ball down and sprinted to the end zone. It was nice to see Kindle make such a great play but it just shows you the kind of depth this team has when players who aren’t under the radar can certainly step up and play like it. Both teams exchanged TD’s in the 4th but at that point PH had their back-up players in and that was that.

Again, this was not an 0-5 football team that faced PH tonight. They played a hungry first half particularly defensively where they had problems a season ago giving up an average of over 30 points a game. They still allowed that to the Big Reds but if they would have played in the 2nd half like they did in the first that stat certainly would have gone down. For two weeks in a row the Big Reds far and away outrushed their opponents. Tonight was no different as Tatti and Co. had 217 total yards on 36 carries to Roseville’s 52 yards on 29 touches.  Big Red QB - Jordan Galanos was 11 for 24 for 217 passing yards (81 rushing yards also) and he threw an interception. The Big Reds came out thinking they could throw the deep ball on Roseville but all night long the Panther defensive backs played a great game forcing the PH ground game to beat them. Unfortunately for Roseville, that’s exactly what happened but they clearly took the deep ball away from PH all game long. Steve Sawyer was the big Port Huron WR yet again with a 4 catch night for 78 yards. Roseville’s Pointer (who they should have clearly went to more often in this game) was 5 for 83.

The Big Reds now improve to an excellent 5-1 overall mark and 3-0 in the Mac Blue Division. I said it on the broadcast before the game even started that this Big Red team is NOT a Mac Blue team and in two years they should clearly move up to the Mac White. It’s getting to the point where teams are getting dominated in Memorial Stadium and although that is ultimately satisfying for us, the fans of the Big Reds, poor Roseville (now 0-6 overall) limped away last night after getting absolutely smoked in the end. More and more teams are beginning to get that feeling coming into PH. According to Big Red Head Coach Ryan Mullins, “The defense came up big in the second half. Coach (Dave) Tatti made good adjustments and our offense came to life. BOY, DID IT EVER! Congratulations to the Big Reds and unless a miracle happens, a Round 1 playoff home game is on our doorstep.

Pictures in this article are property of the Port Huron Times Herald. From top to bottom, Port Huron High Big Reds CB - Justin Kindle, Big Red RB - Chris Tatti and Big Red Head Coach - Ryan Mullins.

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