Brother Rice avenged its first round playoff loss from a year ago, handing top-ranked Farmington Hills Harrison its first loss since 2009. The Warriors won the District Championship game, 30-7. I was a part of the loss last year and after you read my first blog I'm sure most of you understand my hardships.
One promise that all the juniors from last year left to us seniors that graduated was that they would beat Harrison next year, and now that it has happened I am speechless. The best part about Brother Rice football is the relationships that you develop after years of football together with each other.
To open up the scoreboard, sophomore running back Brian Walker ran 9 yards for the score six minutes into the first quarter. But on the other side the Harrison Hawks had a tough night without captain quarterback, Jake Vento due to an Achilles injury. The Hawks offense stalled without him because he was a leader for them throughout their whole 23-game win streak.
Mario Ojemudia's return for the final 24 minutes proved unceremonious. The standout defensive lineman was suspended for the first half after a picture of him in pads from a July Nike camp in Oregon was turned into the MHSAA. I have never heard of a suspension for only a half of a football game, but I guess it was a necessary punishment. I feel like players should be able to wear pads throughout summer workouts because they are going full speed in those workouts either way so pads would be there for protection.
Rice opened the second half with a kick return of over 80 yards. Devin Church made it 17-0 with a touchdown on the ensuing 10-yard drive. Walker connected on his second touchdown run of the game with 2:06 left in the third quarter to put Al Fracassa's team ahead 24-0.
Harrison found the end zone with 10:14 left in the game, but the Warriors answered on their next drive, with Devin Church scoring his second TD of the game at the 5:08 mark of the fourth quarter. The two coaches were not the best of friends because of recent things that happened in their coaching careers. Coach Harrington of Harrison verbally attacked Al Fracassa of Brother Rice back in 2006 after Rice beat them in the payoffs. I graduated last year as an alum of Brother Rice and a football player under the legendary coach Al Fracassa and I remember this story that he told us of Coach Harrington.
The Brother Rice Warriors still have a long road ahead of them and are three games away from becoming the Michigan High School Athletics Division II State Champions, which has not been done since 2006, which my brother was a part of.
At yesterday’s game I reencountered with many legendary alumni from Brother Rice on the sidelines. I saw Charlie Gantt, who played for the Michigan State Spartans and signed by the
Kansas City Chiefs and I also saw Mike Lodish, who played many years in the NFL and also is in the record book for playing in the most super bowl games ever.
The Warriors (7-4) advance to play Southfield next week. Their season ended in 2010 at the hands of Harrison, when the Hawks beat them on their way to the Division 2 State Title.
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