Well its another week of 2 games on the docket! Beal City hosts McBain on Friday night and in a special edition of “Saturday Night Lights” the Mt Pleasant Oilers host Midland Dow! Both of these games have monster implications going ahead for conference titles and playoff positioning. First a recap of where our five ultra-local schools are at in the season…Beal City and Clare both remain unbeaten with big wins last week and are now 4-0. Mt Pleasant and Sacerd Heart Academy are both 3-1 on the year. The Shepehrd Bluejays racked up some yard, but fell to Harrison on the road to fall to 1-2, now back to our games coming up!
Beal City vs McBain…No matter what the sport it is often the game to decide conference crowns in the Highland Conference, and its no different for this years football season. Whoever wins this takes hoe the conference crown in this shortened season as both teams play our of conference next week. However, maybe even more important are the playoff points up for grabs. With all schools making the MHSAA playoffs this year and districts being seeded, there is a chance for several home playoff games. Whether Beal or McBain wins their final 2 weeks would almost ensure homefield advantage for a minimum of two rounds. Add all that to playing against your biggest rival and Friday night has all the makings of a classic game! Beal has lost three straight games to McBain their worst losing streak vs their rival since 97-02.
Saturday’s game is almost a mirror image of Fridays games except the schools are much larger. Two rivals playing each other that often have big conference and playoff implications. Except there are a few wrinkles to this game that are different than any other year. Without going into things…This game was moved to Saturday to ensure that all players take the field for the Chargers. Shout out to AD Jim Conway for putting the kids first as he always does. Mt Pleasant despite their loss to Midland is in great shape to have the #1 or #2 seed in their district, which features the likes of Muskegon and Cedar Springs. Both teams may not be what they were last year, however powerhouses they still are. So, possibly having those games at Community Memorial Stadium is a massive deal and the Oilers can take on more step in the right direction with a win vs Dow. Dow comes into this game at 4-0 so it will be a massive challenge for the Oilers who fell late last year vs Dow as the backup QB took the Chargers down the field for the game winning drive. I would have expected the young Studebaker to be on his way to taking over at QB, but this year the Charger offense is all about Jack Backus who leads the team in rushing and passing from his QB position. Buuuut the Sophomore QB will have his toughest tests the final two weeks of the season. After beating up on Bay City Central, Western, Saginaw High, and Heritage the tests become very tough against Mt Pleasant and Midland High! He will definitely see more pressure than he has in the first four weeks vs Josh Schell and Mt Pleasant!
Tune in Friday and Saturday at 6:45 or so for the pregame show leading to kickoff!!
Here is the full list of games in the Mid Michigan area this weekend: Bay City John Glenn @ Alma– McBain @ Beal City– Gladwin @ Beaverton– Burton Bendle @ Breckenridge– Harrison @ Clare– Roscommon @ Evart– Big Rapids @ Howard City Tri County– Flint Carman Ainsworth @ Midland– Standish Sterling @ Midland Bullock Creek– Midland Dow @ Mt Pleasant– Remus Chip Hills @ Newaygo– Saginaw Mich Lutheran Seminary @ St Louis– Ithaca wins via forfeit over Saginaw Valley Lutheran– Farwell @ Sanford Meridian– Pinconning @ Shepherd– in 8 man action Sacred Heart Academy is at Ashley!
