We now head into week 3 of the football season or in this strange 2020 season the home stretch! All five of our ultra local schools won last week; Clare over Harrison to move to 2-0, outscoring opponents 90-0! Mt Pleasant is 2-0 with wins over Bay City Western and Central. Beal City 2-0 too, with wins over Evart and Leroy Pine River, the Bluejays of Shepherd bounced back in a big way with a win over Farwell at home to get to 1-1, and in 8-man action wow…Sacred Heart is 2-0 and has outscored opponents 128-0 in the first two games, that is not a typo!
Now comes week 3 and our first look at the Mt Pleasant 2020 Oiler squad. The first Oiler team without stud 2 way player Tyler Huenemann in 3 years, but Josh Schell is right there for his Senior year to follow in his footsteps, QB Ryan McIntyre got a lil seasoning last year on Varsity as a Sophomore to prepare him for this role, and the first two weeks have gone well. A week one win over Bay City Western now looks very impressive after they dispatched Southgate Anderson 55-7 in week 2. The Oilers rolled on the ground in week 2 with Mark Goenner racking up over 200 yards for the Oilers, but this week will be their biggest test, possibly of the regular season vs Midland High and Sr three year starting QB Al Money. Midland will also come into this game at 2-0, besting Saginaw Heritage and Saginaw High.
A lot of this game may come down to the opponents of Midland and Mt pleasant in the first 2 weeks. What I mean by that is…these two teams are often evenly matched with many one score games in the past, including a walk off filed goal for Midland several years ago… So whoever got wins over the toughest opponents may be most prepared for this game. It’s week 3 and probably week 4, 5, 0r 6 of practice for these teams. It should be week 6 with about 9 or 10 weeks of practice…Not even counting the lifting and conditioning these kids missed out on this summer. So with two evenly matched teams I think who got tested more in weeks one and two will be the difference in this game as I expect Coach McIntyre and Methner (who go way back) to have strong defensive game plans to stop each other. It will be that big mistake, big play, or possibly trick play that will determine the outcome of this game Friday night!
Five of the last seven Oiler Chemic games have been decided by one score or less, Midland leads the overall all-time rivalry (going back to 1950) 14-10. A odd stat side not, every year that the Oilers have bested Midland High since 2007 Mt Pleasasnt goes on to win at least one playoff game. So this game can be used as somewhat of a barometer fo how the Oilers may fair in the D3 playoffs in which they got a very tough district. Listen to the 9-26-20 Spach’s Sports Show podcast for a rundown of all of out local schools district matchup’s and join us this Friday night live from Midland High School as the Chemics host the Oilers!
Other area games this Friday & Saturday: Bridgeport @ Alma — Chip Hills @ Big Rapids– Reed City @ Central Montcalm– Farwell @ Clare– Saugatuck @ Coleman– Houghton Lake @ Evart– Shepherd @ Gladwin– Midland Bullock Creek @ Hemlock– Beal City @ Manton– Hesperia @ Morley Stanwood– Midland Dow @ Saginaw Heritage– Ithaca @ St Louis—Mt Pleasant @ Midland on 92.3 FM and my1043.net and in 8-man action Sacred Heart hosts Peck and on Saturday Breckenridge hosts St Charles
