Game Summary

 Rochester Adams vs. West Bloomfield

Sept. 28, 2006

Rob Minton

WEST BLOOMFIELD—Have you ever visited a distant relative for the first time, and find that it takes you a while to get comfortable and find your way around the house? The Rochester Adams freshmen football team seemed to have a similar feeling at the start of their first away game of the season at West Bloomfield High.

The Highlanders and their fans had been accustomed to scoring early in their previous wins, but it took about half a quarter before they hit paydirt. And while the start of the game may have been different than everyone was used to, the outcome was not – the frosh remained unbeaten with a hard-fought 26-18 win over the Lakers.

Speaking of the fans, the Highlander faithful easily outnumbered the home town fans by 2-to-1, so thanks to all who made the effort to support the team!

Thanks to a great punt return by Eric Hyde, Adams started their second possession of the game with excellent field position on the WB 37 yard line. Runs by Marc Benacquisto and Tyler Martin moved the ball to the 16. On second down and eight, Martin executed a great ball fake and ran down to the two yard line. Benacquisto capped the drive with a 2-yard TD plunge right up the middle. TJ Trouba ran in for the two-point conversion, and Adams had an 8-0 lead with 7:22 to play in the first quarter.

West Bloomfield had some very fast position players, particularly their quarterback Aaron Foster. He came close to scoring on the next possession, but Marc Benacquisto made a touchdown-saving tackle, and the quarter ended with Adams in the lead.

The vaunted Highlander running game was not at full-throttle, and the big holes that the backs were used to seeing were nonexistent. So QB Tyler Martin took to the air. Facing a 3^rd and 5 on his own 34, Martin lofted a high, arching throw to #84 Andrew Morrissey, who made the catch and tip-toed down the sideline to complete a 66-yard scoring play. The two-point try failed, but Adams had increased their lead to 14-0 with 9:54 left in the half. And that was the extent of the scoring in the half.

Adams received the kick to start the third quarter. After seeing that the Laker defense was tough up the middle, the Highlanders started to attack the corners, and found success. With a series of sweeps and pitches, they advanced the ball to the WB 25. Then QB Martin heaved a pass toward the end zone, where his favorite target, Andrew Morrissey was waiting. Morrissey outjumped the defender and –after juggling the ball three timse – finally found the handle and held on for a spectacular touchdown. The PAT failed, but now Adams had a comfortable 20-0 lead…or so they thought!

Starting on their own 48 yard line, the Lakers began to flash the speed of QB Aaron Foster. He ran around the end for 10 yards and followed that up with a 37 yard dash all the way to the Adams 1. Foster then scored on a 1-yard run, and he also converted the two-point try to make the score 20-8. And all of a sudden, the Lakers had a little spring in their step, and plenty of time, with 6:42 remaining in the third quarter.

But Adams seemed to be up to the challenge, responding with a great drive that started on their own 29 and moved to the WB 7, thanks to several nice runs by Marc Benacquisto. But on 4^th and goal from the 5, #26 was stopped cold, and the Lakers took over.

The final stanza started with the Highlander’s Danny Park recovering a Laker fumble on the WB 27. Alec Prechtel had consecutive runs of16 and 5 yards, putting the ball on the 6. Two plays later, Martin rolled right and threaded a pass between defenders and into the hands of Conor Boyle, who made a nice sliding catch in the end zone. The PAT failed, but the Highlander faithful were breathing easy with a 26-6 lead with about 10 minutes to go.

The Highlanders could not capitalize on a Laker fumble, and punted. West Bloomfield QB Foster completed a nice touch pass over the middle that netted 31 yards, down to the Adams 45. Foster then showed his speed with a 45-yard TD run. The Lakers again had life, but this time with just under seven minutes left in the game.

An onside kick attempt was recovered by Adams, but the Highlanders had to punt the ball right back to the Lakers, this time with just 4:16 left in the game. The Lakers then moved from their own 43 to the Adams 8.  A few plays later WB scored on a 7 yard pass. The PAT failed, but now the Lakers were just a touchdown and 2-point conversion from pulling even, with 1: 23 left in the game.

WB again tried an onside kick, and again Adams recovered with a chance to run out the clock. But the offense could not get a first down, and punted the ball to the WB 31 with just 21 seconds in the game. But this time the defense was up to the challenge, and fittingly the game ended on a tag-team QB sack by Chad Gierak and Thomas Roncelli. The Highlanders had their closest margin of victory yet – 26-18 -- but a win nonetheless improving to 5-0.

The next game is Oct 5 at home vs. Troy.

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