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Corunna holds on to beat Owosso
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Friday, August 29, 2008 9:49 AM EDT
CORUNNA - Protecting a 14-13 lead with 10:51 left in the game, Corunna closed the deal with its ball-control, power running game.
A 15-play, 66-yard march was the knockout blow as the Cavaliers beat visiting Owosso 21-13 Thursday in season-opening action at Nick Annese Field.
Corunna possessed the ball nearly the entire fourth quarter. Senior running back Luke Gilmore's 2-yard scoring run on third-and-goal with 2:09 left capped the drive. Sage Smalley's extra-point kick completed the scoring.
Owosso, needing a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to forge a tie, could not score on its final chance in the waning minutes. Trojans quarterback Ben Young rushed for a first down to the Cavaliers 49 with 1:30 left. But four straight incompletions sealed the Corunna victory.
Corunna won the war in the trenches, outrushing Owosso 212-80.
“I owe it to (assistant coaches) John Long and Jason Beldyga,” said Corunna head coach Mike Sullivan. “They've really put a lot of time in and got this offensive line squared away.”
Long, the brother of former University of Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long, the No. 1 overall draft pick of the Miami Dolphins, and Beldyga liked what they saw in the fourth quarter, said Sullivan.
“I tell you what, for a minute there, I thought we had Jake Long out there,” said Sullivan. “Adam Dingens (left tackle) and Vinnie Crego (left guard) did a great job on the offensive line, really knocking some people off the ball.”
Sophomore tailback Ryan Butcher, playing his first varsity game, carried the ball 11 times on Corunna's final scoring drive. The 5-foot-7, 161-pounder rushed for 110 yards on 21 carries. Butcher and Tristan Grabowski each had first-half scoring runs for the Cavaliers.
“Everybody put their heart into it,” said Butcher. “The line was doing great.”
Sullivan said Butcher's hard-nosed running came in handy.
“He's a square-to-the-line-of-scrimmage, hard-nosed runner and we have a couple of other kids who have more quickness and speed at the edge but he puts his shoulder down,” said Sullivan
Owosso head coach Mark Merlo said his team fought hard and showed great character in coming back from a 14-0 deficit to score 13 straight points in the second period. However, turnovers and other mistakes proved costly.
“We showed great resilience and we played hard and that's all I can ask them to do,” said Merlo of his players. “We made some mistakes and they capitalized on those mistakes.”
Owosso finished 1-8 last season in Merlo's first year.
Corunna was guilty of nearly as many mistakes as Owosso. In fact, the Cavaliers fumbled the opening kickoff.
The Trojans, with the ball at the Corunna 29, were stopped on downs, however.
Crego's fumble recovery at the Trojan 10 set up Corunna's first score of the season. Grabowski ran 9 yards on the next play to the 1. And, after a penalty, Grabowski scored on a 5-yard run with 1:22 left in the first period. The PAT was blocked.
Shane Cantu's fumble recovery at the Trojan 46 set up another Cavaliers touchdown.
Gilmore broke loose for a 21-yard scamper and it set up Butcher's 11-yard TD run with 9:58 left in the half. Butcher's 2-point run made it 14-0 Corunna.
Trojan Brandon Dotson's kickoff return to the Cavalier 47 seemed to jump-start Owosso.
Four plays later Logan Bond broke loose for a 20-yard run around left end. Bond, a junior back, scored untouched. D.J. Shuster's extra point made it 14-7.
The Trojans closed the gap to 14-13 less than 4 minutes later.
Ross Bond, the Trojans' senior defensive back, recovered a fumble at the Owosso 48.
It set up a 30-yard scoring pass from Ben Young to Bond with 6:08 on the clock. However, after a bad snap on the extra point, the conversion run was stopped short.
Young completed 3 of 10 passes for 39 yards. Young also was the leading Trojans rusher with 48 yards on 14 carries.
“We knew we had to step up big against their running game,” said Corunna defensive back Max Ellenberg. “We knew they would go for some big plays but our secondary did a good job.”
Corunna's Adkins completed 5 of 9 passes for 87 yards. Smalley had four receptions for 75 yards for Corunna.
“I was nervous in the beginning and my line stepped up for me,” said Adkins, a junior signal-caller. “And if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have won this game.”
Gilmore, Blake Davis and Shane Cantu all logged eight tackles for the Cavaliers. Crego had six tackles and two fumble recoveries.
Nick Butcher had eight tackles for Owosso.
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cavsfan wrote on Sep 3, 2008 7:51 AM: