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DIVISION 7 BONUS COVERAGE: Saginaw Nouvel devastates Pewamo-Westphalia

Dan Stickradt | November 26, 2011 | Comments (2)

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BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

DETROIT — Pewamo-Westphalia was in the path of a tornado Friday morning. It came straight out of Saginaw and was simply devastating.

Saginaw Nouvel Catholic was such a F5 funnel cloud, wrecking the Pirates’ state title dreams in a flash by recording a lopsided 56-26 victory in the Division 7 football state finals at Ford Field.

The top-ranked Panthers not only captured their third state title in six years, but set multiple state finals records in the process. Nouvel Catholic was simply the wrath of God, scoring 56 points by the half. That point total is not only a state finals record for points in a half, but in a state finals game as well.

The seven first-half touchdowns is also a new record.

The Panthers led 56-12 at the half before taking out their starters on offense for the second half.

“Ford Field is a great spot for us to play because we are a team of speed, said Saginaw Nouvel coach Mike Boyd. “We love the weather elements inside. It not only complements our offense, but also our defense because we have a lot of speed on both sides of the football.”

The Panthers (13-0) scored only 1:29 into the game and had a 14-0 lead before the contest was even two minutes old. Bennett Lewis scored five first-half touchdowns, scoring on runs of 16, 12, 1, 46 and 7 yards. He finished with 200 yards rushing on 15 carries by the half.

Joe Buchalski added 50 yards rushing on five carries and was 7-for-10 passing for 196 yards and three touchdowns passes. Tyler Jacqmain added a first-quarter safety and the Panthers forced three turnovers and five sacks in the first half. Nouvel also scored on all seven of its possessions over the first 24 minutes.

Nick Hammis caught a 39-yard touchdown cpass and Mike Albosta added 22-yard scoring catch, both from the arm of Buchalski, late in the second quarter to help the Panthers build their 44-point cushion at the half.

Saginaw Nouvel is a senior-laden team that uses its superior speed to uproot opposing teams from their game plans.

“There were a lot of great things that led up to this,” said Boyd. “We had great senior leadership. When you have great senior leadership, anything can happen.”

Pewamo-Westphalia, which entered the postseason ranked sixth in D-7 and finished 13-1, had only given up 20 points only once all season, and that was a Week 2 victory over Laingsburg (42-20). No other team scored more than 14 points against the Pirates until Saginaw Nouvel touched down on the Pirates right from the opening kickoff.

P-W stopped the shutout in the second quarter when Josh Nurenberg hauled in a 56-yard scoring toss from Justin Thelen. Lane Simon also caught a 48-yard TD strike from Thelen late in the second quarter which cut the deficit down to 36-12.

Thelen scored on a 39-yard sprint and Garrett Strong added a 2-yard plunge to the Pirates’ other second-half points.

“That was a very good football team — the best we’ve seen all season,” said Pewamo-Westphalia coach Brad Weber. “They have incredible speed on that team. They got a couple of lucky bounces that really helped them early. The big deficit hurt us early on. They caught a few breaks and executed.

“I am proud of our team because we kept battling,” added Weber. “We came out in the second half and still played a good half of football. We didn’t fold.”

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