You are here: Home » Featured Articles » FOOTBALL: Ortonville Brandon rallies back to clinch first FML title

FOOTBALL: Ortonville Brandon rallies back to clinch first FML title

Dan Stickradt | October 19, 2018 | Comments (0)

BY DAN STICKRADT

CORRESPONDENT

Twitter: @LocalSportsFans

ORTONVILLE — One thing Brad Zube noticed when he took over the Ortonville Brandon football program three years ago was a lack of league championships.

A long drought ended for the Blackhawks Friday night.

Brandon captured its first-ever Flint Metro League championship since joining the league in 2005-06 and first league title overall since winning the OAA Division IV in 2001 with a 34-27, come-from-behind victory over visiting Swartz Creek.

Brandon (8-1, 7-1) entered the game in a three-way tie with Swartz Creek and Flushing in the FML and in a must-win situation. Flushing (7-2, 7-1) defeated Flint Kearsley 34-7 to grab a title share with Brandon, while Swartz Creek (6-3, 6-2) finished in third in the nine-school FML.

“This is what it’s all about. We haven’t won very many of these,” admitted Zube. “We came in here and finished 8-1 our first year, but finished second in the league. Last year we won a playoff game and this year we won the league. We share it with Flushing, but I’m okay with that. Winning the league was one of our goals this season.”

Brandon chalked up 492 yards of offense and scored two touchdowns in the final 9:25 after trailing 27-20, including the game-winner with only seven seconds left to prevail.

The Blackhawks regained the lead on senior Mike Nicaj’s 2-yard run with seven seconds left — his 23rd touchdown run of the season — and Brandon didn’t allow Swartz Creek to threaten on its final two plays from scrimmage.

“It takes time,” said Nicaj’s of Brandon’s league title quest. “We were building for this and we were able to do it this year.”

Nicaj finished the night with 19 carries for 175 yards to lead a balanced Blackhawks attack on the ground. Senior Jacob Irwin added 77 yards on 26 rushes and junior Brendan McClusky chipped in with 67 yards on eight touches for Brandon. Senior Matthew Harrison finished 5-for-12 passing for 155 yards for the Blackhawks.

“Ever since we were sophomores, we talked about winning the league,” smiled Irwin. “We put everything into it all summer and in every practice and we were able to win it this year. I think we owe it to our coaches. I think Coach Zube came in here and changed our community, helped change our program around. It’s a different atmosphere here.”

Tied at 20-20, Swartz Creek’s John Pavelchik recovered the loose ball on the 50. On the next play, senior Max Murphy sprinted 50 yards for the score to put the Dragons up 27-20 with 2:21 left in the third quarter.

Murphy finished with 190 yards on 20 carries and also scored on runs of 63, 26 and 50 yards in the third quarter.

Two drives later, Brandon put together a long nine-play, 97-yard drive capped by Harrison’s 1-yard plunge with 9:25 left to tie it at 27-27.

A botched Swartz Creek snap was recovered by Brandon senior Matthew Hill on the Dragons’ 18 with 40 seconds to play. Nicaj’s heroics came two plays later with sweep to the left, sneaking through the line and into the end zone to put him over the 1,000 yards mark for the season.

Swartz Creek also had a 61-yard score called back on a holding call with 7:40 left in the second quarter. The Dragons could not convert on four drives in the fourth quarter.

coming out of the break, Brandon took a 14-7 advantage on Nicaj’s 11-yard run down the left sideline, only to see Swartz Creek answer with Murphy’s 63-yard sprint. The extra point failed.

Brandon took a 20-13 lead on Harrison’s 84-yard catch-and-run to senior Justin Bowman. Murphy tied it up with his 26-yard scamper with 4:25 left in the third quarter.

“I couldn’t be happier right now. These guys have put in the work since June to be league champs,” praised Zube. “We’re a little banged up, we had some guys limp off the field tonight and we got a little dinged up in practice. But they played through the pain, they played through the rain, the wind and against a worthy opponent to accomplish our goal of winning the league.”

The two teams entered halftime in a 7-7 deadlock, with Swartz Creek scoring on senior Michael Smith’s 66-yard dash and Brandon on Harrison’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Nicaj.

Swartz Creek had 322 yards of offense, all on the ground.

Category: Featured Articles, Football, High School, High School (M-Z), Most Recently Updated Stories, NOS reference, Ortonville Brandon, Prep Wraps, Sport, Top Stories, Uncategorized