MLS Football vs. Nouvel (Playoff edition)

On Friday, November 4, the Michigan Lutheran Seminary Cardinals hosted the Panthers from Nouvel on the west side of Saginaw for a cross-town show down, and for the District Championship for D8 in Michigan State Playoffs.

Nouvel has a long history of state championships in numerous sports, and they had hoped to add to that.  They came in confident, even posting a banner on their sidelines that read, "Your School, Your Field, Our Game."  They were 2/3 right.

Casey Williams took the opening kickoff on a reverse and ran 80 yards for a TD just seconds into the game.  I wish we had seen that, but delays in from the Novi/Livonia area meant that we did not even get to MLS until the 2nd quarter.  By the time we had parked the car and got into the game, MLS was up 14-6.  That was the score at the end of the half, too.

The MLS defense was solid in the 2nd half.  Although Nouvel began a drive starting at their own 1/2 yard line and drove most of the way down the field, they did not manage to get it into the end zone.  Nouvel had another chance for a momentum swing when MLS tried to get a 4th and 1 near midfield but fell short.  But the defense was stiff again and Nouvel could not advance the ball.

On the other hand, MLS managed to get the ball in the end zone 3 more times, completing a 34-6 victory.  TD's were had by Casey Williams (2), Cade Kestner (2), and Micah Nuemann.  St. Peter's alum, Damon Pearce, led all tacklers with 10.  All the more impressive, Damon played after his grandmother had died in the early morning hours that very day.

The MLS Cardinals will also be hosting the Regional Championship next Friday night.  We still wait to hear who our opponent is.

You can read an article from M-Live here.
You can watch highlights from WNEM's Friday Night Lights here.  The MLS segment begins near the 2:10 mark.
More TV highlights can be seen here.

Posting photos online from during the game is prohibited by the MHSAA.  You have to come to my house to see some of those.  Here are some photos from after the game.

The junior class on the MLS football team.