MLS Football vs. Hemlock

On Wednesday, August 31, the Michigan Lutheran Seminary JV Cardinals travelled west down M-46 to face the Huskies of Hemlock.  It proved to be a pretty even battle, although MLS squandered some opportunities deep in Huskies' territory.  Twice MLS had the ball inside the 5 yard line, and neither time did they cross the goal line.  In fact, once they moved backwards significnatly.

MLS was down 13-7 at half time, but came out in the 2nd half and played solid enough defnese that Hemlock was held scoreless.  Meanwhile, MLS put one in the end zone (the PAT was blocked) and then later kicked a field goal wihch proved to be the winning margin.  The MLS defense was forced to make a stand deep in their own territory at the end of the 4th quarter to seal the win.  (Philip did not play this game partly due to tweaking his back in practice last week.)  Final score was 16-13, giving the JV Cardinals their first win of the season.

On Thursday, the calendar turned to September and the MLS Cardinals played host to Hemlock for the varsity match up.  These two teams had not played each other for years, but a shuffling of the Tri-Valley Conference put Hemlock in MLS' division.

I got to be part of the chain gang which is nice to be that close to the action, but makes it impossible for me to take photos of the game.  Photos below are courtesy of my lovely wife, Laura.  You can see me in action in the photos below.  If I look stern, it is because we take our chain gang seriously in Saginaw.  We almost had a measurement once!  (Can the chain gang request one?)

Hemlock's game plan was simple: Stop Casey Williams.  They had some success at that (Casey still had a long TD run and a few other long runs).  But MLS spread the ball around, including two nice TD catches by senior Ben Burger.  Caleb also had one catch.

MLS took a 21-12 lead into the locker room at halftime.  They opened the second half with a TD drive, making the second half a little more comfortable.  Hemlock, however, grabbed some momentum and started to assert themselves.  They had a TD drive which gave them a lot of confidence and made MLS look pretty tired.  A 2-point conversion made the score 27-20.  MLS managed to regain some momentum and added a TD on a run late in the 4th quarter by QB, Adam Arrowsmith.  Cardinals win, 33-20.

UPDATE:  You can find MLS covered on WNEM, channel 5's Friday Night Lights here.  MLS' coverage begins about the 2:29 mark.

Photos of the varsity game below.

There I am with Dave Broekhuizen.  I think the orange vest is slimming.
Then again, maybe more stripes would help, too.

Caleb (right) blocking for Casey Williams.

Caleb with his roommate, Tres Leasure.

Peter reviews the game with Caleb.

Caleb and Adam Arrowsmith.