MLS Football vs Nouvel Catholic Central (August 23 & 24, 2017)

Football season has begun!

The Michigan Lutheran Seminary Cardinals began their season against the Panthers of Nouvel Catholic Central of Saginaw.  The JV played at Nouvel on Wednesday, and the Varsity hosted Nouvel on Thursday.

The JV enjoyed some success against Nouvel, as the sophomores showed great improvement from last year.  That first year of experience took hold for them.  Philip had a good game, playing mainly on the defensive line.  He put good pressure on the QB and had a few tackles.

MLS ended up getting the win, 21-6.  Photos are here.

A light sabre battle raged during the game.

A tradition continues.  Philip was the holder for the PAT.

The varsity took the field on Thursday, but did not have the same success as the JV.  I think we were outweighed on the line by 20 pounds or more per player.  It showed as Nouvel was able to run the ball pretty effectively.  Nouvel went into halftime with a 14-0 lead

MLS came out much more spirited in the 2nd half.  The defense tightened up, and the offense switched to a more pass-focused offense which seemed to open up the field more and move the ball better.  MLS even had an interception return for a TD to finally get on the scoreboard, but it was called back on account of a penalty.  MLS finally did notch a TD in the 4th quarter, making it 14-7 with 9:13 left to go.

Unfortunately, that's when the wheels fell off.  MLS had given up a number of turnovers in the game, and Nouvel capitalized on all of them in the 4th quarter.  The score almost instantly jumped to 34-7.  MLS added a TD late in the game, bringing the final score to 34-14.  Caleb almost hauled in the TD pass on what would have been a great catch in the corner.  Although he stretched out for it, he did not quite pull it down.  Caleb was thrown to quite a few times and did have a number of catches.  He had a good night at WR.

Nouvel proved to be a quality opponent, and I think the final score showed the separation between the two teams on Thursday night.

An article from M-Live can be found here, which includes quite a few photos of the game.  You can also see some highlights on WNEM Friday Night Lights here.  The MLS-Nouvel highlights begin at the 4:10 mark.

Here are some of my photos.

Caleb's first reception of the season.

Pass interference, and he still almost pulled this one in.

This was almost a TD late in the game.  MLS scored shortly after this.