Lowell beat up Brother Rice with its rushing offense and its rushing defense and cruised into the Division 2 Championship Game at Ford Field. 

Lowell rushed for 347 yards in the game, the highest allowed by Brother Rice all season.  Defensively, Lowell held Rice to 21 yards rushing, fourth lowest of the year for Rice.  Austin Graham led Lowell with 221 yards on 37 carries.  Quarterback, Gabe Dean, a sophomore, had 111 yards on 26 carries.  With two players accounting for 53 carries, it shows that there wasn’t a lot of variety in the Lowell offense.  Everyone in the stands and on the field knew what was coming, but Rice couldn’t stop them.  There was a time early in the game and again early in the 3rd quarter where it looked like the Warriors had the momentum, but Lowell managed to come up with the big play at the right time.  It did feel like the game was closer than the score, but that’s little consolation for Rice fans.  Lowell clearly deserved to win the game, which turned on three or four key plays.

It took Brother Rice only two plays to score on its first possession.  A short out pass to Nate Slappey from Frankie Popp turned into a 62 yard touchdown as Slappey out-ran the defender who he eluded just over the line of scrimmage.  The extra point was missed and Rice led early 6-0.  On first down on Lowell’s next drive, Graham was hit by Jumbo Hamilton and he fumbled.  Rice’s Loran Jaddou recovered at the Lowell 29.  This was one of the turning points in the game.  Rather than capitalizing on the turnover, Rice missed four passes in a row in 16 seconds and turned it back to Lowell on downs.  Rather than opening the game with a 14-0 lead, Rice lost the momentum.  Neither team threatened on the next couple possessions before Lowell took the lead on Dean’s 6 yard run at (9:54 of the 2nd Q.  It was the first of Dean’s three touchdowns on the day and capped a 9-play 43 yard drive.  Rice was forced to punt after four plays and Lowell moved the ball downfield again, scoring on another Dean QB keeper at 6:13 of the 2nd Q.  The big play on the scoring drive was a 3rd and 13 pass from Dean to WR Derek Cornish, which covered 34 yards.  A personal foul for a horse-collar tackle on the play added 15 yards and moved the ball to the Rice 16.  Dean and Graham covered the final 16 yards on three running plays.  Lowell would make it 21-6 with just over a minute left in the first half.  After Rice went three and out and punted, Lowell moved the ball 59 yards on 9 plays.  Most of the yardage was on the ground, although Dean converted a 3rd and 3 with a 11 yard slant pass to Matt Houston.  The touchdown was scored by Graham on a 3 yard run.

It looked like the game was over at this point.  Lowell was dominating and Rice had blown a couple good scoring chances and couldn’t stop the rushing tandem of Graham and Dean.  But, Kevonte Martin-Manley returned the Lowell kick-off to the 27 yard line.  Frankie Popp hit Nate Saldivar-Garcia for 18 yards to the Rice 45.  Tyler Lendzion hit TE Tyler Weir over the middle for 36 yards.  On the third play of the drive, Lendzion hit Martin-Manley for a 19 yard touchdown.  Ledzion passed to Kyle Galli for a 2 point conversion.  The sudden scoring strike gave Rice a boost of confidence heading into halftime, trailing 21-14 and getting the ball first in the second half.

Unfortunately for Rice, it went three and out to start the half, but the defense came up big on Lowell’s first drive.  After a first down pass and a penalty, Lowell had the ball 1st and 15 on its own 13.  Graham picked up six yards on first down, but on 2nd and 3rd down, Dean was sacked trying to pass.  Both sacks were by Rice’s Justin Cherocci, with Peter Namou assisting on the second.  It forced Lowell to punt from its end zone.  The punt, fielded by Martin-Manley at mid- field was returned to the Lowell 20 yard line.  However, Rice was called for running into the kicker.  The 5 yard penalty wasn’t enough for the first down, but it gave Lowell another kick and this one ended up at mid-field.  Rice made up the lost yards as Lendzion completed two passes, including a 26 yarder to TE Joey Warner.  But the drive stalled at the Lowell 9 as Lendzion’s QB sneak on 4th and 1 was stopped by the Lowell defensive line.  The ball was inches short of the first down and a probable tying score.

This was one of the key turning points of the game.  Instead of a first down inside the ten, Lowell began a two-play scoring drive that would up the lead to 28-14.  The Rice defense, playing inspired ball in the second half held Lowell to a one-yard gain on first down, but on 2nd and 9 from the Lowell 10, Graham broke through the line and past the entire Rice defense, which were all up in the box, and raced untouched 90 yards for the score.  Rice never really recovered from this play, although they did threaten again later in the game.

On the ensuing drive,  the Warriors went three and out and punted.  Lowell took 7:26 off the clock and ran 16 plays covering 79 yards for the 35-14 lead.  Both Dean and Graham carried the ball eight times on the drive.  Rice knew what was coming, but couldn’t stop it.  The game was over, for all intents and purposes, after this drive.  Popp completed four passes on the next drive and moved the ball to the Lowell 10, but on 2nd and goal, a Popp pass was interecepted at the 3 yard line by Houston.  There was a little over four minutes left in the game and Lowell ran out the clock–with eight consecutive runs by Graham.

Rice’s two quarterbacks had a decent day with 244 passing yards on 13 of 28 and two touchdowns.  But, the Rice ground game (21 yards) was non-existent.  Take away the 90 yard TD run by Graham and had Rice made the 4th and 1 and scored, you have a close game that could have gone either way.  Had Rice clicked on one or two of their passes early in the game after recovering the Lowell fumble on Lowell’s 29 yard line and it could have been a diffferent game.  But, the would’ve, could’ve game doesn’t take away the decisive Lowell victory and doesn’t get Rice to the Championship Game.

With Lowell running 77 offensive plays (66 running plays), the Rice defense was kept pretty busy and the two leading tacklers both turned in extraordinary performances, in a losing effort.  Tim “Jumbo” Hamilton, Rice’s great  junior backer, had a school record 26 tackles.  He also forced a fumble.  Justin Cherocci,who is Michigan’s leading tackler and ranks number 6 nationally, finished with 22 tackles, two sacks and a pass break-up.  Junior Conor Hart had his best game of the year with 14 tackles and junior Levi Richards III finished with 12 tackles.  It wasn’t enough to win the game, but all except Cherocci will be back next year.

Lowell is a good team–not a great team, in my opinion.  They have two excellent players and a big and pretty good line (offense and defense).   But, I have seen much better teams this year and in other years.  But, they do get the job done with some smash-mouth football and a slick ball handling quarterback, who passes just well enough to surprise the defense and keep the ball moving.  When you consider that Dean is just a sophomore, he is sure to get even better.  My preliminary thoughts on the Division Two Championship game is that Lowell beats Inkster.  A lot will depend on how accurate Devin Gardner is with his passes, but Lowell should be able to control the game on the ground and that should give them the win.