SOUTHFIELD — It’s a week-to-week process.
That was coach Aaron Marshall’s assessment after Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice took a 35-7 decision last Friday evening over University of Detroit Jesuit in a contest played at Lawrence Tech University.
“It was a nice difference,” he said, from a week earlier when the Warriors dropped a 14-10 season opener to Macomb Dakota. “We looked at the film, of course. We made some mistakes that we definitely had to clean up. And I think we cleaned them up today. Defense was solid and that gives offense a chance, right, to have some success.”
On the opposing sideline, cleaning up was on U of D Jesuit’s agenda, too: all the debris from the 42-7 shellacking Birmingham Groves administered a week earlier.
From the opening kickoff, the Cubs efficiently moved the line of scrimmage deep into Rice’s territory. Freshman quarterback Malcomb Ross scrambled for 23 yards, sophomore Carter Murawa ran for 15 yards and caught a 10-yard pass from Ross.
After a 15-yard personal foul was walked off against Rice, the Cubs found themselves 18 yards from the end zone. That’s where their hopes to draw first blood ended on sophomore Andrew Withjelm’s fourth-down 24-yard field goal attempt sailing far left of the uprights.
Only a minute and 50 seconds remained in the first quarter when Brother Rice had its first opportunity to go on offense. They seized the opportunity, scoring three touchdowns in eight minutes for a 21-0 halftime lead.
Sophomore Deondre Hill scored on a pair of 6-yard bursts into the end zone and junior quarterback Sam Eyde connected with Jacob Johnson for a 13-yard touchdown pass.
Eyde threw two more touchdown passes in the second half, a 36-yard play down the sideline to senior wide receiver Alex Wall and 22 yards to Johnson. Junior Kalin Koza accounted for five extra points.
U of D Jesuit scored its touchdown in the third quarter, a 2-yard toss over the middle from freshman quarterback Austin Mitchell to freshman Jay Montgomery to conclude a 12-play, 80-yard drive.
Hill, at 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, powered the Brother Rice offense, amassing 142 yards in 17 carries, most of them smashmouth variety between the tackles.
“He’s our bread and butter in that run game, right?” Marshall said. “He runs downhill; he keeps his pads low. And he keeps those feet moving, man. So, he's really tough to bring down. And he's just gonna get better.”
“Yeah, I think we started out kind of good,” the Cubs' second-year head coach, Kevin Glass, said, “but with us, we just got to be more consistent. We sporadically make plays here and there, and then we'll go the wrong way on the play or make a wrong read.”
He continued: “We got a really, really young team, right? So our biggest thing is just to try to make them be more consistent, right? Then we'd probably be more successful.”
U of D Jesuit travels out of the country, to Canada, for its next game, Friday, Sept. 12, to play Windsor Holy Names (0-1).
Marshall is in his second year coaching Brother Rice. “We got better week two. When we got better week one, week two, then week three. By the time we get to eight to nine, right, hopefully we've arrived, right?”
Also on Friday, Sept. 12, at 7 p.m., the Warriors host Toledo Central Catholic in a CHSL Central Division match at Lawrence Tech University.
Contact Don Horkey at [email protected].
