Michigan high school football: Cass Tech avenges loss to Southfield A&T with 25-14 win

Detroit Cass Tech got an early jump on Daylight Saving Time in the Michigan high school football playoffs.

The Technicians evoked shades of state title runs in 2011, 2012 and 2016 as they turned back the clock with a 25-14 victory Saturday afternoon over host Southfield A&T in a Division 1 district final to avenge a season-opening 56-54 loss.

Cass Tech (8-3), coming off a convincing upset of West Bloomfield in the opening round, took the district crown with a ball-control offense and stingy second-half defense to face unbeaten Macomb Dakota (11-0) for the Region 4 championship next week.

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Cass Tech was able to move the chains during the final two quarters and held dual-threat junior quarterback Isaiah Marshall in check as the Warriors managed just 15 total yards over the final 24 minutes.

“We just hung in there and were focusing, we slowed the game down, take a deep breath, take it play after play and just go hard, play physical and give it effort,” said Cass Tech defensive back Javen Sewell, who nearly had two interceptions. “First half we were just trying to shut him (Marshall) down and some things didn’t go our way. We had a couple of misses, a couple of errors, but at halftime everybody came together. We were locking in, everyone was communicating and we knew we had to finish the drill, give effort, be physical. He was going up the middle and we knew where he was going. We locked down on the edges and had to win the game.”

Leading 14-13, Southfield (8-3) gambled and got stuffed on a fourth-and-5 attempt at its own 44 early in the third quarter, and Cass took advantage of the field position with senior quarterback LeeShaun Mumpfield going 15 yards for the go-ahead TD to make it 19-14 with 4:34 to go in the third.

An ensuing squib kick started Cass Tech at the Southfield 48; eight plays later, Sean Hodges (20 carries for 85 yards) scored on a 3-yard run to put the Technicians up 25-14 with 11:54 to go in the game.

It proved to be the game-clinching TD and the Technicians are proving that they are getting their mojo together at the right time.

“We’ve always run the ball, we’ve always had amazing backs,” said Hodges, who had 85 yards rushing on 20 carries. “We’ve always had good backs and we’re doing what we usually do. We just had a couple of setbacks on the year. At the beginning of the season, we weren’t really together because we had a lot of young guys. We were really splintered apart but we started to love each other and actually want to be there with each other and compete with each other. That’s been the key to this year. And at the end we’re going to come up on top.”

With wind gusts reaching 25 mph, both teams stayed mostly on the ground in the opening half with Southfield ahead by one.

Marshall started the scoring as he led a seven-play, 63-yard drive culminating in a 22-yard QB keeper with 7:48 left in the first quarter.

But Cass Tech answered on its second possession (after starting with a three-and-out) when Mumpfield capped a 10-play, 69-yard drive with a 5-yard keeper with 1:42 to go in the first.

A 63-yard TD run by Marshall was nullified by a holding call; following a Southfield 15-yard punt, the Technicians took a 13-7 lead with 10:30 remaining in the first half on Mumpfield’s 30-yard TD pass to Elijah Jordan. Helping the cause was a short 15-yard Southfield punt.

But the Warriors answered with a 10-play, 80-yard driving capped by a Marshall TD from 4 yards out with 2:49 left in the half to put Southfield back on top 14-13.

Cass Tech’s George Sanchez-Murillo’s 43-yard field goal attempt to end the half had enough distance, but clanged off the left upright. (He also missed a 45-yarder in the second-half.)

The Technicians had to beat Birmingham Brother Rice in the final regular season game to get a spot in the Division 1 playoffs and are now making the most of it.

“We knew we found something probably in the second half in the scheme game with substitutions, the right packages, the right personnel on the field,” Cass Tech coach Marvin Rushing said of his defense. “That team the second half started to buy in to what needed to be done, to make this run we’re going to make and that we are making. And quite honestly, I didn’t have this team in shape the first game (vs. Southfield). That was one of the issues we didn’t win it. And it fell directly on my shoulders.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan high school football: Cass Tech avenges L to Southfield A&T