Michigan high school football playoffs: Detroit Cass Tech blows out West Bloomfield, 38-13

It took about two-and-a-half quarters for the “Over-rated!” chants to come from the Detroit Cass Tech fans, but by that time, the Technicians had launched several big plays and were firmly in control of their Division 1 first-round playoff game at West Bloomfield.

Cass Tech — which needed to beat Detroit King and Birmingham Brother Rice in the final two weeks to even earn a playoff berth — proved they belonged in the field with a 38-13 win over a team that reached the 2021 state semifinals and won the state title the season before.

“We watched a lot of film, so we knew what they were going to do, but we knew we were going to prosper,” said running back Sean Hodges, who had two long touchdown runs in the second half. “Everything we knew they were going to do, we knew we were going to do it better, and that was the game plan — we had to focus on us, instead of worrying about what they were doing, and lock in on what we needed to do.”

The game was halted for about 25 minutes with 6:36 to play, following Hodges’ second touchdown, due to a disturbance near in the West Bloomfield stands. Although school officials ordered all fans except for immediate family members to leave the complex before resuming the game, police later said the likely cause was an exhaust pipe from a nearby car which backfired.

A 34-yard George Sanchez-Murillo field goal one second before halftime broke a tie to give Cass (7-3) a 10-7 lead. And the Technicians came out fast after the break, opening the game with quick-strike touchdowns on their first three possessions.

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Cass Tech took the second-half kickoff at their own 22, and on the second play of the drive, Leeshaun Mumpfield hit C.J. Sadler for a 78-yard pass completion for a 17-7 lead.

Cass kept the ball away from West Bloomfield as Derrick Jackson III recovered an onside kick, placing the ball at the Laker 45. Three plays later, Cammeron Summerour was in the end zone with a 6-yard off-tackle run.

West Bloomfield was driving downfield on its next possession before Alex Graham picked off a Laker pass at the 3-yard line. The deep field possession didn’t seem to faze Cass Tech, as Hodges burst loose for a 91-yard score for the the third touchdown in five minutes, making the score 31-7.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Hodges added another long run — this time for 93 yards — for the final margin.

“Every game we vision what we want to happen, and I envisioned this,” he said. “That’s a process. In other games I’d get 40, I’d get 30, this time I had to double it up.”

Cass Tech’s secondary stepped up to quell West Bloomfield’s second-half drives, as Sadler intercepted two passes and Cashus Shivers had another.

“The good thing I like right now is that my team is learning how to finish,” coach Marvin Rushing said. “At the beginning of the season we really started struggling, and we wanted to find out what we needed to do to finish games. We got more competitive, we got more physical, but to be honest, I thought the game would end like this. I thought we would be up multiple scores just because of what I saw on film, and I just thought, quite honestly, we were more physical and more better.”

The game was actually scoreless after one quarter, but soon opened up on the game’s first takeaway, Kevin Collins’ interception of a West Bloomfield pass which gave the Cass Tech a short field from the Lakers 40. Six plays later, Cass took a 7-0 lead on a 6-yard quarterback keeper by Mumpfield.

West Bloomfield (8-2) answered with a 10-play, 58-yard drive capped by a 1-yard move-the-pile plunge by Kenneth Jones III. But the 23 seconds remaining on the clock gave Mumpfield enough time to direct the offense into field goal range — aided by a defensive holding call against the Lakers. Cass Tech took the momentum behind the late field goal into the locker room, and came out strong after the break.

“That gave us a confidence boost to let us know we were the better team and we were going to win regardless,” Hodges said. “Letting us look at the scoreboard and knowing we were up three made us want to double it and double it and double it. We wanted to keep going.

“It was crazy, I’m not going to lie,” he said. “We’re going to make this go all the way to Week 14 and we’re going to be great.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MHSAA football playoffs: Detroit Cass Tech blows out West Bloomfield