Michigan high school football: River Rouge passes by Orchard Lake St. Mary's, 28-0
River Rouge and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s are two programs looking to maintain their championship identities after seeing their legendary coaches move on and seeing longtime assistants take the top role.
It looked like River Rouge has been making much quicker progress, based on the Panthers’ 28-0 whitewashing of St. Mary’s on Friday night in Orchard Lake.
With Eric Pettway replacing Corey Parker, now the cornerbacks coach at Toledo, the Panthers (3-0) scored on three consecutive first-half drives to grab a 20-0 lead. Meanwhile, the Eaglets (1-3), with Jermaine Gonzalez succeeding the retired George Porritt, struggled mightily on offense. St. Mary’s went minus-3 yards across their four possessions and didn’t get a first down until midway through the third quarter.
MORE SCORES:Week 4 MHSAA football results from across the state
River Rouge hadn’t played since the first week, a 22-0 shutout of Cedar Springs. Since then, the Panthers’ home game against Battle Creek Lakeview was declared a no-contest due to a power outage, and River Rouge earned a forfeit win against Harper Woods Chandler Park.
“We didn’t expect that extended break, but our kids were ready for it tonight,” Pettway said. “We practiced hard for a two-week stretch to get ready. The kids were saying, ‘We have to do something, Coach, so we had all those extra practices.”
Sophomore quarterback McKale McDowell methodically picked apart the OLSM secondary, hitting on 18 of 22 passes in the first half for 227 yards. McDowell connected with Nick Marsh for a 60-yard scoring pass on the Panthers’ third play after the break, to ring up a 28-point lead.
“When we finally got out here we just relieved all that stress. We were tired of playing against our own teammates,” McDowell said. “Two weeks straight we were just playing against each other, and now we got to come out here and play against another opponent. We got all of that stress off our chests.”
Marsh, a Michigan State football commit, was a thorn in the Eaglets’ side all night despite frequent double coverage. He was McDowell’s top choice with the deep ball. Marsh’s 40-yard reception gave River Rouge first-and-goal from the 2-yard line late in the second quarter — leading to the Panthers’ third score, McDowell’s 4-yard pass to Daivon Hill. Marsh caught the two-point conversion by getting behind the secondary and getting his feet down in the back of the end zone.
“We were able to throw the ball deep to Nick, and we took some shots when we were able to take the shots,” Pettway said. “We just played outstanding against a tough team.”
“We came out here and we’ve been showing these people what we’ve been doing for the last two weeks. I was expecting more of a fight, this was unexpected, but we came out here and did our job,” Marsh said. “You can throw it to me and I can get it. I think I’ve got that double-coverage X-factor, or something.”
But McDowell was a two-way threat Friday, setting up the Panthers’ first touchdown by rushing the ball close enough to where Cameron Broadnax could plow through past the goal line on a second-and-goal from the 1.
River Rouge made it 12-0 four minutes into the second quarter, as McDowell connected with Daniel Rucker on a cross to the goal line from 23 yards away.
St. Mary's couldn’t cross midfield until 11 minutes remained in the contest, but that drive stalled out at the 14 as a fourth-down pass to the end zone fell incomplete.
The Panthers were penalized nine times in the first half for 104 yards, one of which scrubbed a long punt return by Markell Gilford.
“We’ve got to do better; I’ve got to do better to get my guys going,” Gonzalez said. “They’re a good football team. They’re well-coached, and they came here and did what they had to do. I think they were a little more physical than us tonight.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MHSAA football: River Rouge passes by Orchard Lake St. Mary's, 28-0
