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Sports
in the house week include Ypsilanti High’s show-
down with SEC rival Chelsea. ACEBOOK
NFL star Braylon
Edwards showed up in

SPORTS
Chelsea on Friday to

YPSILANTI
watch his brother play
for the Bulldogs.
www.heritage.com SECTION B
September 9, 2010

WEB EXCLUSIVE: The Phoenix won at Skyline; but can they win at Chelsea? www.heritage.com

SPORTS
VOICES UPCOMING GAMES
Ypsilanti at Lincoln hosts
Chelsea Tecumseh
When: tomorrow at 7 p.m. When: tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Where: Chelsea High Where: Lincoln High School

School
Opponent: Chelsea
Bulldogs
DAVE Scouting report: The
MERCHANT Bulldogs are always a tough
opponent and are very athlet-
ic and well coached. Ypsilanti
Opponent: Tecumseh
Indians
Scouting report: Both
teams enter this one at 0-2
but Lincoln is getting some
key players back this week
so look for some explosive

Lincoln came off a high scoring win

against Ann Arbor Skyline
last week.
offense from the Splitters.

Our take: One team has

to come out of this with a

looks Our take: The Phoenix

will have their hands full
with Chelsea but this is a dif-
ferent team than last season
win and I think Lincoln can
do it with good passing and
some sound special teams.

good
and if Chelsea doesn’t bottle Next up: Lincoln will be
up the run and hold Austin at Dexter at 7 p.m. on Friday,
Sanders to under 100 yards it Sept. 17.
could be a long night for the
Bulldogs.

in loss Next up: The Phoenix

The Lincoln football team had
a tough game on Friday night
on the road at Bedford. The task
was to beat the Southeastern
Conference’s Red Division
champion from last season.
Not the easiest thing for a team
which went 2-7 last season.
The Splitters were playing
without several of their regular
starters due to an off-field inci-
dent which happened one week
before the first game of the
season. Those players who were
involved in the incident were
suspended for the first three
games of the season. Since this
was only the second game of the
season they were not allowed to
suit up and play but they were
on the sidelines at Bedford on
Friday.
The game itself went fairly
will host Tecumseh at 7 p.m.
on Friday, Sept. 17 in the Hall
of Fame Game.
Willow Run
hosts Ecorse
When: tomorrow at 7 p.m.
Where: Willow Run High
School
Opponent: Ecorse Red
Raiders
Scouting report: Both
Photo by Tom Perkins teams are 2-0 and the Flyers
Ypsi quarterback Kevin Clark was 2-for-5 passing for 30 yards and he ran seven times marked this as the team
for 62 yards in the win over Ann Arbor Skyline. that wanted to beat badly
since they lost to Ecorse
last season. Look for some
Ypsilanti takes win fast-paced action with some
very quick players on both
sides.
Belleville hosts
Dearborn Fordson
When: tomorrow at 7 p.m.
Where: Rynearson
Stadium at Eastern Michigan
University
Opponent: Fordson
Tractors
Scouting report: Both
teams are different than last
season. Belleville was beaten
badly by Fordson last season
and the team hopes to turn that
around this year and maybe
get a win against the tough
Tractors. Fordson has had
both a big win against Garden
City and a big loss to Detroit
Catholic Central 35-0. They like
to mix it up and come at you on
the ground and in the air.

Our take: If Belleville

can play up to its potential

from Ann Arbor Skyline

well for Lincoln coach Chris
Westfall and company. They
were only down 19-7 at the inter-
mission. In fact, Rare Williams
ran back the kickoff to start the
second half about 86 yards for
the score. Lincoln only trailed
19-14 and looked to be making
all kinds of noise in the right
direction.
While Bedford was not ready
to give up quite yet and the
Kicking Mules decided to show
why they were league champs
of the upper SEC division. They
went on to win 39-14.
But what really impressed
was the way Lincoln played. I
liked what I saw from junior
quarterback T.J. O’Bryan who
looked good and threw quite
well.
I went down to Bedford
expecting Lincoln not to do well
with all the players who were
suspended and after coming
off the 45-0 loss to Mason in the
opener.
They proved me wrong and I
think they really proved a lot to
themselves and to their coaches.
The team didn’t give up and
they played fundamentally
strong football. I like the fact
PLEASE SEE LOSS/4-B
Local
sports
blogs
Read Dave Merchant’s local
sports blog at http://heri-
tagewestsports.blogspot.com
By Mike Larson
Heritage Newspapers
The Skyline football team just isn’t quite
big enough yet.
That fact was obvious Thursday night
when the team hosted Ypsilanti in the Eagles’
first ever home varsity football game.
The Phoenix manhandled the younger
Skyline team, racking up 244 yards of offense
and winning the game 36-0.
“We’re just not big enough and strong
enough yet,” Skyline coach Randy
Hutchinson said. “We are still working on
stopping teams that run.”
Ypsilanti seemed to run the ball at will
against the Eagles, pushing the smaller
Skyline team all over the field.
In fact, on three different drives in the first
half, the Phoenix scored on running plays.
Austin Sanders scored two of the touch-
downs, while Brandon Jordan added the
other.
And to make matters worse for the Eagles,
the Skyline passing game struggled.
Last week, when the team took on
Hartland, the Eagles were able to stay with
Splitters fall to Bedford
By Dave Merchant
Heritage Newspapers
Football
The Lincoln Splitters came On the road Friday night
to Temperance Bedford for one Lincoln proved that and almost
reason on Friday night and that came away with a shocker.
was to prove they were a better Lincoln trailed 19-14 after
football team than the one who an 85-yard kickoff return
lost their opener 45-0 to Mason. from Rare Williams on the
the more experienced team by taking advan-
tage of strong quarterback play by Andy
Copp.
However, on Friday, Copp struggled to
find receivers and eventually left the game
because of injury.
“We have to rely on our passing game to
make up for the fact we are smaller than
most teams we are going to face,” Hutchinson
said. “But we just didn’t have it tonight.”
Ypsilanti’s Marquez Gollman was also a
constant pain for the Eagles’ offense.
Gollman had a sack, a forced fumble and
two tackles for loss on his way to having one
of the most impressive defensive perfor-
mances of the night.
“We just couldn’t stop him,” Hutchinson
said of Gollman. “It didn’t matter what we
tried, we just couldn’t block him up.”
With the big win, the Phoenix have now
matched their victory total from last season.
“We needed to get this win,” Ypsilanti
coach Jason Malloy said. “We’ve been talking
about this game all week, and trying to get
our guys ready. We knew if we could get a
win tonight, we might be able to start some-
thing good.”
first play of the third quarter.
Unfortunately that wasn’t
enough for the Splitters who
went on to lose 39-14 to the
Kicking Mules.
The other Lincoln score came
when junior quarterback T.J.
O’Bryan slung the ball 20 yards
PLEASE SEE SPLITTERS/4-B
Our take: This one could
go either way. Ecorse and
Willow Run both have some
athletes. I think it may come
down to the fourth quarter
and who has more gas left in
the tank.
Next up: The Flyers will
host Detroit Consortium at 7
p.m. on Friday, Sept. 17.
Ypsilanti’s Sanders
taking it to the house
By Dave Merchant
Heritage Newspapers
So far this season Ypsilanti
High School junior running
back Austin Sanders may have
surprised a few people with six
touchdowns in just two games.
But he didn’t surprise himself.
“I am not really surprised
with how I have played,”
Sanders said. “I have seen how I
need to perform.”
This season Sanders has
already rushed for over 200
yards and it doesn’t look like he
will be slowing down anytime
soon.
“I have good open field
speed,” he said. “In the open
field I am able to make moves.”
One of the players in the
National Football League that
he likes to model himself after
is Reggie Bush. The young
they will have a chance at this
game. JaVaunte Mackson and
Jacques Reeves will have to
have big games on the ground.
If they can do that they may
surprise some people especial-
ly those in Fordson uniforms.
Next up: Belleville will
be at Jackson Northwest at 7
p.m. on Friday, Sept. 17.
Football
Sanders also likes former
Detroit Lion and Hall of Famer
Barry Sanders.
“We are having fun now,”
Sanders said. “We want to make
the playoffs.”
Last season, Sanders was at
a different school and he was
only able to come and watch one
game that Ypsilanti played in.
He said he wanted to play for
the Phoenix and now he is glad
he made the switch.
Not only can he play football,
but he was a state qualifier last
season in the 200-meter dash
and he made it to the semifinals.
“Football is harder than track
because you have to practice
hard with no breaks,” Sanders
said. “In track you can run but
PLEASE SEE SANDERS/4-B

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