Next stop, Ford Field!

Remember what I said earlier about Livonia Stevenson and Troy having already played? Excellent news, I'm here with that report. Livonia Stevenson is marching forward following a 40-35 defeat over Troy. Next stop, Ford Field, trying to keep the perfect season intact and win the state championship. More on that later. It was a wild game to say the least. Here's how it went down. Livonia Stevenson started with the ball first, and scored on the opening drive. Troy then scored on their opening drive, 7-7 all. Stevenson scores on its next two possesions and takes a 21-7 lead into the second quarter. Troy bounced back, able to tie the game at 21 all at the half. And if that weren't made enough, Troy scored the only points of the third quarter, leading, 28-21. I'll let the Livonia Observer take it from here.

Troy appeared to be on the doorstep of its first state finals appearance since 1994 when running back Nick Gallina scored on an 11-yard touchdown run with only 7:40 remaining. Kevin Muma's extra point gave the Colts an eight-point cushion, 35-27. That TD occurred after the Spartans' Austin White had scored on a 2-yard TD run with 9:47 left in regulation to pull Stevenson within one, 28-27, but it remained a one-point difference in Troy's favor after the extra point attempt was botched. But Austin White, the sophomore running back who led all rushers with 173 yards on 16 carries, answered with an 80-yard TD run just 18 seconds later to pull the Spartans to within two, 35-33. The Spartans, however, had to burn a pair of timeouts, including one because there were only 10 players on the field while lining up for the two-point conversion. The Colts' defense then stacked up White short of the goal line. Troy took the ensuing kickoff from its own 35-yard line and drove down to the Stevenson 32 with less than four minutes to go and appeared to be in command. But after quarterback Branko Hamilton threw an incomplete pass with 3:21 remaining to stop the clock, the Colts tried a screen pass to Gallina that Stevenson linebacker Joey Doulette picked off and returned to his own 48. "They scouted it; they read the book on us and they were ready," Troy coach Gary Griffith said. "It (the screen) is a play we've used all year and normally he (Gallina) is magic." The Stevenson linebacker, meanwhile, had an inkling the screen was about to happen. "We knew it was third-and-8 and that they needed it," said Doulette, who came up with his second interception of the year. "We practiced against it all week, and we knew it was a big play for them all year. I told our guys 'the screen' was coming because they hadn't used it the entire time." The Spartans, however, found themselves on the ropes with a fourth-and-12 at their own 46, only to have Mitchell White hit Wade Stahl over the middle for a key 18-yard first down pickup to keep Stevenson's hopes alive with only 2:10 to go. After the Stevenson quarterback connected again with Stahl on a 9-yard pass down to the Troy 25, White's twin brother, Myles, took the ball on a reverse handoff. The senior wide receiver was nearly tackled for a substantial loss, only to reverse his field and find a wall of blockers for a 15-yard gain. On the very next play with only 1:34 remaining, Mitchell White located Stahl open in the end zone for the game-winning, 10-yard TD pass. Trailing for the first time in the second half, Troy had one more shot and crossed the Spartans' 50 during the final minute, but a 5-yard sack by linebacker John Saaman and another big tackle by Wyatt Stahl on Hamilton on fourth down short of the first-down marker sealed the victory for Stevenson with just 18 seconds left.

The only reason I used the local paper's article for this is quite simple. My mere words wouldn't and couldn't do it enough justice. But here is Livonia Stevenson, knocking off another surprise team and venturing to a place not many high school fottball experts expected them to go, Ford Field for the Division 1 state championship. But the Spartans aren't the only unexpected team to arrive into the Lions' den. So is Macomb Dakota. They're the defending state champs, also coming into this game 13-0, and riding a 21 game winning streak. Despite those impressive numbers, the pundits thought they would see downtown Detroit, either, expecting them to lose in the semifinals. Still, two teams at 13-0 who no one expected to play for the title will do just that, Livonia Stevenson and Macomb Dakota. All I can say is, "SPARTANS, PREPARE FOR GLORY!"

My time's up, you've been great. For the road: Alicia Keys "No One"