Division 2 - Red Arrows Pierce Vikings' Armor 27-6
The Division 2 final features two very good teams. Lowell is coached by Noel Dean and he knows what it takes to win a title. On the other side, Greg Carter has coached in the state championship a lot in recent years.Â
Lowell is wearing red jerseys and white pants while Inkster is wearing white jerseys and white pants. A good crowd showed up for the game and the game was highly anticipated. Inkster is led by University of Michigan commit Devin Gardner. Lowell is led by running back Austin Graham.
Lowell kicked off to Inkster to begin the game. Terrance Stevens had a nice 23 yard return. Facing third down on their first drive, Lowell brought the pressure and Gardner was sacked by Jone Destine and Sam Young. A nice punt return brought the ball to the Inkster side of the field. The Red Arrows used quarterback Gabe Dean to move the ball inside the 20 yard line. On third and two, they came up about a foot short and decided to go for it on fourth down. Austin Graham picked up the required yardage and gave the Red Arrows a fresh set of downs on the one yard line. Next, he punched the ball in and gave Lowell as 6-0 advantage. Daniel Lindsey blocked the point after so the score stayed the same. Another nice return by Edjuan Penn this time, put the ball at their 33 yard line to begin their second drive. With a third and seven on the 46, Gardner took the shotgun snap and ran it around the left side, but wasn’t able to get the corner and only picked up three yards. The teams exchanged punts in the middle of the first quarter. Inkster got the ball back at their 30 with four ticks over two minutes left in the first. On the first play, DaShawn Bell ripped off a 19 yard pickup to get near midfield. Gardner had a fantastic pass to Deon Butler who was very well covered for a 33 yard pickup.
To begin the second quarter, Inkster had a third down with 13 yards to go. The ball was on the 21 this time. Gardner took the shotgun snap and handed off to Bell, but he couldn’t pick up all the yards. Coach Carter decided to go for it on fourth down and was rewarded with a Deon Butler reception for a first down at the two. Bell racked up six points with a score shortly after the first down. The two point conversion was no good. Inkster kicked off to Lowell with 10 minutes left in the half and a 6-6 tie and Lowell took over on their 40. Gabe Dean had a nice run of 36 yards to put the ball at the two then called his own number for the score. Graham’s two point conversion attempt was no good. Inkster returned the kickoff to the 48. With another third down and eight yards to go, Inkster ran up off left tackle and was stopped just short of the first down marker. They went for it on fourth down, but Gardner’s pass was intercepted by Renn Osborne and returned to the Inkster 41. The Red Arrows were able to move the ball with Graham and then Dean scored on a nice seven yard run with two Vikings hanging off him. With time running down in the half, the Vikings used Gardner’s arm to move them down the field. He was hitting his receivers with ease. An incompletion stopped the clock with only 46 seconds left in the half and a looming third and eight, from the Lowell 46. His pass went through the receiver’s hands and gave them a fourth down. After both teams took a time out to talk to talk it over, Gardner was nearly sacked before he lobbed a ball toward Butler, but he couldn’t come up with the reception and the ball was turned over on downs.
Neither team could get a whole lot accomplished in the first part of the third quarter. Both squads went for it on fourth down and neither was able to get it done. Inkster threw a pass that went incomplete and Lowell faked a field goal and didn’t get enough yards. The Red Arrows again went for it on fourth down and three yards to go, and Graham was able to get four yards and a first down. Gabe Dean made some amazing plays; he somehow squirted through the line when it looked like four people were going to make the tackle. By running so much, they really ran down the clock. No one scored in the third quarter.
The Austin Graham and Gabe Dean freight train carrying the ball kept rolling into the fourth quarter. Dean slipped past a defender for an 11 yard gain down to the three yard line. After a Viking timeout to figure out their goal line defense, Inkster stopped Graham’s run but on third and goal, he was able to score from a yard out on the next play. Daniel Lindsey had a great return of the kickoff and brought it back to the 41. Gardner was once again able to move the ball with his throwing ability, but a sack and the tangling of his feet made it a tough situation; fourth down and 14 yards to go. He got the pass off, but it was tipped and fell incomplete. Lowell dominated the time of possession in the second half by just over 2 to 1.
It was a surprising game. I thought that Inkster would have kept it closer, but they had no answer for Lowell’s option runs. Quarterback Gabe Dean ran for 177 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, but did not complete a pass. When the final stats came down, Pat Martin was the only one to complete a pass, and it went for a negative one yard.  Austin Graham also ran a ton. He carried the ball 29 times for 102 yards and two touchdowns. For Inkster, DaShawn Bell ran 12 times for 51 yards and a touchdown. Devin Gardner completed nine of his 17 passes for 134 yards and ran seven times for negative 26. His main target was Deon Butler who caught seven passes for 114 yards. Vorheese Zanders caught the other two footballs.
