We have reached the Regular season final, and we have a good one for our Game of the Week. We will head to Detroit as the Crusaders of Detroit Martin Luther King High School welcomes the Crusaders of Archbishop Moeller from Cincinnati, Ohio. This will be the third all-time meeting between the two teams with the record sitting at 1-1. Both teams are coming in off of losses and will look to end the regular season on a high note.
For The Detroit King Crusaders, it has been a struggle in life after Dante Moore, as they are 4-4 and looking for their fifth win and a shot to defend their back-to-back state titles. After starting the season with a 1-3 record, King has flipped the script and gone 3-1 in the last four games, making the matchup against Moeller this Friday a make-or-break game for King to hopefully make the playoffs. Hoping to get his team to the playoffs is Freshman Quarterback Darryl Flemister. While he wasn’t the starter under center in game one, the Freshman took over the job in week two and has run with it. Since taking over, Flemister has completed 32 of his 52 attempts for 599 yards and nine touchdowns. He has also rushed it 30 times for an additional 278 yards and three touchdowns.
Other players to watch for in this one will be Sophomore Running Back Mike Dukes, who has 522 yards and five touchdowns on 50 carries. Damon Stennis and Kavon Mathews lead up the receiving core. Mathews has 170 yards and four touchdowns on nine catches, while Stennis has eight catches for 164 yards and four scores. On the defensive side of the ball, it’s been Marvell Eggleston who leads the way with 43 tackles, three tackles for loss, a sack and has even picked up a safety.
Last week, the King Crusaders fell to the Cass Tech Techanins by a final of 24-23. In that game, Flemister completed 11 of his 21 attempts for 134 yards; while he didn’t find the endzone passing the ball, he did find it on one of his 14 rushing attempts. He finished the game with 77 yards on the ground. Flemister’s backfield mate Mike Dukes ran it 15 times for 54 yards and no trips to the endzone, but he did manage to find Kavon Mathews for a five-yard touchdown pass. While it’s been Eggleston who had done the damage on defense all season and still had five tackles, Xavier Newsome led the team with six tackles in this one.
For the Crusaders of Archbishop Moeller, it’s a different story. They sit at 5-4 on the season but are 1-3 on the road this season. Moeller will bring star power with them as they have three of the top 50 players in Ohio, according to 247sports.
Senior Running Back Jordan Marshall is leading the way for Moeller this season. Marshall has rushed for 1202 yards and 14 touchdowns on 176 carries this season. He has also pulled in 19 receptions for 222 yards and three more scores. Not only can Marshall run and catch the ball, but he can also pass it as he completed his only passing attempt on the season for a touchdown. The main Quarterback for Moeller is Sophomore Matt Ponatoski. Ponatoski has completed 60% of his passes for 1991 yards and 18 touchdowns. His downside, however, has been his interceptions, as he’s thrown seven of them. Junior Jovan Love leads the team with 552 yards and seven touchdowns on 23 receptions. Defensively, it’s been Senior Kyler Paul leading the way with 68 tackles, 13 of which are for a loss. Paul also has 2.5 sacks and has forced three fumbles and recovered one. Senior Defensive Back Drew Robinson leads the team in interceptions with five and pass deflections with eight.
Last week, Moeller fell to Lakewood St. Edward 28-21. In that game, Marshall finished with 111 yards and no touchdowns. Ponatoski finished 15 of 36 for 382 yards and three touchdowns; however, he also had three interceptions. Of the three touchdowns that Ponatoski threw, two of them were to Love, who finished the game with 197 yards on eight catches. Kyler Paul led the way for the defense yet again, finishing with 14 tackles in the losing effort.