It was a good ol’ fashioned Downriver League showdown as the Taylor Griffins hosted the Wyandotte Bears. The Bears entered the game coming off an upset win over Trenton last week and were looking to build on that. The Griffins, on the other hand, were looking for their first win of the season after being so close in their first two games. Would momentum carry over for the Bears? Could the Griffins find a way to stop an opposing offense? At the end of the day, it would be Taylor getting their first win of the season, 26-10.
Wyandotte Bears
Let Down
After coming off a big win vs. Trenton a week ago, the Wyandotte Bears came into the game against Taylor on a high, but that would quickly change. It took 13 seconds for Wyandotte to give up the first score of the game, and it was downhill from there. They would go on to give up two more scores before they got on the board at the end of the first half.
While they did have a letdown in the first half, it was their quarterback Cole Cline that added a pick-me-up for the team as he would score on a 4-yard touchdown in the final six minutes of the first half, and he would carry his team in the second half as he would finish the game completing 12 of his 29 passes for 150 yards and rushing for 5 yards and a touchdown on four carries.
It did look like momentum could have been flipping in the third quarter as Camden Reese came up with a big interception, but they weren’t able to do anything with it.
Taylor Griffins
Bring The Energy
The Taylor Griffins were bringing the energy from the start of the game as Jaccari Rivers returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for the touchdown, and that set the energy for this Griffins team.
From there, it was all Griffins. Their defense was flying around, and the offense was doing the same. Led by quarterback Landyn Norman, more on him later, and Darius Ray, the Griffins were bringing the energy.
Ray was a big factor for the Griffins, especially when it came to the energy. He was flying around on both sides of the ball. On offense, he rushed for 25 yards on three carries and recorded one catch for eight yards. On special teams, he returned one kick for 28 yards. However, it was on defense where he really brought the juice, as he had five tackles in the game and also recorded a sack, as well as playing a lockdown corner.
MVP?
We may have seen the MVP of the Downriver League, and his name is Landyn Norman. See, we told you we’d get back to him.
Norman has been a driving force for the Taylor offense this season, and he is the reason they won the game vs. Wyandotte. “Love my quarterback, if it wasn’t for my quarterback we wouldn’t win this game,” senior offensive lineman Mohammad Allouzi said postgame.
What did Norman do to help his team win this game? He rushed for 217 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries; he also passed for 65 yards on 9 of 13 passes. Norman was spotlighted heavily by the defense of Wyandotte and was taking hard hit after hard hit, but he still got up and made play after play to win the game for his team.
Bear’s Final Take
In a game that featured two of our seven players to watch on the first MVP watch list in Landyn Norman and Cole Cline, they both lived up to the hype in the game as both showed us why they were deserving.
While Norman came out on top in this one, Cline is polished and will cause problems for teams down the stretch.
While the game did go in favor of Taylor, we’d be doing a disservice to the game if we didn’t talk about the officiating in this one. There were missed calls on both teams in the game. Two of the most blatant ones were both in the first half where they could have gotten Taylor for their knee pads being too far above the knee and on Wyandotte they could have gotten them for a late hit on the quarterback. While neither play would have made much of a difference in the outcome of the game, it was noticeable, especially when the game kept being stopped for different reasons by the officials.
Go Griffin is the best player