ALMONT — Almont (listed no. 2 among Division 6 teams statewide) finished the league portion of their schedule with an outright Blue Water Area Conference varsity football championship, accomplishing the feat with a 47-19 triumph against host Yale last Saturday night.
With the final, Almont goes to 8-0 and 7-0. Yale slips to 4-4 and 3-4.
The Almont football team poses for a photo after claiming the BWAC title with a perfect 7-0 mark. The Raiders are also 8-0 for the season.
“I was pleased on how well we handled the change of date and the weather tonight,” Almont Coach James Leusby commented. “The boys didn’t let anything distract them from one of their goals of winning the BWAC championship,” he noted.
“We had a great week of practice, which is one of the reasons I think we played so well. We will now focus on getting ready for a very physical West Branch Ogemaw Heights team that has been making some noise up north. Although we want to finish the season undefeated our main goal will be to get out of this game healthy and ready to make a run in the playoffs.”
In Saturday’s contest, Almont bolted out to a 14-0 advantage after one quarter was over with and widened the gap to 34-13 at the half.
When the action resumed, Almont picked up where it left off. Aided by a 7-0 third quarter edge, the Raiders increased their cushion to 41-13 with 36 minutes gone.
Both sides then added six points to their totals during the fourth quarter of play, leaving Almont with a 47-13 triumph to celebrate at night’s end.
Almont produced their 47 point total aided by a Chase Battani 33-yard touchdown run (followed by a successful extra point kick courtesy of Sean O’Neil); a Jacob Fuller 25-yard touchdown run (followed by an accurate extra point boot from O’Neil); a Luke Winkler 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown (followed by a successful extra kick courtesy of O’Neil); a Matthew Bacholzky 31-yard touchdown run (followed by an accurate extra point boot from O’Neil); a Chase Davedowski to Cole Walton 21-yard touchdown pass; a Jonny Gjoka six-yard touchdown run (followed by a successful extra point kick courtesy of O’Neil); and an Aiden DeSano 29-yard touchdown run.
For the evening, Davedowski completed one of one pass plays for 21 yards as Almont’s quarterback. He threw zero interceptions along the way.
His successful toss was distributed to Walton.
The Almont ground attack managed 288 yards on 33 totes.
Individually posted, Bacholzky (nine rushes for 89 yards) and Battani 80 yards on seven totes) furnished their best numbers. The remaining 17 Raider rushes netted a combined 119-yard gain.
Ayden Ferqueron (15 assists), Cohen Ferqueron (one solo and 12 assists) and Battani (three solos and seven assists) provided Almont’s top tackle outputs. They were backed by Gordon Stolecki (one solo and seven assists), Lucas Mantini (two solos and four assists), Cayden Durall (six assists), Aiden Oliphant (one solo and four assists), Tim Miller (five assists) and Brent Corneau (one solo and three assists).
Almont will look to wrap up an undefeated regular season run this Friday when it entertains non-league counterpart West Branch Ogemaw Heights. That matchup lists a 7 p.m. starting time.
Kevin Kissane has been covering high school sports for the Tri-City Times since 1985. When not standing on a field or court with his camera and notepad, he enjoys golf, travel and family. Kevin is a 1980 graduate of Capac High School, and is also a grad of St. Clair Community College and earned a degree in journalism from Central Michigan University.
