Posen wins first-ever playoff game in the UP

The road trip is longer and the opponent will be tougher as the Posen Vikings look to make history Friday by becoming the first Viking football team to win in the second round of the Michigan High School Athletic Association playoffs. Posen (7-3) advanced to the second round of the MHSAA Division VIII playoffs with a 38-12 victory at Pickford and is now matched up with Mid Peninsula High School (8-2), which has won five straight games, including a 55-28 playoff win at home against Cedarville.

Mid Pen, which started 1-2, also wants to make history, as it has never made it out of the second round. “Friday night, history is going to be made in the town of Rock at Mid Peninsula High School, one way or another. As I told the kids today, it might as well be us,” said coach Glenn Budnick, who now has led the school to three playoff victories the last six seasons. One of them was against Mid Pen, 24-19, in Posen in 2002. Game time tomorrow is 7 p.m.

THE VIKINGS have already made the sweet 16 in the state and to advance to the next level they’ll have to stop Wolverine running back Ricky Caron, who has rushed for more than 1,400 yards this season. He finished with 198 yards against Cedarville and scored three touchdowns. “They are a team that puts up a lot of points, but they also are a team that gives up a lot of points,” said Budnick. Mid Pen has allowed 200 points, compared to the Vikings 191. The Wolverines also have scored 42 more points than Posen.

“I told the players that they (Mid Pen) are going to move the ball and they are going to get their yards,” Budnick said. “We have to go in with a game plan, limit their opportunities and score when we have the ball on offense and make them play catch-up.” The Vikings played one of the best, if not the best, game of the 2004 season against Pickford. Budnick believes his boys can go play one better.

“We’re capable of it,” he said. “I think we have the potential to play better than we did. There were a few things here and there that we need to improve on to have a solid 48 minutes on the field.” While the coach would have preferred a home game against Cedarville, he believes there’s less pressure on the road team.

IT SEEMED that the game at Pickford could have gone either way with the halftime score of 8-6, Posen leading. Matt Ponik kept the Panthers out of the end zone with an interception in the end zone, to thwart a scoring attempt as time expired in the first half. The coaches have done an excellent job with adjustments this season at halftime and the players also deserve credit for executing the changes. Posen started the second half with the ball and were in the end zone after two snaps of the ball as Ponik ran the ball 45 yards to set up a 24-yard touchdown run by Richie Kroll, who rushed for 90 yards on 16 carries. The lead was 16-6.

Pickford had been bunching its players in tight to stop the dive, which left them vulnerable on the outside. That’s where Ponik and the Vikings did most of their damage. Down 6-0 with less than five minutes to go in the half, the Vikings started stringing together first downs. Ponik faked the handoff inside and ran around the left for seven yards into Pickford territory. On the next play to the right, the senior quarterback had nothing but open field in front of him and ran 41 yards for the game-tying score. The two-point conversion by Kroll was good.

“IT WAS a fake inside to the fullback,” Ponik said. “Everybody bit on it. He told me after the play he got drilled by about five guys. All I saw was green grass. The line did a heck of a job selling that inside dive. It was just unbelievable.” There were four offensive line flanking him as he sprinted down the Pickford sideline. At halftime, the Vikings talked about staying with the game plan. That seemed to work with the lightning-quick score in the first 10 seconds of the third quarter, but Posen allowed the Panthers to come back.

The defense forced Pickford to punt after gaining no yards. The Vikings got the ball and ran three offensive plays before booting the ball back. The Panthers then drove from midfield and scored 14 plays later to make it 16-12. The d

efense had them hemmed in, but the Panthers converted a fourth-and-10 pass play for a touchdown. The Vikings would answer and run away with the game. The next drive was aided by an inference call on Matt Szczerowski at the Panther 28. Four plays later, Ponik broke his third long touchdown of the game for 43 yards for a 22-12 lead with 11:16 left in the fourth quarter.

The Panthers were in trouble from that point on as they fumbled on consecutive possessions. Szczerowski recovered both. Kroll scored his second touchdown of the game from 11 yards out. The conversion from Ponik to Szczerowski made the score 30-12.

The final score came on a four-yard touchdown run by Ponik after Pickford turned the ball over on downs at its own 11. The final conversion was good by the Vikes. On the victory, Budnick said, “it was just the kids doing the work in practice all week, tirelessly, play after play in practice, reading their keys, knowing what their assignments are, and they did it to perfection tonight, stopping the runs when they needed to.” It was a nice birthday present for coach Budnick.