BRIGHTON — You can’t blame the Brighton coaching staff for pulling out all the stops going into today’s KLAA football championship game.
The Bulldogs’ passing attack was brilliant in last week’s win over Howell.
They brought in the ol’ right-hander, Drew Henson, to give a pep talk on Thursday.
The Bulldogs are off to their best start since 2000.
But one of that will matter, coach Brian Lemons says, if his team doesn’t perform against top-ranked defending Division 1 state champion Belleville.
The Tigers and Bulldogs, both 8-0, meet today in a game to be broadcast on the Livingston Post starting at noon. Click here for the link.
“They have a ton of talent on both sides of the ball,” Lemons said Thursday. “We can see the discipline and attention to detail that coaching staff has put together. We’re going to show up and give them hell, but the end result is going to be the team that executes the best wins.”
It will be the fifth meeting all-time between the teams. Belleville has won three of the meetings. Brighton’s win came in the 2019 semifinals, played at Howell, when the Bulldogs scored in the final minutes to take a 22-19 victory.
The Tigers have been a behemoth this season, winning their eight games by an average score of 53-9. They have scored at least 41 points per game and the team that got closest to them, Dearborn, lost 49-22.
“We’ve got some guys who are going to have to play at their best, but executing the game plan will be the top priority, for sure,” Lemons said. “It’s a great opportunity for us to see where we’re at, for sure. With three or four games in the playoffs, if we’re lucky enough to keep advancing and getting better, this will be a teaching tool for us.”
Among the Tigers uppermost on the Bulldogs’ collective mind is quarterback Bryce Underwood, a sophomore in his second year as Belleville’s starter.
“He’s an amazing football player,” Lemons said. “They have a lot of guys who can do the job, but he’s special for sure.”
The Bulldogs aren’t without their share of size and talent, and Colin McKernan has had a tremendous season at quarterback for the Bulldogs.
But that’s history now, and history is not on the list of keys for Brighton.
“It’s going to boil down to execution,” Lemons said. “We can’t show up against anybody and play poorly. Against these guys, we’re going to have to be particularly disciplined, and have all of our focus on executing the play at hand.”
The noon start time was set up to accommodate a TV broadcast.
