Bulldogs outlast determined Eagles, 17-3 — with broadcast links

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BRIGHTON — On paper, a 5-1 Brighton football team figured to have no problem with 1-5 Hartland.

On artificial turf, it was a different story.

Yes, the Bulldogs won on homecoming, 17-3, clinching at least a share of the KLAA West and a playoff berth.

Listen to the first half of Friday’s game here:

Listen to the second half of Friday’s game here: 

But the Eagles fought them every step of the way.

“We have to come out ready to play,” Brighton coach Brian Lemons said. “It doesn’t matter who our opponent is or when it is. We have to come out ready to play. I think we left some yards on the field. We’re having a hard time executing mentally. But when it counted, we made some plays.”

The first was an interception by Austin Ford in the end zone when Hartland went for it on fourth down deep in Brighton territory.

“They had our defense on our heels a little bit,” Ford said. “We’ve been in that situation before, so I knew we could dig ourselves out of it. My dad always tells me, ‘Players make plays,’ so toward the end there ,the pass was working for them and I kind of knew they would go in the air with it. I made a play on the ball toward the back of the end zone and picked it off.”

The Bulldogs took the ball from their 20 and scored in five plays. It would have been two, but on a 77-yard pass reception by Drew Billig, a spot foul at the 20 meant Brighton had to start from its 35 before Cameron Tullar scored on a 2-yard quarterback sneak.

That made the score 15-3, and after some confusion as to who was to play quarterback on the 2-point conversion try, Tullar came out and found Chad Rensi for a two-point conversion that was anything but easy. Rensi had to stretch to get the ball over the goal line.

“I had to reach over the goal line,” he said. “Second effort always gets you in.”

But Hartland put in one more bid to make things close, only to see a fumble bring an end to their hopes.

“We got the ball in to the red zone a few times and made some mistakes,” Hartland coach Brian Savage said.  “We had a couple chances to score some points but couldn’t come away. … We had a chance at the change of the quarter (until Ford’s pickoff) and we had momentum going on our side, and maybe had them up against the wall, but they responded. We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit.”

The Bulldogs did the same, with seven penalties for 70 yards.

The penalty that had the most impact was the call on Billig’s reception. Instead of the touchdown, Brighton wound up with the ball at the Hartland 35 after the spot foul.

“It was the right call,” Lemons said. “One of the things (referees) try to avoid is when you have a breakaway play like that, someone peeling back and nailing someone who’s not in the play. An unprotected player is what I think it is. In that situation, from my vantage point, (I’m) not sure that player was out of the play. But the officials made the call, they took their time, they talked about it and I can live with that.”

The Bulldogs and Eagles traded field goals, and Brighton took the lead on a 6-yard touchdown run by Joe Salvato. The extra point try failed, and the score was 9-3 until Tullar’s late score.

A lightning delay stopped the game for 30 minutes shortly after the third quarter began. Dominic Fiorini, a safety, and Shannon McGrath were crowned homecoming king and queen at halftime.

“Defense played really well tonight,” Lemons said. “We bend but we don’t break. That’s true of what we did tonight. We left a couple of plays on the field. There’s a couple plays they should have made but didn’t. We’re going to get better. We’ve got a tough game next week against Howell, and the schedule keeps getting tougher and tougher.”

Hartland, meanwhile, plays host to skidding Grand Blanc, losers of three in a row, for the first of two home games to end the season.

“We have two weeks left, and we have Grand Blanc next week,” Savage said. “They’re coming to our place, and we’ve always played Grand Blanc well. So we want to go out and have a fun night (next) Friday.”

 

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