Pewamo-Westphalia Advances To State Championship Game With 34-16 Win Over Ubly

Pewamo-Westphalia will be playing in the Division 7 state championship for the second year in a row after the Pirates crushed Ubly 34-16 in Saturday's state semifinal.

But perhaps most impressively, P-W cruised to a comfortable victory over the undefeated Bearcats without the kind of dominant performance from standout running back Jared Smith we've all come to expect.

Smith, who set the MHSAA's single-season rushing record a year ago and came into Saturday's game with 2,400+ this season, ran for 115 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. Those lower-than-normal numbers for Smith are indicative of the Pirates' masterful gameplan, which was to use Smith as a decoy at times to exploit Ubly's defensive attention on him.

To that end, the Pirates mixed up some designed quarterback runs and read-option plays to carve up the Bearcats defense. Quarterbacks Jimmy Lehman and Ryan Smith both provided scores P-W: Lehman finished 3-for-6 passing for 40 yards and added two rushing touchdowns; Ryan Smith went 3-for-6 passing with a scoring stirke and ran for 57 yards on eight carries.

Pewamo-Westphalia raced out to a 34-0 lead in the third quarter before Ubly got on the board. P-W outgained the Bearcats in passing yards 117-0.

The Pirates will face Detroit Loyola (13-0) in the Division 7 state championship game 10 a.m. Saturday at Ford Field. P-W beat Loyola 30-0 in the state semifinal round a season ago, which avenged a 41-21 loss to Loyola in the semifinal round in 2014.

The Game 730 AM WVFN will come to you live from Detroit for the Pirates' state championship game. Be sure to tune to 730 AM on your radio or listen online!