The Prep Blog…

Well, two out of the three area football teams were able to win tight semifinal contests last Saturday.

The DeWitt Panthers survived a missed field goal in the final minutes to beat St. Clair 21-20 at Goodrich HS.  This is the fourth time that head coach Rob Zimmerman has taken his team to the Finals, but they have never won.  They've got a tough task Saturday night at Ford Field against West Michigan power Zeeland West.  You'll hear that game on The Game 730 AM WVFN Saturday night at 7:30.

The Sexton Big Reds came up short against a formidable Marine City squad, losing to the Mariners 12-7 at Ortonville-Brandon HS.  This was Sexton's first trip to the semis since 1989 when they lost to Muskegon.  Marine City dominated the time of possession in the second half, and did just enough on offense to get the win.

The Ithaca Yellowjackets got their toughest test of the season by far last Saturday.  As they barely beat an extremely tough Montrose squad 21-20 at Midland HS.  Montrose scored with just over 2 minutes left, but snap-hooked the tying extra point to the left.  Ithaca will now try to re-tie Iowa City Regina HS for the longest active winning streak in the nation at 56 straight.  Regina's season is done after they won another state title last week in Iowa.  Ithaca faces Clinton for the title at Ford Field on Friday afternoon.

I'll take Ithaca in the Division 5 Final against Clinton, I think they got their scare last week and they'll be all relaxed and ready to go for Friday.  Ithaca 45, Clinton 12 is my prediction.

As for DeWitt, I'm not so sure.  I think this is their best chance to win a state title in the Rob Zimmerman era.  They're going to need career games from QB Jacob Johnson as well as RB/WR Christopher Ruby.  As good as the Panther defense has been this year, they'll need to be that good or better to stop Zeeland West's vaunted running game.  I'll take Zeeland West 34-28 (I hope I'm wrong).

That's all for now...This is Brock Palmbos...signing off.