OURSPORTS
SECTION C
Heritage Newspapers
Pioneers get stung
Photos by Hiroshi Onuma/A2 JOURNAL
Pioneer quarterback Andy Creal hands the ball off to running back Drake Johnson (above), while
Reilly Quigley takes down a Saline player during Pioneer’s Friday night loss to the Hornets.
River Rats can’t keep up
with defending champions
By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
Last year the Bedford Kicking Mules
were Southeastern Conference Red
Champs.
And this season, the squad might just
be even better.
On Friday, the Mules brought their
high-octane running game to Ann
Arbor and treaded all over the over-
whelmed River Rats.
Bedford stormed into River Rat
Stadium and took down Huron easily,
33-6.
Although the Mules are known for
their grinding style of running football,
the team managed to take advantage of
Huron’s defensive secondary twice in
the first quarter.
Bedford quarterback Jared Kujawa
found receiver Tom Ferry, who hauled
in a 28-yard pass for the team’s first
touchdown.
And then Kujawa hit receiver Troy
Prybylek later in the frame for a 23-
yard score. Brendan Renius was good
on both extra points.
“I’m not sure what happened out
there in the first quarter,” Huron coach
Corey Gildersleeve said. “Our defensive
backfield just got beat deep on a couple
Saline 17,
Untimely errors cost
Pioneers SEC opener
By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
When Saline running back Garrett Gordon
walked off of the football field Friday night,
there were tears in his eyes.
“They’re tears of joy,” the senior said.
He was overcome with emotion after his
Hornets completed a come-from-behind vic-
tory to defeat visiting Pioneer 17-7.
“It’s just the most amazing feeling,” he
said. “They were supposed to beat us by 20
points and we came out and stuck it in their
face.”
Gordon played a huge role in the Hornet
win, even though he was kept out of the end-
zone all night.
The senior captain carried the ball 35 times
for 175 yards and contributed with a pair of
great punt returns.
However, even with Gordon’s great play,
early on it looked as if Pioneer was going to
run away with the game.
The Ann Arbor defense forced the Hornets
to punt from deep in their own endzone dur-
ing their first possession.
Then, the Pioneers put together a 10-play
drive that ended with running back Drake
Johnson plowing into the endzone from a
yard out.
Qasim Sani added the extra point, and
Pioneer took a 7-0 lead with 4:54 left in the
of plays. That isn’t the kind of stuff
that has been happening to us.”
With a 14-0 lead after the first quar-
ter, Bedford went back to doing what
Bedford does best: running the football.
The Mules scored a touchdown in
each of the next three quarters, and all
of them were on the ground.
Early in the second quarter, Bedford
went up 20-0 when Kujawa broke away
from the pack and scored on a 73-yard
run.
Bedford coach Jeff Wood said that
while Kujawa is definitely a huge weap- Photo by Jonathan Knight/A2 JOURNAL
A Huron player stumbles in pursuit of a Bedford ball carrier. On
PLEASE SEE RATS/2-C Friday, the Kicking Mules were just too much for the River Rats.
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September 16, 2010
Pioneer 7
first quarter.
However, that would be the last time the
Pioneers would put points on the board.
Saline chipped away at the Pioneer lead
early in the second quarter when Dylan
Mulder nailed a 43-yard field goal to put the
Hornets on the board.
Later in the quarter Mulder had a chance
to add another three points, but he missed a
24-yard kick, and in the end, the Hornets went
into the half trailing 7-3.
In the second half, though, Saline finally
made its move.
On the team’s first possession of the third
quarter Gordon ran the ball six times for 38
yards during the Hornets’ nine-play touch-
down drive.
The drive ended with quarterback Trey
Heren bounding into the endzone.
Mulder nailed the extra point and Saline
took its first lead of the night, 10-7.
The Hornets struck again just eight sec-
onds into the fourth quarter when
Heren connected with Nick Ostrander on a
50-yard pass play down the far sideline.
“That was a huge play,” Saline coach Mike
Glennie said. “That really put a nail in the
coffin.”
After another good extra point by Mulder,
Saline took a 17-7 lead.
Midway through the fourth quarter,
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