West faces Midland at Davison Friday

Lapeer West’s Zeshawn Parker-Jones ran the ball against Bay City Western last Friday at Lapeer West. Parker-Jones had two interceptions on the night. LAPEER — The Lapeer West varsity football team (9-1 overall, 8-1 Metro) is going to need its best defensive effort of the season if it hopes to have any chance of containing the Midland Chemics (9-1, 6-1 Saginaw Valley) in Friday’s matchup (switched to Davison because of poor field conditions at West) in the Div. 2, District 1 championship.

While the Panthers looked strong in last week’s 14-0 first round playoff win over Bay City Western (6-4, 5-2 Saginaw Valley), so did Midland, taking a 31-21 victory over Flushing (6-2, 2-1 Big Nine) after jumping out to a 20-0 lead. Heading up the Chemics’ offensive efforts in their postseason win was running back Charlie Leffingwell, who hit the Raiders for 244 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries. This includes scoring bursts of 69 and 67 yards.

On the other side of the ball, Ty Whittlesey came through for Midland last week like a well-hidden spare key, recovering a fumble in the endzone on Flushing’s first play from scrimmage to give the Chemics a 13-0 advantage. As a team Midland’s defense has allowed 128 points this year while its offense has scored 332, including a 41-0 win over Flint Southwestern Oct. 9 and Oct. 23 the Chemics blanked Midland Dow, 14-0.

Last year, Midland went 10-2, 7-1, taking postseason victories over Saginaw Arthur Hill, 42-7, and league rival Bay City Western, 24- 14, before finally falling to Big Nine foe Davison, 25-19, in round three. The Cardinals then went on to get edged out by Muskegon in the fourth round of the tourney, 38-35.

The Chemics actually faced Bay City Western twice that year, dropping the first matchup, 28-21, Oct. 3.

For Lapeer West, which has hit opposing defenses for 265 points so far this season while allowing 135, look for senior quarterback Nate Smith to connect with wide reciever Jake Fenslau early and often once again after the duo accounted for all the scoring in last week’s two-touchdown victory over the Warriors.

Defensively, the Panthers held Bay City Western running back Josh Alba to 13 yards last week, while signal caller Austin Pichiotino threw for a mere 48 yards. Look for Dan Raymond and Zach Deloge to remain topping the charts for West after the duo combined for nine and a half tackles in the Panthers’ 35-9 win over Clio to end the regular season Oct. 23. Highlights include a 39-0 defeat of Holly Oct. 16 and Sept. 11 West beat Oxford, 17-0.

During the regular season, West came in second in the 10-team Metro behind Linden (9-0), but ahead of Fenton (6-3), Swartz Creek (5-4), Lapeer East (5-4), Oxford (5-4), Brandon (3-6), Holly (2-7), Clio (1-8) and Kearsley (1- 8).

In 2008, West began its tournament run with a 22- 21 defeat of Linden (8-2, 8- 1) in a Flint Metro league rematch of a game they lost earlier that year, 35-20. The Panthers were then eliminated the next week, 17-13, by Bloomfield Hills Lahser (11-2, 8-0 Oakland Blue). The Knights were eventually beaten by Inkster, 36-20, in the playoff’s fourth round Nov. 21.

According to maxpreps. com, West is the 109thranked team in the state and 3,260th nationally, while Midland is the 37thbest team in Michigan and 1,115th nationally as of Nov. 2, 2009.

The winner of this game will move on to play a week from Friday in Div. 2, Region 2 against whichever team is left from Div. 2, District 2 after the Warriors of Birmingham Brother Rice (6-4, 2-2 Catholic Central) battle the Rochester Adams Highlanders (8-2, 7-0 Oakland White) Friday.