Friday Night Highlights: Wins for Plymouth and Canton

The Plymouth and Canton varsity football squads are in stellar mid-season form. Both teams were on their home turfs on Friday night, putting on side-by-side clinics at the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park.

Plymouth

The Wildcats smothered Franklin High School 47-7 on Friday night, drubbing the Patriots in a game that vaulted Plymouth to a perfect 5-0 on the year.

“Overall, I liked the effort out of the kids tonight,” said Mike Sawchuck, Plymouth head coach. “They really flew around out there. Even when they were making mistakes, they were going a hundred miles an hour.”

Sawchuck said that he felt the team seemed to hit its stride in the second quarter, in which the Wildcats hung 21 points on the Patriots. Senior quarterback Shaun Austin threw for 100 yards, going 9-11 with two touchdowns in the quarter.

Canton

Homecoming night saw the Chiefs rough up Westland John Glenn, outscoring the Rockets 63-13. The runaway win puts Canton at 5-0 on the season, though head coach Tim Baechler had some defensive concerns heading into the Friday night matchup.

“The defense has got to improve,” he said prior to the game. “We aren’t giving up a lot of points, but we’re giving up a lot of plays, and a lot of yardage.”

According to Baechler, the Chiefs found a way to solve most of those issues in the game against John Glenn, who fell to 2-3 with the loss.

“We made some changes defensively,” he said. “We switched some things around, and it made a big difference.”

Senior middle linebacker Zac Merillat led the defense with eight tackles, and senior cornerback Demetre Lopez had two tackles and one interception for the Chiefs.

Offensively, quarterback Kyle Adams went 5-5, throwing for 168 yards and three touchdowns. Junior running back Kendall Scott had four touchdowns on 71 yards rushing, and went for another 100 yards on two receptions, both touchdowns.

Salem

The Salem Rocks fell for the fourth week in a row, this time to Northville, 42-14.

“We weren’t blocking and we weren’t tackling a lot tonight,” said Kurt Britnell, Salem varsity head coach. He did, however, praise sophomore junior varsity quarterback Justin Sydlowski, who is filling in for injured junior quarterback Jacob Deprez.

“He looked much more comfortable out there tonight,” he said, “considering the situation he’s in.”

On the offensive side of the ball, senior running back Nick Troher rushed for 71 yards and two touchdowns. Defensively, senior Tyler Schultz had seven solo tackles (four for losses), one forced fumble and one interception.

The Rocks are now 1-4 on the season, with South Lyon coming into town next week for Salem’s homecoming game.