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I wouldn't say that Rice was outplayed at all. They won every statistic and led until the last minute. They fell short on three key plays. Give Lakeland credit for making those plays. Two of the three resulted in touchdowns. That was the game. You were right Boeing. My reference was to the early playoff exits from losses to Berkley, Grosse Pointe North and Seaholm. This one felt like those. Everyone has those games. Nothing seems to go right. You play hard. But the underdog team seems to get all the breaks and bounces. They even got the breaks from the refs last night. I talked to one Lakeland fan before the game and he actually referred to one of the refs by name. How often do you see that. There were a ton of holding calls--even more than normal--that were not called on Lakeland. They also seemed to get better spots and a slower play clock. I don't think it was my imagination or sour grapes. I know the MHSAA asigns the crew, but I also assume they don't bring refs over from Macomb County to do the game in White Lake. They get refs from that area and it sure seemed like they had their favorite team last night. I don't think Rice was looking ahead. I just think Lakeland surprised them with their speed and determination. Still Rice won everything but the game.

BiasedGuy wrote:

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Someone I know very well told me that Lakeland played very well with Rice, and seemed to have field position and possession more than half the game. That does not square with what Prep is saying, and I am guessing he has the stats to back it up. But from that fan's perspective, Lakeland was playing with BBR every step of the way.

I must say, I am shocked. More so than the Stevensons CC result.

Biased,

In my game review at www.prepseer.com I said that BBR won just about every statistic. That was true. One that they didn't win was time of possession. I think Lakeland had six more minutes of possession time, so your friend was right, Lakeland possessed the ball more than 50% of the time. It was even more noticeable in the second half when Lakeland our-possessed Rice by a 2-1 margin. Of course, time of possession can be misleading. If you score quickly, you don't need to possess the ball a long time. On the other hand, if the other team is controlling the ball AND SCORING at the end of long drives, it's hard to win the game. Rice certainly had its chances, but Lakeland came up big on a few key plays and that was enought to give them the W. One of the key turning points was when Rice had the ball with three minutes left and the lead. Lakeland had two timeouts left. Rice gained about 5 yards on first down. It looked like Henneghan was going to get more than five, but Lakeland made a great stop. On the next two plays, Lakeland stuffed Rice. It forced a punt and gave Lakeland an opportunity to drive the field and score, which they did. That three and out series was crucial. One first down there and Rice probably runs out the clock.

As for the referring referred to in the above post, it was pretty clear that Lakeland was getting the breaks in two areas. They were not being called for holding all night--until the one call that nullified a touchdown. And the ref was late starting the play clock and it gave Lakeland a big advantage because they were slow getting plays off all night. Because of all the non-calls on holding throughout the game, I was shocked that a flag was thrown on the touchdown. Before the hold was signalled, two refs conferred at mid field. I was certain they would decide to pick up the flag and wave off the penalty. I guess they figured they couldn't cover up that one and decided to let the penalty stand.

The other play I can't wait to see on film is the roughing the punter non call. Yesterday in the Penn State-Iowa game, an Iowa player got flagged for a 15 yard roughing the punter penalty when he barely touched the punter's foot on a near block. In fact the punter actually kicked the Iowa player, not the other way around. And Iowa gets flagged for roughing. That made me think about Friday night when the Lakeland player actually ran into the Rice punter and knocked him to the ground. The ref saw the whole thing and didn't throw the flag. You never like to see a high school kid get flagged for arguing a call, but no one can criticize Charles for arguing that one. I don't know what he said to the ref to get flagged. But, it was justified. I hope Rice send a tape of this game to the MHSAA.

I knew before the game there might be a ref problem. I was talking to a Lakeland fan and he referred to one of the refs by name. How often do fans know the refs names. You can be assurred that the entire crew was probably from the Milford/White Lake area or at least from the general KLAA North area. Throw in the CHSL hatred/jealously and you have a potential bias combined with the ability to subtely control the game. Unfortunately, it happens all the time.

semperfi9 wrote:

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a crew of officials conspired to rob BR of it's rightful victory ....please . .

I don't recall ever spouting the conspiracy theory. I just related my observations that blatant holding was not being called on Lakeland and that a roughing the punter call was not made when it should have been made. It smelled like someone didn't like BBR and wanted Lakeland to win. That doesn't require a conspiracy. One ref can do a lot of damage if he wants to.

I'm not saying Lakeland didn't derseve to win. I'm saying that I am going to view the game tape with a lot more interest than I usually have. There's not a football fan alive that hasn't seen a poorly refereed football game. There can be a lot of reasons for the poor refs. Bias is just one. Maybe the refs, or some of the refs were simply incompetent. Or they had a philosophy to let the kids play and that's why they let so much of the holding go.