Raiders win title for third straight time

ALMONT — The Almont football team (no. 1, Division 6) clinched their third straight outright Blue Water Area Conference championship with a 43-14 win at North Branch last Friday night.

With the decision, Almont moves to 8-0 and 7-0. North Branch slips to 2-6 and 2-5.

In Friday’s game, Almont jumped out to a 15-7 advantage after one quarter was over and widened the gap to 29-7 at the half.

When the action resumed, Almont continued to pull away. Aided by a 14-0 third quarter edge, the Raiders increased their cushion to 43-7.

North Branch then outscored Almont 7-0 the rest of the way, only to fall 43-14.

Almont produced their 43-point total aided by a Brody Corneau 58-yard touchdown run (followed by a Corneau PAT tote); a Corneau 65-yard touchdown run (followed by a successful extra point kick courtesy of Sean O’Neil); a Blake Lane to Matthew Bacholzky 23-yard touchdown pass; a Corneau three-yard touchdown run (followed by a Bacholzky PAT tote; a Jacob Stewart 20-yard touchdown run (followed by an accurate extra point boot from Sean O’Neil); and a Dontae DeSano 59-yard touchdown run (followed by a successful extra point kick courtesy of Sean O’Neil).

For the evening, Lane completed six of eight passes for 71 yards as Almont’s quarterback. He threw zero interceptions along the way.

His successful tosses went to four different targets.  Corneau (two catches for 28 yards), Bacholzky (two receptions for 23 yards), Logan Schapman (one catch for 14 yards) and Ryan O’Neil (one reception for five yards) formed that group.

Brendan Schocke was the other Almont player who opted to air out the football. His lone attempt resulted in a eight-yard completion to Owen DeCoster.

The Almont ground attack managed 305 yards on 18 totes.

Corneau (four rushes for 133 yards), DeSano (four totes for 72 yards) and Stewart (four rushes for 71 yards) proved Almont’s toughest players to stop. The remaining six Raider totes netted a combined 29-yard gain.

Colten Karbel (three solos and 11 assists) Ayden Battani (five solos and two assists) and Cohen Ferqueron (six assists) supplied the top Almont tackle outputs. Bacholzky (three solos and two assists) DeSano (two solos and three assists), Dustin Claeys (one solo and four assists) and Gordon Stolecki (one solo and three assists) plus Ryder Baker and Dominic Medley (four assists) made their presence felt as well.

The Almont defense also registered two takeaways. Max Glavich and Battani (a fumble recovery each) supplied those.

Almont will look to close out an unbeaten regular season this Friday when they entertain Detroit Edison. That matchup lists a 7 p.m. starting time.