FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[WLCALUM83]

One last chance, WLC's at the TSU 6 with 5 seconds left:

[WLCALUM83]

WLC has scored!--but they miss the extra point! TSU wins, 38-37.

[miaafbfan]

Alma 37, Kalamazoo 35 with about a minute to go

[miaafbfan]

Alma 37, Kalamazoo 35  Final

Congratulations to this week's winners, especially Hope.

[WLCALUM83]

Hope's D has come up big the last 2 weeks. One offensive TD vs. TSU, and all 3 of today's scores came off of Olivet turnovers. (2 of which led to short drives for 10 of the 16 points today.) The Flying Dutchmen held Olivet when they had to. It'll be interesting to see how they plan- finishing the regular season against a WLC team that has to be utterly demoralized and then going into the playoffs. If Hope faces a high-octane passing offense that rarely turns the ball over in the playoffs----

[sac]

I know I don't post here much, if at all, but I was looking over the Hope/Olivet boxscore

How on Earth did Hope win?........5 firstdowns?

[WLCALUM83]

sac--it was a punt fest a good share of the game and Olivet had 3 turnovers that led indirectly to all of Hope's scores (2 of which were made by the defense--again).

[WLCALUM83]

If you were ruler of Angola, IN how would you reward TSU coach Land this year? (I'm putting my sense of humor to work here, folks).

[ACRULZ]

Olivet's starting punter was also hurt I hear.  In a punt fest that will definitely make a difference.

[ACRULZ]

How do you folks think Hope will do in the playoffs?

[bulldogalum]

That will depend greatly upon their matchup.  They should be competitive with just about anyone they face.  I think if Booko can have a good game, and Hope can move the ball offensively while continuing to get help from its defense, they will be able to break this MIAA losing skid in the postseason.  Having said that, I am nowhere near the foremost authority on Dutch football, so if my analysis is wrong, I will admit my idiocy and defer to wiser parties.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Since Hope is the only (likely) North region playoff team not in the regional rankings, I'd say there is a fairly good likelihood that they will find themselves in Alliance for the first round.  If so, I don't much like their chances of seeing the second round!

If, instead, they go to Mt St. Joe or Concordia (Wisc), they should be competitive, though the home team would be a strong favorite.

[DutchFan2004]

Congrats to the Flying Dutchman!  It is nice to see our sister school in the playoffs.  Look forward to coming there next year.

[formerd3db]

I know I don't post here much, if at all, but I was looking over the Hope/Olivet boxscore

How on Earth did Hope win?........5 firstdowns?

Olivet's starting punter was also hurt I hear.  In a punt fest that will definitely make a difference.

sac:
Hope won because of the defense, which made big stops when they had to.  It was a defensive slug-fest and both teams played tremendous in that aspect.  Olivet is a very good team and my (our) "helmets are off to them" for a great effort and game; they are, IMO, the MIAA surprise team of the year.  Both teams, however, did not play that well offensively.  Granted, the Comets could pass the ball against Hope's secondary, which had trouble covering their very good WR's, especially on long "down and out" patterns.  However, Hope's pass rush was too intense for Olivet, and their QB made the mistake of throwing the ball not anticipating Hope's CB (Blasiak) being in position for the long TD score.

Hope, on the other hand, will have to indeed crank up the offense to have a chance in the playoffs.  They repeatedly could not convert 3 and 1 (or less) situations which needs to be improved.  And the 1-13 passing in the first half is not a great stat except that it was for the TD pass, and in the end, that's what counts.

It was a very good MIAA game, with a pretty good crowd - near but not capacity which was slightly disappointing since it was essentially for the MIAA title - I expected more Olivet fans for overflowing standing room only.  Their football complex and the synthetic turf, however, is very nice.

Our coaching staff did a tremendous job, the players never gave up and had great intensity when it got tough towards the end.  Also, I compliment Olivet's coaching staff which did a good job also along with their players.  Officiating, however, was not very good yesterday - a topic and situation which continues to get worse in the MIAA unfortunately, and one which we've discussed here in the past as well as in general on other boards.

Anyway, congrats to the Hope team and their staff on the MIAA title and AQ.  We still have one game left vs. WLC to "run the table" after the 0-3 start before even starting to think about the playoffs.

Congrats to the other MIAA winners yesterday - it appears there were some very good games.



ACRULZ:
In most cases that is usually true, however, yesterday it did not make a difference.  Both punters did fairly well; there were a few shanked or shorter kicks, but with good bounces in favor of the kicking team and none that put people in extremely poor position that I recall.  The poor kicks were, IMO, due to the tremendous pass rush by both teams.  Olivet's punter did a pretty good job; but so did our kicker Bowen (although the latter missed a PAT, his fieldgoal was a fairly long one and dead on accurate - could have cleared another 10+ yards at least).  Nonetheless, the kicking game can make the difference in a game like yesterday's and it almost did, had Olivet pulled out another score in the last 2 minutes of the game.

 

[formerd3db]

Oops!  Somehow, my post got placed in the previous cited posts rather than in the usual section below those - sorry about that.