Gio Roberto catches a 39-yard pass from Kevin O'Neil late in Friday's district title contest, but the game had long since been out of reach.
Linda Eyer
The Falcons' Michael Noffsinger (4) looks for room to run, but didn't find much, during Ogemaw's 51-12 loss to Kingsford.

OGEMAW HEIGHTS - Nov. 2, 2007 - Ogemaw Heights' football playoff run came to a resounding end Friday at home as the Kingsford Flivvers overpowered the Falcons 51-12 to claim a Division 4 district title on the home field.

It turned out to be more than a hint of what was to come after Kingsford opened its playoff run with a 49-21 trouncing of Cheboygan, which had defeated the Falcons 42-6 in the final game of the regular season.

The Flivvers really were that good, scoring 23 points in the first quarter before Ogemaw managed to pick up a first down. The Falcons, though, didn't help themselves much either, especially in the early going.

"They're a very good football team," said Falcon coach Andrew Pratley. "But we made some mistakes early in the game and things just started to compound after that."

Josh Droese scored twice in the first four minutes -- with a Falcon fumble sandwiched in between -- and the Flivvers were off an running. Kingsford added an 11-yard score from quarterback Dan Sjoquist to Nelson Weinke to make it 23-0 before the Falcons came back with a 60-yard drive. Michael Noffsinger, who reinjured his shoulder on the second play of the game and only had four rushing attempts in the game, scored on a 1-yard run to cut it to 23-6 at the end of the first quarter.

The Falcon defense was able to slow the avalanche, and the offense had some more chances but couldn't quite finish off a late drive on the first half that might have gotten them back in the game.

"We thought we had them stopped a couple times when it was still 23-6," Pratley said. "There were a couple of calls that didn't go our way that extended their drive. Then when we had the ball and had a chance to score right before the half, we got a pretty bad spot on a fourth-down play.

"If things had gone a little differently, it might have been 23-14 at halftime instead of 30-6."

Needing to do whatever it could to get back in the game, Ogemaw tried an onside kick to open the third quarter, but Kingsford recovered and Droese scored his fourth touchdown to initiate the running clock.

Ogemaw didn't have much luck on the ground against a quick, aggressive Kingsford line and the big deficit forced them to abandon the running game altogether. Quarterback Kevin O'Neil threw the ball 32 times, completing 18 for 196 yards and a 37-yard touchdown pass to Gio Roberto in the late-going. But he was also sacked six times -- he hadn't been sacked at all through the first 10 games of the year -- and threw three interceptions.

"We weren't used to that (kind of pressure on the quarterback," Pratley said. "We had to pitch our game plan, and they were able to just pin their ears back and come after us.

"Defensively, though, I thought after the first quarter we made some good adjustments and played pretty well. They only gave up two scores after the first quarter. The problem was, our offense gave up two scores, too."

The Falcons managed just 87 yards rushing on 20 carries, led by O'Neil with 34 yards on nine attempts. Trevor Zettel added 20 yards on three carries. Noffsinger, the Falcons' leading rusher for the season, finished with five yards on four carries but caught six passes for 37 yards. Kelvin Page led the Falcon receivers with eight catches for 96 yards.

Defensively, Anthony Carrollo had 10 tackles, Kyle Shelley added nine and Carl Worthy had eight to lead the Falcons.

Sjoquist led the Flivvers with 79 yards on 10 carries, with Droese adding 76 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries. Both were members of the all-UP Class ABC team this season.

Ogemaw wraps its season up with an 8-3 mark, owners of a share of the NEMC title.

"It's not the way the seniors wanted to go out," Pratley said. "These guys really mean a lot to me. They're my first group that I had as freshmen that are graduating and they deserve a lot of credit for what they accomplished.

"Most of them were on the team two years ago when we went down to Bay City and upset John Glenn in the first round of the playoffs, then won a district title last year and the first NEMC title Ogemaw's had in a few years. Not too many groups of seniors can claim to have 23 wins and have won at least one playoff game three straight years.

"I hope after the shock wears off they'll look back and realize what a successful run they had."

Kingsford (8-3) takes on Coopersville in the regional title game this weekend.

"We knew when we saw the playoff draw that this was one of the toughest districts in the state," Pratley said. "We thought if we could survive it we had a good shot at making it a long ways. They should be one of the favorites, if not the favorite, to win the state title."