TAWAS AREA - Sep. 25, 2009 - Standish-Sterling's football team is just hitting its stride, while Tawas Area continued to keep local medical personnel busy.

The Panthers used three Garrett Pierce touchdowns to key a 30-14 NEMC victory over the Braves, who lost two more starters to injury during the game and ended the contest with 10 players on their depleted roster playing both ways.

"I was really happy with our effort," said Tawas coach Tim Webb. "Our guys kept playing hard through the final whistle."

SSC's Trevor Trombley scored the game's first touchdown on a 1-yard run early in the first quarter. But after that it was Pierce reaching the end zone on a career-best night, picking up 122 yards on nine carries. Pierce's 35-yard run early in the second quarter made it 13-0, but Tawas came back with a 9-yard Tyler Samuels run.

The Braves were still in the game at the half, holding firm with a goal-line stand late in the second quarter and forcing the Panthers into a 23-yard Trombley field goal.

SSC took control in the third quarter, getting scoring runs of 10 and four yards from Pierce for a 30-6 lead.

"I think we played a pretty sound game," said SSC coach Paul Walderzak. "They do a lot of different things that make preparing for them quite a chore.

"The guys on both the offensive and defensive lines were solid and improving each week. We're making more plays on both sides of the ball."

Nick Schirmer capped the scoring with a 14-yard Tawas touchdown in the fourth.

The Braves lost their top offensive lineman / linebacker when Justin Ott went down with a knee injury early in the game, and starting wingback / cornerback Jeremy Fuller went down in the third quarter with an ankle injury.  Webb termed both injuries as "serious."

Sophomore Tyler Samuels turned in another impressive effort with 152 rushing yards on 21 carries. As with many of the Braves in this star-cross season, it's not the position he started the season playing.

"He moved from wing to fullback when Matt Compau had to move from fullback to tight end and quarterback," Webb said. "Tyler had his best game so far."

For SSC, Kevin Reeves caught two passes for 55 yards, intercepted two Tawas passes and rushed for 31 yards on two carries. He also had four kick returns for 59 yards.

Mitchell McFarland completed 3-of-5 passes for 53 yards and ran for 92 yards on 13 carries. Zack Neid had 13 tackles on defense, with Alex Schmidt adding 11 and Ryan Veitengruber and Tanner Mitrzyk adding 10 apiece.

Tawas (2-3, 0-3 NEMC) finishes its gauntlet run of league games Friday at John Glenn (1-4, 0-2), which is a far better team than its record suggests.

SSC (3-2, 1-1) travels to Pinconning (4-1, 2-0) on Friday, needing a win to keep its hopes for a share of the league title alive. The Panthers could force a three-way tie if they top Pinny and John Glenn and if Pinconning defeats Ogemaw Heights in two weeks.

"Pinconning is a very good team this year," Walderzak said. "We will have to step it up quite a bit this week. It should be a very good game for both of us."