Grand Ledge’s Ba Blamo, center, is stopped by Romeo’s Ryan Medley, left, and Hunberto Flores during their MHSAA semifinal game Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015, in Brighton, Mich. Grand Ledge fell 48-21.
BRIGHTON – As Grand Ledge and Romeo prepared to battle it out in the Division 1 state semifinals Saturday — with a trip to Ford Field at stake — Mother Nature decided to throw her hat in the ring.
What was supposed to be a head-to-head showdown between the fifth-ranked Comets and seventh-ranked Bulldogs turned into a triple-threat contest, with the wintry elements bombarding Brighton High School before the opening kick.
And in the end, after Grand Ledge struggled with the elements for much of the afternoon, it was Romeo that rose victorious with a 48-21 victory.
The Comets turned the ball over four times in the contest — and all four were turned into touchdowns by the Bulldogs.
“You can’t game plan for this,” Grand Ledge coach Matt Bird said. “You can’t do anything different, I feel, than what we did. It was just unfortunate.
“I don’t think (the weather) played into anybody’s hands. It was just one of those things where it was a high school game and the kids played their tails off. Hats off to Romeo, they did a nice job. It’s a tough loss because there were a lot of things we couldn’t control, but you had to be a part of it.”
The ankle-high snow had players on both sides digging holes for traction, and caused the referees to question themselves several times when it came to the placement of the football.
After the game, Comets senior tailback Ba Blamo said the conditions were the “most difficult I’ve ever played in.”
The Bulldogs, who recorded their first 12-win season in school history with the win, were able to weather the storm most of the afternoon.
Blamo’s 18-yard touchdown run on Grand Ledge’s opening drive gave the Comets a 7-0 lead. But after Grand Ledge was able to stop Romeo on its next offensive possession, the Comets fumbled on their ensuing drive. The ball was coughed up deep in Grand Ledge territory and led to a Bulldogs touchdown with about four minutes left in the first quarter.
With the Comets trailing 19-14 at the start of the second half, sophomore quarterback Nolan Bird was intercepted by Romeo’s Zachary Nies on the opening possession of the third quarter. The turnover eventually led to the Bulldogs taking a 26-14 lead after Lucas Schimon scored from 3 yards out.
“Al I can say is we killed ourselves,” said Blamo, who knifed through the Romeo defense for a 64-yard touchdown in the second quarter. “There is nothing they did that we couldn’t stop. We just killed ourselves.”
With 2:52 left in the third quarter, the elements handed the Comets a gift. On fourth-and-4, the Romeo punter bobbled the snap and attempted to punt the ball, while simultaneously being hit, after scooping it off the ground. The ball found the arms of Grand Ledge senior linebacker Robert Willoughby, who returned it nearly 20 yards for a touchdown — cutting the Bulldogs’ lead to 26-21.
However, Romeo was able to put the game out of reach on its next two offensive drives. Bulldogs senior Bradley Tanner retaliated after his squad’s special teams blunder with a 34-yard touchdown run. And with Bird and the Grand Ledge offense knocking on the door on the following series, Romeo senior Mitchell Heimbuch intercepted the sophomore at his team’s own 1-yard line and returned it 85 yards. The Bulldogs scored four plays later.
“We had some trouble getting traction out on the field. But they’re a great team, it’s hard to stop their offense even on good conditions,” Willoughby said. “You can’t really compare them to any offense that we’ve played before. I think they struck a chord in us. … They were big, they were tough, they just got us.”
The Comets, who captured their first district and regional titles under Bird this year, finished the season with the most wins since 2000, the year the program won the state championship.
“These kids taught me things that you can’t learn in a classroom,” Bird said. “It’s special.”
The Bulldogs will move on to face Detroit Cass Tech for the state title Saturday.
Contact James L. Edwards III at jledwards@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @JLEdwardsIII.