St. Clair Shores South Lake’s Jerodd Vines in a game in 2015.
St. Clair Shores Lakeview knew it was in for a challenge traveling to St. Clair Shores South Lake Friday night.
While both teams were 2-0, when Lakeview beat Royal Oak, 21-0, in Week 1, it was the first victory for the team’s juniors. First, as in ever.
“They didn’t win a game in the seventh-, eighth-, ninth- or 10th-grade,” said Lakeview coach Pat Threet.
“They said ‘Coach, we’ve never won a game.’ They didn’t know what to do. We had some talented kids who quit because they couldn’t deal with the losing. I told them we’re building something here. South Lake has a great program. If we can compete with them up front … “
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Unfortunately for Lakeview, their top two quarterbacks were out with injury, leaving freshman Evan Rochon under center.
And the Cavaliers could counter with receiver Jerodd Vines and running back Lance Mitchell. Vines caught two TD passes and raced 56 yards on a jet sweep, while Mitchell rushed for 198 yards on 13 carries in a 58-14 win for South Lake (3-0, 2-0 MAC Silver).
“I thought our defense made great strides tonight,” said South Lake coach Vernard Snowden. “The game plan was to get the ball in the hands of our athletes. We can throw and we can run.”
After a slow start, the Cavaliers put the ball in Mitchell’s hands and he produced. He accounted for all 48 yards on a drive, using 28 and 16-yard bursts to eventually score on a two-yard run with 4:55 left in the first quarter for a 6-0 lead.
“They opened up holes and they did their job, simple as that,” Mitchell said of the Cavaliers’ offensive line. “It’s going to be hard trying to cover our passing game and our running game.”
Behind Chris Wise and Jacen Norman, the Huskies started moving the ball against the Cavaliers, driving to the 11 by the end of the first quarter. Two plays into the second quarter, Wise scored from two yards out to make it 7-6 with 11:47 left in the half.
South Lake head coach Vernard Snowden addresses his team after Friday’s win over Lakeview.
But it took South Lake 14 seconds to get the lead back when Datrell Milling hit Vines with a 51-yard pass-run play.
“This offense can be great,” said Vines. “We can run. We can pass. We can pull it down with the quarterback. We can put a lot of pressure on the defense.”
Lakeview (2-1, 1-1) botched a fourth-down play at its 40, giving South Lake the ball on the Lakeview 13. After a holding penalty, Milling spotted Vines down the middle of the field and the junior did the rest on a 28-yard score with 7:10 left in the half to make it 20-7.
Vines continued his great evening with a 56-yard run with 10:54 left in the third to make it 28-7 after Milling’s two-point conversion run.
Mitchell raced in later from 36 yards to make it 34-7.
Contact Perry A. Farrell: 313-222-2555 or pafarrell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @farrellperry.
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