Ogemaw Heights - Just 15 days after facing each other win week 8, Cheboygan and Ogemaw Heights squared off again.  This time with much more on the line.  It's very simply, the winner moves on and the loser starts planning for winter athletics.  Just like the game two weeks ago, the result didn't disappoint.  Ogemaw Heights held of a tremendous 4th quarter rally from the Chiefs.  After going up 26-7 in the third quarter, Ogemaw Heights saw their lead shrink to 5 before holding off a Cheboygan drive deep into their territory and winning 26-21, the Falcons one the first meeting 36-30.

Things couldn't have started much worse for Ogemaw.  They couldn't get anything going on the ground and on the other side of the ball, they couldn't stop the Chief's running game.  Cheboygan marched down the field on their first offensive possession and punched it in from 7 yards out to go up 7-0 early.  Penalties and the lack of a running game were just killing the Falcons for most of the first quarter. 

With about 3 minutes remaining in the opening quarter, the Falcons head coach Andrew  Pratley gambled with his team near midfield.  On fourth and 5 and a little bit of gaining momentum, he decided to go for it on 4th and 5.  QB Matt Faiman took the snap rolled left only to find no one open, so he tucked it in and ran forward towards the sticks, just as he was about to be stopped short, he dove ahead getting the first down by a football's length.  Facing 3rd and 11, Faiman went to the air, he checked off on the outside receiver and hit Trevor Zettel up the middle for a 16 yard pickup to the Chief's 35.  On 2nd and 7 from the 18, Faiman went up top again, this time a hookup with WR Kyle Wangler.  Faiman placed the ball into the right corner of the endzone right over the shoulder of the defender where Wangler made a diving 2 hand catch and came up with the football.  The defender had beautiful coverage but the catch was even better.  The 2 Pt. attempt was missed but the Falcons had trimmed the lead to 1.

On Cheboygan's next possession they coughed up the ball at their own 35 where Ogemaw's Carl Worthy came up with the recovery.  Faiman used his legs on the next drive.  He tucked the ball and weaved in between tacklers, danced up the left sideline and raced for a 40 yard score.  In a matter of 2 minutes the Chiefs went from being up 7 to down 5 at 12-7.  The rest of the half resembled the most part of the first quarter where both teams were shooting themselves in the foot with mistakes and penalties.  Both teams went into the locker room with the Falcons up 12-7.

After stuffing the Chiefs on the opening drive of the 2nd half, Ogemaw put together a beautiful drive mixing up the playbook.  With the ball at Cheboygan's 27, the Falcons were faced with another 4th down predicament.  On the option Faiman took it himself for 3 yards and an important first down.  Faiman then hit Josh Jameson for another first down at the 11.  Another Faiman run took it down to just short of the 1 yard line, setting up 2nd and inches.  Faiman finished the job, taking it in from 1 and a half out, putting the Falcons up by two scores.  Faiman hooked up with Alex Rose on the 2 pointer.

Faiman doing it with his arm and legs, did it with his foot next.  On the ensuing kickoff he booted it near the endzone, where the Cheboygan returner took it out and was stopped short of the 15.  The Chiefs could do little with it and after a short punt, the Falcons were in business again, starting at the Chiefs 39.  On 2nd and 7, Faiman found a wide open Michael Noffsinger in the middle of the field.  Noffsinger already with the first down, spun around, bounced off a tackler and raced up the right sideline for a beautiful 34 yard scoring strike.  After the 2 point pass failed, the Falcons were now up by three scores at 26-7. 

With their backs to the wall Cheboygan made a heartened comeback in the fourth.  The Chiefs put up 14 fourth quarter points and stopping Ogemaw 4 consecutive drives without any points.  The Chiefs got one last shot at it their own 27 and a minute and 10 seconds remaining in the game after an 18 yard punt.  On Ogemaw Drive before the punt, Matt Faiman scored on a 42 yard touchdown run but it was called back because of holding. 

With no timeouts remaining and 73 yards to go for the winning score, the Chiefs could only mange to get near the Ogemaw 40 before they turned the ball over on downs with seconds remaining.  They were moving the ball pretty well to start out the drive but the Falcons sucked it up on defense and did a great job pressuring the QB and in coverage.  The Falcons came in to run one last play in victory formation.

Both teams are going to look at this game and wish that they would have done some things differently and played a little better.  The game lasted over 3 hours and in the most part for the amount of dirty yellow laundry that was thrown on the field.  The good news for Ogemaw is that they have another week of practice to correct some of these mistakes and improve before they head to Coopersville for the Region 1 Title in Division 4.  The Falcons are extremely deep and have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball.  They will need to put up four quarters of consistent football to move on and their is nothing to suggest that they can't do that.  They won have won 5 out of their last 6 games, winning the last two of the regular season to get into the playoffs.  If they can find some room in the running game against Coopersville, they can make it 6 out of 7.