Sherrard outlasts Macomb, improves to 6-0

SHERRARD -- The Macomb High football team showed Olympic Conference rival Sherrard something it hadn’t seen all season.

And that was a fight.

Both squads put their athleticism to the test at a damp and chilly Clifford King Field in a contest that was decided in the last three minutes.

Sherrard quarterback Logan Frye scored on a 15-yard run with 2:31 left in regulation, handing the Bombers a heartbreaking 13-7 defeat.

“As many close games that we’ve played this year, it hurts. It really does,” MHS head coach Kelly Sears said. “We were right there with them. That’s a team that puts up a lot of points. With their ground game, this weather shouldn’t have hurt them. We took that away from them tonight.”

Macomb was forced to punt with 3:19 left to play, giving Sherrard possession at their own 44.

After a Zach Miller 11-yard run that put the ball at Macomb’s 43, quarterback Logan Frye scampered for a 14-yard run and connected with Colby Bjustrom on a 15-yard pass to set up the game-deciding score.

Frye took the ensuing snap and paved his way across the goal line to break up a 7-7 tie.

MHS had one last shot but was stopped inches short of converting a first down on quarterback Seth Wickert’s scramble that left the Bombers a chain link shy of continuing its final effort.

“Those conditions were rough,” said Sherrard head coach Jason Kirby, whose Tigers averaged 40.4 points a game heading into the contest. “That was unreal. We were all out there being put in bad situation after bad situation. We kept coming out and kept playing.

“(Macomb) just played great defense against us tonight,” Kirby added. “We were really out of the groove in this mud and muck. Macomb played us tough, but we came up with a drive when we needed to.”

In the early going, the Bombers’ defense wiped out the Tigers’ main ingredient. Midway through the first period, SHS senior running back Justin Miller suffered a serious injury to his left leg and was taken away in an ambulance. Miller entered Friday’s contest with 543 yards on 97 carries.

“We were throwing kids around out there,” Sears said of his team’s physical play. “We hung right there with them. With two minutes to go in the ballgame, they made a play and we didn’t.”

Most of the action took place in the first two drives of the game.

Sherrard scored on the opening possession with Justin Miller’s one-yard run just little more than two minutes in to make it a 7-0 Tigers’ lead.

On the Bombers’ initial possession, senior running back Brian Elliott found the end zone on a two-yard plunge, capping off a seven-play drive to knot it up at 7-7 with 6:39 showing in the first.

Up until the final three minutes of play, both teams struggled to get momentum.

“We weren’t able to throw the ball,” Sears said. “We were sort of taken out of our style of play.”

Macomb (2-4 overall, 0-3 Olympic) chalked up 192 yards rushing on 33 carries, while Sherrard (6-0, 3-0) had 223 yards on 33 touches.

Elliott totaled 82 yards on 18 carries for MHS, while teammate Alex Roberts ran for 61 yards on 14 attempts.

“We had to play without two seniors tonight,” Sears said of Bradley Mason, who was injured earlier in the season, and lineman Robert McKee, who left Friday’s game with a shoulder injury in the first half. “That really hurt us.”

Frye carried the ball eight times for 112 yards to lead the Sherrard ground attack.

“We’re going to get back at it,” Sears said. “We have to win out to make the show, to make the dance (playoffs).

“We’ve been in this position before,” Sears added. “Our kids stepped it up, and I’m proud of them tonight. We’re pretty confident about the last three games, and we’re going to pull them out.”

The Bombers travel to Rockridge next Saturday with kickoff set for 1:30 p.m.