Questions about whether an inexperienced Oxford football team was ready to compete with some of the best football teams in the state were emphatically answered last week.
The Wildcats stunned a packed house at Davison High School with a thrilling 31-28 overtime victory over the Davison Cardinals.
Although some may have considered the Wildcat victory an upset, the Cat’s also handed Davison an overtime loss last year in the opening game, 28-20. Davison went on to win the remainder of its games in the regular season before losing in the state semifinals to the state champion Lowell.
This season, the Cardinals were ranked in some polls as high as fifth in the state and many believed they may be better than last season with acquisition of new quarterback, Drew Schaft, who transferred to Davison from Lapeer East.
What Davison never counted on was a tenacious group of Wildcats who clawed back from a 14-point deficit and played solid defense when needed.
It appeared early that some of the pre-season polls were correct. The Cardinals controlled the ball for more than 14 of the first 19 minutes of the game. Schaft scored the first two touchdowns on runs of three and 15 yards and Davison led 14-0 with 7:15 left in the second quarter.
The Cardinals went for two points on the second score after missing the extra point on the first. The two-point conversion came on an alley-oop-style play in which Schaft lofted the ball into the endzone to his six-foot-five receiver, Derek Fracalossi, who caught it over Oxford’s Steve Flores, who stands about five-foot-six.
Davison continued to go to that play until the overtime when they used it once too often and it was intercepted.
Oxford’s offense finally began to click late in the second quarter. Quarterback Kyle Rowley led the team on a 60-yard drive and scored with 1:09 left before halftime on a one-yard run. Eddie Summers kicked the conversion.
On the ensuing kickoff, Davison fumbled and Brandon Kushel recovered for the Wildcats on the Cardinal 18 yard line. Rowley then threw a sideline pass to Flores with 50 seconds remaining. Flores spun away from two Davison defenders on the play and slipped under a third defender at the goal line to score from 17 yards out.
Flores said following the game that he was not thinking about getting out of bounds on the play to stop the clock.
“All I was thinking about was the endzone,” he said.
Oxford missed the extra point attempt following a bad snap from center and trailed 14-13 at halftime.
Davison appeared poised to continue its assault in the third quarter, taking the opening drive and moving 83 yards down the field. However, Schaft fumbled on the Oxford five-yard line and the Wildcat’s Kris Wright recovered the ball.
The teams’ defenses toughened in the third quarter until a turning point came with 3:30 left in the quarter on a very bizarre play.
On a fourth down and four yards to go near midfield, Schaft was in a shotgun formation and was standing off the line of scrimmage calling out the signals. As he looked down, his mouthpiece fell out of his mouth to the ground. Schaft bent down to pick it up just as the ball was snapped to him. The ball sailed over his head and even though he ran back and recovered it on his own 22, there were Oxford defenders there to pounce on him and take possession.
On the first play, Davison was called for pass interference after Flores was tripped in the endzone attempting to catch a pass. Rowley rifled another pass to Flores who snagged it for the touchdown between two defenders from five-yards out.
Rowley then scored on a two-point conversion to give the Cats a 21-14 lead with 3:13 left in the quarter.
The Oxford defense then got tough, stopping Davison on its 20. A punt of only 20 yards gave the Cats the ball on Davison’s 40 with under a minute left in the third quarter.
Hugo Gomez scampered for a 14 yard run down to the 16. Rowley then ran to the five and scored on another run on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Summer’s conversion put the Cat’s ahead 28-14.
Davison took advantage of an Oxford miscue with 8:06 remaining when a poor snap on a punt gave the Cardinals the ball on Oxford’s 37.
Schaft used the alley-oop play to Fracolossi from seven yards out with 6:08 left. The Cardinals missed the extra point and trailed 28-20 with 6:09 left.
The desperate Cardinals held the Wildcats’ offense to minus 10 yards for the final eight minutes of regulation time but Oxford likewise played solid defense, including two quarterback sacks late in the quarter..
A desperate Davison made its final push with 1:28 left in the game when they got the ball following a punt on Oxford’s 42. With about a minute left, a pass over the middle appeared to have been intercepted by Oxford’s Rowley, who also plays safety. However, a referee in the area was shielded from the play and did not see the apparent interception, ruling the pass incomplete.
Schaft continued moving his team, getting a first down on a fourth and one from the 33 yards line with 53 seconds left. Schaft then hit a receiver for a 20-yard gain down to the 10. An alley-oop pass to Fracalossi was incomplete and another pass was batted down by Rowley.
Then, on a fourth and 10, Schaft went back to the alley-oop to Fracalossi. Flores was called for pass for pass interference, giving Davison a first down on the five yard line. Schaft then used the alley-oop to Fracalossi again to score. They used the play one more time to score the two-point conversion, tying the game at 28 with 12 seconds left.
Oxford won the toss to determine who gets the ball first in overtime. In high school overtime, each team is given the ball on their opponents’ 10 yard line and get four attempts to score. By allowing Davison to go first, Coach Bud Rowley would know if he needed a field goal, touchdown and kicked conversion or touchdown and two-point conversion to win.
On a third down from the five yard line, Schaft went to his alley-oop play once too often. The Wildcats had made a change, putting the taller Rowley at cornerback and shifting Flores to safety. When Schaft lofted the pass to Fracalossi, Rowley went up and snagged it in the corner of the endzone.
At that point, Coach Rowley sent out his kicker, Summers, to end the game quickly. On the field goal attempt, the snap from center was poor but the ball was recovered by the Wildcats at about the 16 yard line.
Summers then was asked to kick a 33 yard field goal, which he made with ease, setting off a huge Oxford celebration.
Summers said he is much more comfortable kicking this season, his second with the Cats. He said he attended two kicking camps over the summer, at University of Michigan and Penn State University. Most of his kickoffs were into the endzone.
Coach Rowley said he was proud of the way his team fought back.
“It was a big, big win. This was really a battle,” he said. “We were down and we battled back. The defense did a great job.”
Even though Davison led in total yardage 355 to 210, the Oxford defense came up with big plays and the team capitalized on Davison miscues.
Kyle Rowley said the win is very important for the Wildcats.
“We went to Lake Orion (for a scrimmage) and didn’t play together. This game we came together. We were down 14 to nothing and really came back and played,” he said.
Rowley ran for two TDs and finished with 68 yards rushing on 15 attempts. He also connected on 7 of 11 passes for 77 yards and the two touchdowns.
Flores, who despite scoring two touchdowns, said he was frustrated by the alley-oop passes but was proud of the way the team fought back.
“This is a huge step for us,” he said. “We’ve got some young guys but we want to get better everyday.”
Oxford’s next game will not be any easier. The Wildcats will travel to Birmingham Groves High School on Saturday to play Brother Rice at 7 p.m.
Rice was the state runner-up last season, losing to Lowell in the finals.
Brother Rice beat Oxford last season but the game was hard-fought, a trademark of Oxford football, with this season being no exception.