FNV Huron League Focus

By Chris Schultz

For those of you who have been around a minute, you know that Friday Night Victors was started in 2009 as the Huron League Blog. Then, back in 2015 or so, we decided to include all of the teams that were in Monroe County. Things have worked out great since then as our coverage area has grown and we get the opportunity to talk about 8 other schools each week.

Over the years, I have had many people reach out to me and ask if I could include a section dedicated to just the Huron League. While I had some reservations in doing this, I didn’t want to forget our roots. So each week, I will write a small article talking about the games in the Huron League strictly from my perspective.

So here we go……

Grosse Ile (0-2) @ SMCC (1-1)

The Red Devils have struggled thus far this season to score points (13), but they have played two very good teams who could each win their league (Ida and Flat Rock) and also make long playoff runs. GI suffered some heavy graduation losses and it may take them a while to gell. The schedule doesn’t get any easier but expect the Devils to start putting up points and find themselves in some competitive games over the coming weeks.

Most everyone seems to think that SMCC is a year away from getting back to where they expect to be on a yearly basis. While the Falcon boast a young team, there is talent there and going to New Boston and beating Huron showed what the Catholics are capable of. Ian Foster seems to have settled in at the QB spot while his backup up Brady Hines has shown Michael Pannone traits back at the safety position.

Expect a competitive game this week between the two teams. GI has seen the T once this season already and expect Matthew Pizzo to get on track while sophomore QB Tanner Symons gains valuable experience. The Falcons have seen good talent in the first two weeks of the season and their speed should be evident when they host the Islanders on Friday.

Huron (0-2) @ Milan (2-0)

Many Huron faithful figured the Chiefs would be 2-0 at this point of the season. Churchill proved to be no easy opponent and SMCC’s traditional dominance over the Chief program continued. Much like Grosse Ile, Huron has struggled to score this season. While Huron has some speed, they looked woefully slow against a fairly fast SMCC team last week.

After going 3-6 last season, Milan finds themselves undefeated after week 2. While not many would have expected this, the Milan defense has been solid thus far this season. The offense has struggled a bit through two weeks and the Big Reds committed far too many penalties and turned the ball over way too much against Jefferson in week 2. Milan has struggled to score a little bit this season and is going to need to find a way to put up points. Their solid defense is going to have some high-powered offenses visiting in the not-so-distant future.

Once again this should be a competitive game. I think you can ignore the records coming in. These teams played a low-scoring game last season (13-12 Chief victory) and I would expect more of the same. If you like a low-scoring, defensive struggle, this may be your game of choice this week in the Huron League.

Riverview (1-1) @ Jefferson (0-2)

The Pirates lost their first league and regular season games in what seems like an eternity (2019) when they were handled by Airport (48-27) in week 2. Riverview’s defense struggled mightily against the Jets, but the offense was still able to score. The Pirates get a few players back this week and should be pretty angry when they travel down to Marc Cisco Field on Friday.

A young Jefferson team competed better than many expected when they played Milan last week. While the game was never really in jeopardy, the Bears showed they have some talent. It will be tough for the Bears to compete in the rugged Huron League with 14 freshmen on the roster however, the future seems bright. Senior Malachi Prybil is a very good player and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Unfortunately, this game may get out of hand. The Pirates have outscored the Bears 162-25 over the last 4 seasons and I’m not sure if the Bears can stop the Riverview T offense. The Pirates do give up points. It will be interesting to see if the Bears can find the endzone a few or more times on Friday.

Airport (2-0) @ Flat Rock (2-0)

The Jets have shown why I picked them to win the Huron League this season. They have pretty much dominated two good high school football teams (Riverview and Carlson) so far this season. As everyone knows the Jets boast a four-headed monster on both sides of the ball with Cooper Nye, Jack Mills, Nolan Zajac and Colin Nowak, but there is another foor-headed monster that Jet opponents need to worry about and that is the often over-looked 2 way senior, Matthew Foor. Foor, quite simply is a beast (6-3, 210lb) who has a great motor. No doubt, Huron League coaches must game plan on how to neutralize him defensively during a game.

The Mighty Rams of Flat Rock have shown thus far this season that last year’s success was no fluke. The Rams are big and physical on the offensive and defensive lines and obviously have a ton of skill talent. Junior QB Graham Junge has multiple receivers to choose from in Adam Szalay, Alex Gillum and Rocco Breslin. Senior RB Brian Booms often gets overshadowed by other backs in the league. but is a rugged runner capable of toting the rock 25 times a game.

This should be a great game as the two teams battle for the jug in what will be the first game played on Flat Rock’s new turf field. Expect a huge crowd and lots of fireworks as these two upper-echelon teams in the Huron League battle for league supremacy.