Northville Youth Football Association

The Varsity Stallions defeated the Garden City Cougars, 42-20, on Homecoming at Tom Holzer Ford Field on Oct. 2. The Cougars kept it close in the first half, but the Stallions pulled away in the second half.

The defense started out strong, forcing a turnover on downs on the first drive behind tackles by #1 Zane Ader, #52 Aiden Hamilton, and #24 Tyler Shelide. On offense, the Stallions wasted no time scoring. #98 Hunter Stokes ran for a first down on first and ten, then #41 Nathan Brohl picked and wove his way forward for another first down. #14 Cooper Derkach completed a pass to #23 Aiden Kersey, followed by Stokes rushing about 14 yards for a touchdown. The Stallions didn’t convert the extra point, giving them a 6-0 lead with 7:10 left in the first quarter.

#13 Noah Albaugh made his debut at kicker, executing a perfect onside kick recovered by #3 Jacob Heinen. The Stallions offense got back to work, scoring again behind plays by #5 Ryan Jaafar, Stokes, and Derkach. On second and 12, Brohl ran it in for the score. #30 Brody Grezak converted the extra points kick, giving the Stallions a 14-0 lead with 3:27 left in the first quarter. The Cougars scored on their next drive, but the Stallions blocked the extra points kick, leaving the score 14-6 with 43 seconds left in the first quarter. 

The Stallions increased the lead on their next offensive drive. Derkach completed a pass to #84 Ty Stankovic on third and 11 for a first down. After a holding penalty pushed the Stallions back, Stokes regained some of the yards on a run play, then Derkach hit Brohl on a pass for more than 30 yards. Stokes then ran it in for the touchdown. Grezak converted the extra points kick again, and the Stallions were up 22-6 with 10:15 left in the second quarter.

The Stallions forced turnovers on downs on the next two Cougars drives. #27 Ryan Richardson, #5 Ryan Jaafar, #18 Colin Stankovic, Hamilton, and Ty Stankovic all had tackles, with Brohl adding a tackle for loss and Stokes having a huge 12-yard sack. 

After the Cougars picked off a pass, the Stallions defense made a valiant goal-line stand. An intentional grounding penalty pushed the Cougars all the way back to the 15 yard line, but the Cougars scored on a pass to the corner of the endzone, that was almost picked but tipped up and came down in the hands of a Cougar. They converted the extra points kick, leaving the score 22-14 going into halftime.

On their second offensive drive of the second half, the Stallions scored again on a run by Jaafar. Brohl had the first two carries of the drive, picking his way forward for a first down on second and nine. McGarrow picked up eight yards before Derkach ran it in for a touchdown, but the touchdown was called back on a penalty. Hunter and Brohl then picked up first downs before Jaafar ran it in for the score, putting the Stallions up 28-14. 

On first down on the Cougars’ next offensive drive, Kersey had a pick-six behind a great downfield block by Stokes. Grezak again converted the extra-points kick, increasing the lead to 36-14 with 1:37 left in the third quarter. 

The defense kept up the pressure into the fourth quarter. After Garden City recovered a Stallions’ fumble, Grezak and Colin Stankovic had tackles, and Ader and Brohl added tackles for loss to get the ball back for the offense.

Back on offense, Kersey was at quarterback. He completed a pass to Shelide, then an offsides penalty gave the Stallions a first down. A targeting penalty gave the Stallions another first down on a Shelide run. Two holding penalties pushed the Stallions back, but Kersey completed a pass to Ty Stankovic on second and 32 to get the Stallions first and goal. From there, Jaafar ran it in for the score. The Stallions didn’t convert the point-after, leaving the score 42-14. The final touchdown in the game came on a kickoff return for a touchdown by the Cougars. The Cougars didn’t convert their point-after, leading to the final scored of 42-14. 

Garden City recovered their own onside kick, but #6 Andrew Shuikereh picked off a pass on first and ten. Kersey then took a knee before the Stallions celebrated Homecoming with donuts, cookies, and tshirts. 

Next up for the Stallions is the Battle for the Shoe against their cross-town rival, the Northville Colts, at the Big House in Ann Arbor.