To Ford Field, and beyond!

The man-child quarterback who kept an entire defense catching, grabbing air and wondering which way he'll turn, twist or take off, faked a handoff and turned to pitch the football to his tailback. That's when he hit the wall. The wall by the name of Andrew Shafkalis.

The ball bounced playfully along the Athens High School FieldTurf as Cass Tech's Keith Moore landed and watched helplessly. Ultimately it landed in the arms of Shafkalis's teammate Tyler Misiak at the Dragon 25-yard line. And in a moment, the Lake Orion sideline and the western grandstand exploded in joy. A game that seemed destined for overtime at best or a crushing, season-ending loss at worst, fell instead into the waiting arms of a hungry band of Dragons. The 24-21 defeat of the previously undefeated and favored Cass Tech Technicians officially punched Lake Orion's ticket to Ford Field. And next Saturday afternoon they will seek to travel where no LO team has gone before: the Promised Land.

As Misiak lept over the pile still scrambling for the elusive pigskin and face planted, only to re-emerge with the ball safely in his hands, the Cass Tech players dropped to the ground as if their legs had been taken out by an automatic weapon. They were safely in range for a game-tying field goal, and had enough momentum to carry into overtime. In fact, with the ball at Lake Orion's five-yard line, the kick was little more than an extra-point's distance, a kick [name of CT kicker] had made dozens of times this season.

Nearly as unexpected as the turn of events was the play call itself. The Dragons' defensive line had spent most of the afternoon in Cass Tech's backfield blowing up plays. Yet as vulnerable as Moore was in his own backfield, he was just as lethal once he crossed the line of scrimmage.

What was expected, however, was the resolve of a battered Lake Orion team who once again elevated its level of play to assuage the loss of junior quarterback Sean Charrette, who suffered a severe sprain to his left ankle in the first quarter of last week's win over Utica Eisenhower. Charrette's multi-talented wide-receiver-turned-backup-QB Cole Schaenzer (see pic) has stepped in since then, and while unafraid to drop darts downfield on third down, he's careful not to put his team's success squarely on his shoulders.

"Everyone knows we’ve got one of the area’s best quarterbacks (in Sean Charette)," coach Chris Bell said after the win. "But we weren’t worried when he went down because we know we’re very lucky to have a guy like Cole to keep this thing rolling."

By "this thing" Coach Bell could well be referring to tailback Marques Stevenson (see my pic). The one-man lightning bolt followed up his other-worldly 14-carry, 290-yard detonation of Grand Blanc in the Region 3 final with a merely sensational 190 yards on 25 carries, including a sprint up the middle that resulted in a 42-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7-7 in the first half. Danny Ney added 82 yards on a workmanlike 16 carries. Cristian Burks led the Technicians attack with 142 yards on 18 carries, including touchdown runs of 15 and 46 yards in the first half.

One more challenge awaits this dream team, a dream date with the real Division 1 Cinderella. Plymouth High School, who dropped the state's #1 team, Canton, in the Divisional round, crushed Rockford's title hopes Saturday afternoon 20-17, scoring the winning TD on a 26-yard pass with :11 left on the clock. Pumpkins anyone?