By SCOTT NOVAK
Dowagiac Daily News

An 18-point third quarter broke open a close game and led host Dowagiac to a 38-7 Wolverine Conference win over Otsego at Chris Taylor-Alumni Field Friday night.
The Chieftains (7-1) led 13-0 at halftime, but scored three times in the third quarter to take a commanding 38-0 lead on the Bulldogs (5-3).

Troy and Tremail Butcher sandwiched Anthony Nelson’s 1-yard run with a 4-yard run and an acrobatic 31-yard touchdown pass from Mike Pranschke.

The Chieftains opened the scoring with 5:43 to play in the first quarter when Jon Myers capped a nice eight play, 70 yard drive with a 9-yard run through the middle of the Otsego defense.

The Chieftains made it 13-0 just before halftime when on fourth down, Austin Adams found Brandon Douglas open for a 10-yard touchdown pass.

“That touchdown right before halftime was huge,” Dowagiac coach Mike Stanger said. “Then the opening drive of the third quarter sent a message too.”

The Chieftains were one of two on extra points kicks and made just three point-after-touchdown attempts on the evening.

Dowagiac opened up the second half by driving the ball 54 yards in six plays to make it 19-0 on a 4-yard run by Troy Butcher.

Seven minutes and 10 seconds later, the Chieftains upped the advantage to 25-0 when Nelson scored on a one-yard run to cap a nine play, 75-yard drive.

Dowagiac wasn’t through just yet.

With 46 seconds left on the third quarter clock, Pranschke found tight end Tremail Butcher open in the middle of the field. Butcher tipped the ball away from the Otsego defender, hauled it in on the carom and then finished the 31-yard scoring play.

Early in the fourth quarter, Dowagiac completed its scoring with a 4-yard run by Steven Baylock.

The Bulldogs averted the shutout with a nice drive that concluded with a 10-yard touchdown run by Mitchell Fricano.

The Chieftains dominated the statistics, rushing for 352 yards and throwing for another 97 stripes.

Otsego on the other hand, finished with just 42 yards on the ground. Jared Klein did hit 5-of-15 passes for 104 yards.

“The defense is getting better every week,” Stanger said. “The kids are getting the grasp of what we are trying to do. We went nickel this week and we haven’t done that since the Three Rivers game.”

Douglas led Dowagiac with 184 yards rushing on 16 carries, which pushed his season total to 1,036 yards. He also caught two passes for 36 yards.

Adams and Pranschke combined to go 6-of-11 for 92 yards with a pair of touchdowns.
“I thought our two quarterbacks did a nice job throwing the ball,” Stanger noted. “I thought our offensive line did a nice job of giving them time to throw the football.”
Ryne Lindsey picked off his fourth pass of the season, while he also recovered a fumble.
Dowagiac also got fumble from Myers.

Of concern were the amount of penalities and the number of times the football was on the ground Friday night.

“We have to clean that up before we get to the playoffs,” he said.

The Chieftains will wrap up the regular season on Friday night at Paw Paw.

Otsego 0 0 0 7 – 7
Dowagiac 7 6 18 7 – 38
D – Jon Myers 9 run (Cody Carnell kick)
D – Brandon Douglas 10 pass from Austin Adams (kick failed)
D – Troy Butcher 4 run (run fails)
D – Anthony Nelson 1 run (run fails)
D – Tremail Butcher 31 pass from Mike Pranschke (kick fails)
D – Steven Baylock 4 run (Carnell kick)
O – Mitchell Fricano 10 run (Ethan Trobeck kick)