By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
OTSEGO – It was back to the basics for the Dowagiac varsity football team here Friday night against the winless Bulldogs.
Dowagiac rushed for 430 yards and came away with a 44-0 Wolverine Conference victory that clinched a spot in the Michigan High School Athletic Association playoffs.
The win also kept alive the Chieftains' slim hope of grabbing a share of the league championship.
Dowagiac (6-2) trails Gull Lake and Three Rivers by a game. The Blue Devils and Wildcats improved to 7-1 on Friday night with wins over Plainwell (39-6) and Comstock (37-20) respectively.
Senior Jake Shelton and junior Jamie Simpson both had big nights running the football for the Chieftains.
Shelton ran for a game-high 150 yards and two touchdowns on just nine touches. Simpson ran for an additional 120 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries. Senior Mike Laylin added 89 yards on six totes.
The Chieftains, who rebounded from a disappointing overtime loss to Gull Lake the previous week, scored a pair of touchdowns in the opening 12 minutes of play.
Simpson found the end zone first with a 25-yard run. Shelton followed with a 3-yard run to make it 14-0 following a pair of Kyle Prak extra point kicks.
Prak took over the point-after-touchdown duties from Tony Black, whose 26-yard field goal gave the Chieftains a 17-0 advantage early in the second quarter.
Black continues to handle the kickoff and field goals for the Chieftains.
It appeared that Dowagiac would have to settle for a 17-point halftime advantage until Simpson struck again. The speedy running back found an opening on the right side of the offensive line and raced 35-yards for his second score of the night.
"We wanted them to come out and play as a team and have some fun," Dowagiac coach Mike Stanger said of the game plan for Friday night. "Overall, I thought we played a pretty good game. We have to continue to play like this and get better. This week's game is very important for a lot of reasons. We want to finish the season strong and a 7-2 record looks a lot better than a 6-3 record. We don't want to stumble into the playoffs."
Dowagiac didn't sit on its 24-0 halftime advantage. The Chieftains came out and scored a pair of third quarter touchdowns to extend their advantage to 38-0 and to force a running clock.
Laylin and Shelton scored Dowagiac's third quarter touchdowns, both from 4-yards out.
The Chieftains capped the scoring in the final quarter when reserve running back DeShaun Baylock scored from 4-yards out.
Prak connected on his first six extra points, however, the seventh attempt was blocked.
"I can't say enough about our offensive line," Stanger said. "They have just dominated people up front. We got Drew Staley back this week and he did a good job for missing the last two games. Our running backs are running hard and finding the holes."
Defensively, the Chieftains flew to the football and hit as hard as they have in any game this season.
Senior Nick File picked off his 15th career pass, setting a new school record. File eclipsed the old record held by current Dowagiac varsity baseball coach Andy Kruger.
"Nick works hard back there," Stanger noted. "It was nice to see him break the record."
Prak also had an interception for the Chieftains.
Dowagiac will wrap up the regular season on Friday against visiting Paw Paw.
The Chieftains will then find out on Sunday where they will play in the opening round of the playoffs.
Kickoff for Friday night's regular season finale is 7 p.m. at Chris Taylor-Alumni Field.
Dowagiac 14 10 14 6 – 44
Otsego 0 0 0 0 – 0
D – Jamie Simpson 25 run (Kyle Prak kick)
D – Jake Shelton 3 run (Prak kick)
D – Tony Black 26 field goal
D – Simpson 35 run (Prak kick)
D – Mike Laylin 4 run (Prak kick)
D – Shelton 4 run (Prak kick)
D – DeShaun Baylock 4 run (kick blocked)