There were some terrific individual performances from Friday night’s opening round of the state football playoffs.

The postseason quite often brings out the best in players and teams.

In the case of the Dowagiac-Buchanan game, Chieftain senior Erik Walker may have had the biggest impact of any of the three games featuring four teams from the Leader Publications coverage area.

No one will every mistake Walker for being the biggest player on the field.

Walker stands just 5-foot-8 and weighs only 150 pounds.

But he more than makes up for his lack of size with speed and strength.

Walker used both of these attributes to help Dowagiac rally for a 28-25 Division 5 pre-district victory over the Bucks at Chris Taylor-Alumni Field.

The senior speedster finished with three touchdowns, the biggest of which came on a 76-yard interception return with three minutes to play that rallied the Chieftains from a 25-20 deficit against the Bucks.

Veteran Dowagiac coach Mike Stanger summed it up well when he said that Walker is a “spark plug” for the Chieftains.

“He doesn’t open his mouth. He doesn’t say anything. He just makes plays,” Stanger said following the victory Friday night.

Walker also scored on a 37-yard run and a 77-yard kickoff return.

Buchanan coach Reid McBeth called Waker “a special player.”

He finished the game with 206 yards from scrimmage. If you throw in the interception return that is 282 all-purpose yards.

Walker was not the only player who turned in a big performance for their winning teams.

Brandon Anderson of Cassopolis and Kyle Shrider of Edwardsburg helped propell their teams into the district champoinship games in Division 7 and Division 3 respectively.

Anderson ran for 105 yards and scored on runs of 51- and 5-yards, while he also caught a 35-yard touchdown pass and was 7-of-7 on extra point kicks.

Shrider had a huge night toting the rock as he finished with 214 yards on 20 carries and a trio of touchdowns.

Shrider scored on runs of 61-, 97- and 17-yards as the Eddies avenged a 2012 postseason loss to Hamilton with a 30-8 win over the Hawkeyes Friday night.

All three of these individuals, along with their teammates, must continue to up their games if they want to advance in the playoffs.

I cannot wait to see who steps up this Friday night for the Rangers, Chieftains and Eddies.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com.