Geoff Mott
Sports Scene
MOUNT PLEASANT – Mount Pleasant lost just two football games this fall.
DeWitt beat the Oilers 28-16 in the season opener and Zeeland West knocked off the Oilers 62-27 in a Division 3 quarterfinal game.
Mount Pleasant went on to win the Saginaw Valley League North for the fourth time in five seasons, and DeWitt advanced to meet Zeeland West in the Division 3 state championship game.
“It’s really a neat storyline that those two teams that beat us are playing for the title,” Mount Pleasant coach Jason McIntyre said. “It should be pretty fun to see.”
After losing a large group of seniors from a run to the state runner-up finish in 2011, the Oilers finished 5-4 last season, but were forced to forfeit three games and ended up 2-7. Mount Pleasant came back with another large group of experienced seniors this fall.
“We had a group of seniors that set their mind to be a part of something that we’ve done here,” McIntyre said. “As a group last year, maybe we took for granted what we have, and that reality hits that you didn’t commit.
“Individually this year, we were fundamentally there, and that success became reality. I’m really happy for what my seniors did.”
After splitting time last season at quarterback, senior Robert Backus turned in a strong season, completing 112 of 168 passes for 1,708 yards. The 5’11”, 165-pounder threw for 18 touchdowns against five interceptions and ran 87 times for 380 yards and four touchdowns.
“He threw three of those interceptions against DeWitt, including his first pass of the season,” said McIntyre, who was voted the SVL North’s Coach of the Year. “All that hard work and an interception, but he rebounded and stayed focused. He only threw one more interception the rest of the year.
“In our biggest game of the year against Midland High, he threw for 311 and five touchdowns.”
While Senior Michael Tweh led the ground attack with 993 yards on 146 carries in seven games played, senior receiver Eric Huber was named the SVL North’s Most Valuable Player after doing about everything for the Oilers.
Huber caught 45 passes for 768 yards and six touchdowns, ran 22 times for 272 yards and four touchdowns, returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown against Midland, and averaged 30 yards a punt for the season.
Hunter Buczkowski, one of three sophomore starters for the Oilers, led the defense with 121 tackles.
“We’ll have kind of the issue next year [like in 2012], with a small senior class,” McIntyre said. “We’ll have a really strong junior class with those three sophomores getting experience, and we’ll mix them in with our seniors.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us.”