Oak Park, MI. – Anytime you get near a Detroit area high school football game you know you’re going to see dogfight and that was true on a warm Friday night at Oak Park High School as they played host to the Birmingham Groves Falcons. The Falcons had defeated their prior opponents by an average of over 20 points but the Knights had other plans.
Oak Park started slow but the defense came up big and forced a punt as they were threatening to take the early lead. It was then the KNights running game took over. With a crowded backfield of NCAA Division 1 college talent, it was the senior DeVonta Twymon who put on a big show. Twymon would finish in the 26-14 victory with 190 yards on 20 carries. His first three carries of the game were over 9 yards each.
Travis Boston Junior put the Knights on the board first as the junior used his elusive speed to run over and around the Falcons defenders on his way to a big 22-yard score. From there the defense took over and kept the Falcons in check for most of the game.
The Knights have a team loaded with talent with many already announcing their commitments to such top tier colleges such as Kentucky and Penn State and it showed as the Falcons could not muster any offense at all throughout the first half. Falcons quarterback Markis Alexander would only complete 6 passes throughout the first three quarters for only 36 yards and the ground game could only gain 71 yards throughout the game, 37 of those on Ralph Donaldson’s touchdown run.
The Knights finished the game with 268 yards of rushing and 401 yards of total offense. Quarterback Frank Black rushed for short scores of one and two yards, respectively, including a dive on fourth and goal. Black also connected with senior wide receiver Maliq Carr for a 36-yard touchdown pass.
As well as Oak Park’s run game succeeded against Groves, the Knights actually didn’t have designs to carry the 50 times like it ended up doing. “Our game plan, it wasn’t originally to run,” Black said. “We were going to pass because they do that cover three and they’re bailing out right away, they’ll do pick-outs. But the run was there and we started clicking so we stuck with it.”
The Oak Park offensive line did a great job of opening holes all night as many of the Knights’ runs went between the tackles. “The run game, the offensive line, we were popping off the line and blowing them back,” Oak Park’s 6-foot-4, 270-pound junior offensive tackle Rayshaun Benny said. “Then, it was working. Our running backs made the right cuts and it worked. So, we stuck with it.”
“We played well but we need to be tougher, we know we have a lot riding on this season, ” Defensive lineman Dondi Price said. Price made a shoestring touchdown-saving tackle in the fourth quarter.
Birmingham Groves (3-1) looks to bounce back next week against Athens while Oak Park will travel to Rochester Hills for a neutral conference game against Stoney Brook. Oak Park, the 5th ranked team in the state, stands at 3-1, its only loss to 3rd ranked West Bloomfield.
