During an evening of wild twists and spine tingling turns it was only fitting that the oddities of high school football did not end after Howell’s rock ‘em sock ‘em 38-27 victory Friday over archrival Brighton at the Dog Pound.
Afterwards, Howell coach Brian Lewis received more good news when he found out that Novi (3-5 overall, 3-4 in the KLAA) upset Northville (6-2 overall, 5-2 in the KLAA). Had Northville won, the West Division would have finished in a three-way tie with Howell, Brighton and Northville.
School officials would then need to pull out their calculators to determine which West tri-champion would represent the division in next Friday’s KLAA championship game at Belleville.
Since Northville lost, Howell (7-1 overall, 6-1 in the KLAA) and Brighton (6-2, 6-1) are tied for the division lead. The first tie breaker to determine the league representative is head-to-head competition which Howell won.
Barely.
Howell travels to Belleville (7-1 overall, 7-0 in the KLAA) next Friday for a rematch of the 2024 KLAA championship game. Howell pulled off a huge upset to defeat current University of Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood and his Belleville team.
Belleville was the number one team in the state at the time and now seeks revenge.
“It’s exciting,” Howell lineman Connor Chouinard said of the rematch with Belleville. “They are a great team, college D-I talent. They want revenge. We know what’s coming. We just take it day by day like we always do.”
Howell is on a roll. It has won 18 of its last 20 games and owns a four-game winning streak over Brighton, the former king of Livingston County football. The Highlanders have won their last five games after a loss to Northville -- outscoring its opponents 214-49.
The Brighton-Howell game had more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie novel. Howell roared to a 34-14 third quarter lead behind the running of junior Bryce Kish (217 yards on 19 carries and four touchdowns) who not only followed his dominate offensive line, but also broke tackles along the way.
He broke a 14-14 half time tie with a 52-yard run. He followed that up with touchdown runs of 44 and 40 yards that pushed Howell's lead to 20.
However, this game turned into kids playing kids. Brighton could not pull out the win because of dropped passes. Howell could not put Brighton away because of penalties and a key fumble by Kish.
Brighton sliced the lead to 34-28 thanks to a recovered onside kick and the Kish fumble. Brighton sophomore quarterback Dom D’Aosta (15 of 35 passing for 237 yards and a touchdown) rallied his team with pinpoint passing. His numbers would have been better without the seven dropped passes.
“Howell and Brighton,” Howell coach Brian Lewis said. “You just strap it up.”