Top-Ranked Belleville Too Much for Saline

The Saline football season came to an end in the Division 1 district finals with a 65-14 loss to two-time defending champion and top-ranked Belleville Saturday.

Nothing went right for the Hornets from the start and an apparent bad call by the officials on the first play of the game put the Hornets in a hole that they would never recover from.

Saline took the opening kickoff and on the first play from scrimmage CJ Carr tossed a swing pass to Caid Fox, who bobbled the pass and the ball fell to the ground and into the hands of a Tigers defender who returned it to the endzone for a score. The missed call by the referee put Saline down 7-0 just 12 seconds into the game and a stunned Hornet team headed to the sideline.

Belleville would extend the lead to 10-0 with a long field goal, but Saline answered with a 90-yard kickoff return by Fox to cut the lead to 10-7.

That would be about the only positive moment in the half to Saline.

Belleville would score on a one-yard run for a 16-7 lead after one and would add three more scores in the second quarter for a 37-7 halftime lead.

The Tigers did not let up in the third with three more scores for a shocking 58-7 lead and running clock after three quarters.

Saline would find the endzone in the fourth when James Rush scored from 13 yards out, but the game was all but over by that point.

The Hornets were outgained 492-226 in the game and the Tigers picked off three Carr passes in the game.

Carr would finish 17-32 for 197 yards in his final game for the Hornets.

LaDanian Woods caught two passes for 93 yards and Jarell Marshall caught five for 44 yards.

Josh Folk caught three for 27, Cole Kreuzer one for 12, Fox two for 10, Dylan Mesman three for nine, and Jaiden Leonard one for two.

The Hornets finished the season with a 9-2 overall record.