text: Farmington Hills Harrison football still alive with wild playoff OT winner
  One play. The very existence of the Farmington Hills Harrison football program hinged on one play.
  Farmington Hills Harrison football still alive with wild playoff OT winner One play. The very existence of the Farmington Hills Harrison football program hinged on one play. Check out this story on Freep.com: https://www.freep.com/story/sports/high-school/mick-mccabe/2018/11/04/farmington-hills-harrison-football-program-alive-wild-playoff-ot-winner/1884724002/
  Mick McCabe, Special to Detroit Free Press Published 12:53 p.m. ET Nov. 4, 2018 | Updated 4:56 p.m. ET Nov. 4, 2018
  Farmington Hills Harrison's Roderick Heard runs for a first down against Farmington during first half action Friday, October 19, 2018 at Farmington Hills Harrison in Farmington Hills, Mich.(Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
  The very existence of the Farmington Hills Harrison football program hinged on one play.
  Birmingham Detroit Country Day kicked a field goal to take a 10-7 lead in overtime Friday night and Harrison faced a fourth-down play from the 3-yard line and elected to attempt a 20-yard field goal to force a second overtime.
  A miss and that was it for the most prolific football program in the state, which will cease to exist as a school in June.
  Rod Heard, Harrison's talented running back/defensive back who has committed to Northwestern, is the holder and he fielded a high snap.
  The snap was too high for Heard to properly spot the ball for the kick, so he pulled it back as kicker David Hiser went through the motion of kicking the ball.
  Heard got up and craziness ensued.
  Heard started left and reversed his field.
  "I knew he couldn't kick it so I just picked it up and tried to run it in," Heard said as tears streamed down his face. "They were outside, so I turned around and saw Max ... and just threw it to him."
  Max Martin began the season as Harrison's quarterback, but was moved to tight end.
  "At first I thought it was blocked," Martin said. "But then right when I saw Rod, something told me to bounce outside. Rod turned, by the grace of God, saw me out there and Lord have mercy he threw the ball. He threw the ball to me! I caught it!"
  Miller caught the ball at the 6-yard line and there was not a defender in sight, allowing him to waltz into the end zone for the 13-10 win.
  Heard was used at quarterback in the wildcat formation a few times this season.
  Farmington Hills Harrison players celebrate after the win against Farmington, Friday, October 19, 2018 in Farmington Hills. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)
  "I'm happy that I have some type of quarterback skills that I played a little quarterback at the beginning of the season so I could make that play when my team needed me to," he said. "You could tell I'm not really a quarterback, that's why it wasn't a perfect spiral."
  Country Day stymied Harrison's offense all game. Harrison got to overtime by kicking a field goal and recording two safeties.
  It almost ended the coaching career of the state's winningest coach, John Herrington.
  "I was thinking, if we lose this game they're going to fire me because I didn't have any offense," he said, laughing. "And, we don't have a school.
  "But we get another game!"
  More: Michigan high school football playoffs: Regional final pairings
  Harrison (8-3) will host Chelsea (8-3) in the regional final. The last time the teams met was in the 2003 playoffs, a game Harrison won, 65-64.
  Notre Dame defensive end Khalid Kareem a former Harrison player and Farmington Hills Harrison head coach John Herrington look at the trophy after the win against Farmington Friday, October 19, 2018 at Farmington Hills Harrison in Farmington Hills, Mich. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)
  Saline had a 14-7 lead on heavily-favored East Kentwood midway through the second quarter when Kionte Blakely broke through the Saline defense and all that was ahead of him was open spaces.
  Blakely, who had scored earlier on a 77-yard screen pass, is a speedster and once he is in the open he is gone.
  But from across the field came Saline defensive back MJ Griffin, who caught Blakely at Saline's 10-yard line.
  "I was on the whole other side of the field so you have to take an angle," said Griffin, a Temple commit. "We do pursuit drills and it's all effort."
  But even the right angle shouldn't have been enough to tackle Blakely.
  "It should have been a touchdown, but I used my track speed to go get him," Griffin said. "Yeah, I know I was going to get him. He's kind of fast, but I'm faster."
  That proved to be the play of the game Saturday in Saline's 42-7 victory because of what Griffin did four plays later, blocking a 24-yard field goal attempt to swing the momentum back to Saline.
  "I got around the edge and I jumped, left my feet," he said. "I wanted to go get that ball and that's what I did."
  This game was another stunner because of the way the Saline defense, particularly ends Jonah Ashby and Brad Wisniewski, made Kentwood's offensive tackles 6-feet-7, 305, Logan Brown (Wisconsin) and 6-3, 320 Mazi Smith (Michigan) not look like Big Ten recruits.
  Ashby had seven tackles and four tackles for loss.
  "I like to use my speed and use my motor," Ashby said. "I think I'm a high-motor guy so I think we kind of wore them out. I would say I out-quicked them. You've just got to find a way to beat them."
  Ashby and Wisniewski pressured the quarterback so much, linebacker Alex Morrison was able to intercept two passes, turning them into touchdown returns of 15 and 70 yards.
  "The defensive line did their job." Morrison said. "Everyone behind me did their job secondary-wise. I just dropped to my zone and the ball was right there. The first one was close, on the second one the D-line turned right into an offensive line and threw some good blocks and I cut off them."
  Saline will host Rockford in the regional final and Saline coach Joe Palka said his team's upset of Kentwood takes a backseat to Dearborn Fordson's 41-14 thrashing of No., 1 Detroit Cass Tech.
  "I thought we were the shocker today," Palka said, "but Fordson's the shocker."
  Lost in all of the hullaballoo of Fordson's upset of Cass Tech was the Marine City's mystifying 41-27 victory over Harper Woods in a Division 5 district final.
  Harper Woods was basically the Detroit East English team that advanced to the PSL final last season and lost to King in the Division 2 state playoffs.
  About 12 East English players followed coach Rod Oden to Harper Woods, which also added other transfers for what should have been a team that walked through the D-5 playoffs.
  "Oh my goodness, their front line was 280, 290, 325," said Marine City coach Ron Glodich. "One of our nose guards, if he goes above 145 I'd be amazed. It had to look ridiculous."
  Marine City started only three seniors and filled out the starting lineup with two freshmen and three sophomores for what should have been a monumental mismatch.
  "They had the most talent since we played Country Day in 2013," Glodich said. "Our kids don't know any better, I guess. So they got punched in the face and they keep coming back play after play."
  The Mariners had three running backs with over 100 yards apiece and served notice they were there for a game by forcing a fumble on the opening kickoff.
  "We had a good smack on the kid and we got the ball and scored," Glodich said. "I think that really set the tone. When we went up, 14-0, I think that's when the kids realized they could play with them. Our whole concept was let's hang with them, let's get into the fourth quarter and let's let fatigue be a factor."
  The Mariners recovered four fumbles and intercepted two passes and never backed down from the bigger Harper Woods team.
  "My little fullback, Jack Kretzschmar, all 165 pounds, he kept smacking, smacking, smacking," said Glodich. "Oh my goodness, he just kept competing all night long. And my other captain, Josh Headlee, gave them fits in the pass rush. He was a monster in the pass rush."
  Marine City will host Detroit Denby in the regional final.
  This is Glodich's seventh season as head coach and 32nd with the program that won state titles in 2013 and 2007 with teams vastly different from this one.
  "In 2013, we had a huge offensive line that could do something special in the fourth quarter," he said. "In 2007, we had a Division I quarterback. This team, maybe one guy plays Division III ball.
  "It's a lot of little, aggressive kids that compete. I think that's the greatest way to say it, they love to compete."