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Newberry football a bit surprised by first-round playoff game being on the road

Newberry's Jeff Rahilly, center, follows a block from Dave Carlson, left, in a game played in Norway on Oct. 6. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo by Burt Angeli)

NEWBERRY — On Sunday night, the Newberry football team gathered together to celebrate earning an MHSAA Division 8 first-round playoff game at home.

However, the Indians — and a large chunk of sports journalists — were surprised to learn that the MHSAA decided to send them out on the road in the first round.

It happened because the playoff points used to determine matchups and home field left Newberry 0.333 of a point behind their first-round opponent, Frankfort. Each team had 49-plus points in a system that has been around since the 1980s and awards points based on the class size of your opponents and the number of wins they have.

So now instead of having an advantage at home, Newberry has to travel downstate west of Traverse City to the shores of Lake Michigan to face the Panthers.

Even though it was disappointing not getting to play at home, Indians head coach George Sevarns said that his team isn’t sweating the road trip.

“We had a party down at the (Newberry) Elks (lodge) and it was like somebody taking a big needle and popping our balloon,” he said. “We’re all ready to start cheering and hollering and then we see our name on the screen and we’re all like ‘What?”

“So it was a shocker to get Frankfort and to top it off, it’s down there. We’ve only had three home games this year and to find out we’re going on the road again was a little bit frustrating.

“But the kids are used to it and I don’t think it’s going to have an effect on us.”

Newberry is known for having one of the best offensive teams in the Upper Peninsula and is led by Sevarns’ son George Sevarns. He was named Mid-Eastern Conference Offensive Back of the Year and was also all-conference at quarterback, kicker and punter.

According to Coach Sevarns, George also set the school record for passing yards in a season — he’s currently at 1,665. Sevarns’ favorite target is receiver Jeff Rahilly, who is just short of 1,000 yards receiving. Rahilly was also Newberry’s top rusher with 365 yards on 48 attempts, while Jaylen James had close by with 344 yards on 36 attempts.

The Indians face a Frankfort team that relies heavily on senior running back Griffin Kelly, who Coach Sevarns said is hard to bring down when he gets through the defensive line.

Kelly has gained 1,360 yards rushing this season in 108 carries, a nifty 12.6 yards per carry average, and scored 25 touchdowns, according to the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

He’s also a leader on defense and special teams, making a team-high 88 tackles as a linebacker and returning two interceptions for TDs along with a kickoff and a punt each for one TD.

However, Sevarns is confident that if Newberry can control Kelly, it has a great shot of moving on to the next round.

“I have all the confidence in the world with these boys,” he said. “They’re going to have to play their ‘A’ game because it’s the playoffs, but if we can shut him (Kelly) down, we can definitely win this game.

“We’re probably the underdogs going in, but that’s the way we were with a lot of teams this year. So we’re used to it and hopefully that will give us more motivation.”

Senior QB Kirk Myers has completed 54 of 94 passes for 830 yards and seven TDs but has six interceptions. Myers also gained 264 yards rushing with six TDs that way.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.

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