MAFL Preseason Wrap-up: MID MICHIGAN GRIZZLIES VS MIDWESTERN BULLDOGS

Hello, everyone, this is Chad Roland and I am covering the Midwest Arena Football League this season. Saturday night, we had the Mid-Michigan Grizzlies taking on the Midwestern Bulldogs live at the Total Sports Complex in Novi, MI. Both teams in the first quarter came out trying to get a feel for their opponent. The first big-time play came from the Grizzlies by way of a 20-yard pass from Beihl to Brandon Parker to set the Grizzlies up inside the 5-yard line. The Grizzlies were able to punch it in thanks to a 3-yard run by Dioyanny Banks to get the Grizzlies on the board. Midwestern gave up that TD before but the defense made up for it by causing a fumble and returned for a touchdown by LB/FB Steve Smith to even up the score 6-6

We fast-forward to the third quarter when the Bulldogs had an impressive drive and capped it off with a sneak by quarterback Donovan Sanchez to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the night. After that score, the Grizzlies said, “We can do that as well,” as quarterback Aiko Lewis made at least three men miss on his way to a 20-yard score to tie the ballgame at 12 and end the third quarter.

The 4th quarter brought some energy and attitude from both teams as we saw the pressure of the game play out on the field. The Bulldogs came out and took the lead back again with a rushing TD from LB/FB Steve Smith. Next possession from the Grizzlies resulted in an interception by Johnny Savoy to stop the momentum for Mid Michigan late in the 4th quarter.

With 2 minutes to go in the game, the Grizzlies took over on their own 5 with a chance to make an impressive comeback. The Grizzlies took a deep shot to a wide-open Quan Hunt and he dropped it and that sealed the deal for the Grizzlies as the Bulldogs took the game with the final score of 18-12.

Players that stood out to me in this game were Midwestern DL/TE Lamaar Stovall. He was a menace all over the field. Ended the game with 10 tackles, 5 TFL, 3 sacks, and an interception ON A TOSS PLAY! No matter where the ball was, Stovall was right there to make a huge play and jump out. Another player that stood out to me was QB Aiko Lewis from Mid-Michigan. He is considered the more mobile QB option for this team and when they brought him in, he was making plays not only with his arm but mainly with his legs. Always making at least one man miss and popping out on the tape.

I caught up with MAFL Commissioner Damian Santiago after the game and this is what he had to say when I asked to talk about this game tonight. “What a way to end our official 2024 MAFL preseason, both teams represented the league well and played hard for the fans. We had some production issues in our first live stream, but we are taking care of those issues to provide top-notch quality live streams for the fans at home to see our product and enjoy this arena game we all love”

The regular season kicks off October 19th as the Indianapolis Enforcers take on the Midwestern Bulldogs live on Shady Sports Network.

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