First Round Upsets Do Happen.

Written Monday November 2nd at 11:00 AM.

When your going into the State playoffs, fresh off winning a league championship, have multiple home games in front of you. It will clearly get you to at least the State semifinals.

Ugh not so much, you got to win them, it's win and advance. If not then you go home.

West Bloomfield whom was ranked second in the State found out that if you don't take an opponent that has nothing to lose lightly then they could get you and that's what happened when the Lakers full of Division One recruits were upset 31-28 by Novi on Friday night. The Wildcats do have one Division One recruit on their team though and he starred throughout the night.

It's dangerous to go undefeated because you know you will get everybody's best shot. There are those who assume and think OK, the 9-0 team is going to steamroll the 5-4 or 6-3 team, it doesn't matter. If that 5-4 team played in a tough league or conference then it's going to be dangerous because no one is giving them a chance and in their minds they have nothing to lose.

A perfect example of this happened in 2006 with Orion. The Dragons finished undefeated in the regular season but had a trap game with Waterford Mott in the playoffs before getting upset in the district finals to Clarkston at home. In 2010, Plymouth Canton, a team many picked to win the State title was upset in the district finals by arch rival Plymouth. The Wildcats would go to the State finals in that season.

The Lakers were the top team in the OAA this season. They were undefeated for the first time since 1968. They had major wins over Orion and Clarkston. West Bloomfield was hungry and determined to get rid of it's playoff demons that had haunted them. The Lakers made the playoffs for the first time since 2008 in 2014, they won a playoff game over Livonia Stevenson before losing to Walled Lake Central 11-7 in the district finals.

West Bloomfield had so much riding on them. They were suppose to be the team that goes to the State Finals and beat the likes of Lapeer, Detroit Cass Tech, and Saline especially with the talent they had this season.

Sadly they were not and now they are 1-2 in the playoffs in the last two seasons.

Some can also say the same thing with Southfield with the amount of young talent and expectation that the Blue Jays have but they are still in the playoffs. Let's not forget Southfield was a State semifinalist last season. They have a great shot to get back there and possibly Ford Field. The Blue Jays need to beat either Detroit Martin Luther King or Detroit East English Village Prep to make that dream happen.

The Harrison Hawks another top team in the league and traditional playoff team. They won the White and played a difficult schedule but lost to Groves 10-0 in the first round. The Falcons came in at 9-0 but they were in the Blue which is a division below than the White. It might had helped that Groves played Ann Arbor Pioneer in week nine where they barely won 18-14. Also we don't know the Hawks sickie after giving up the punt return to Tristan Jackson last week in their 20-14 loss to West Bloomfield.

Friday night is proof that teams are not invincible or unbeatable. There is a danger and that any team can be beat on any given day. That's what happened at the Swamp, it can happen anywhere.