JACKSON — The historic run of the Cassopolis football team toward a state championship ran into a wall Saturday.

That wall came in the form of Detroit Loyola, which defeated the Rangers 54-22 in the Division 7 state semifinals at Jackson High School.

The Bulldogs, who were defeated in the state semifinal in 2015, have a roster full of players over 200 pounds, including a trio that trip the scale at more than 300.

Despite being outsized, Cassopolis proved it was the fight in the dog, not the size of it that makes a team.

The Rangers (12-1) needed a few things to go their way in order to take down Loyola and had several opportunities to swing the tide of the game in the first half.

On its initial drive, Cassopolis was flagged for a holding call as it appeared to be heading for a touchdown.

Instead the Rangers were forced to punt and on their opening drive, the Bulldogs took a 7-0 lead on a 49-yard run by D’anthony Robinson.

As Loyola was driving toward another touchdown, Cassopolis’ Ricky Jackson batted a pass by the Bulldogs’ Price Watkins up in the air and it appeared that the Rangers hand interception inside their own 10-yard line.

But the ball ended up on the ground and the Bulldogs would go on to take a 16-0 lead as Watkins hit Hunter Price with a 14-yard touchdown pass.

The Rangers were able to cut the lead to 16-6 when quarterback Shane Los called his own number and scored one a 1-yard run. The conversion pass failed, but Cassopolis had some momentum.

That momentum continued as the Rangers forced a turnover inside the “red zone” and was driving near midfield when Los was stripped of the ball while trying to escape a collapsing pocket.

Loyola would make the Rangers pay as Curtis Martin capped the drive with a 9-yard run to make it 24-6.

It would not get any better for Cassopolis in the second quarter as the Bulldogs would score twice more before halftime, once after recovering a squib kick.

Detroit Loyola went into the halftime leading 40-6.

“We knew coming in that we were going to have to play a perfect game and have some things go our way,” said Cassopolis coach Dan Purlee. “We could not afford turnovers and we needed to force some turnovers. It did not exactly go that way. We had some chances early in the game. We had an interception that we dropped. We got a little momentum going there in the second quarter and we turned it over and then the flood gates opened up there after that.

“But our kids showed some fight in the second half. I was happy with the way they responded after halftime.”

The Bulldogs (12-1) would add a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter to complete their scoring.

Cassopolis would show its character by not giving up and scoring a pair of second half touchdowns of its own.

The first game on a 65-yard Brandon Anderson kickoff return, while Hunter Parsons would score on a 1-yard run.

Parsons would finish the day with 67 yards to lead the Rangers in rushing. Anderson finished with 61 yards.

Robinson led all running backs with 90 yards on 12 carries before being injured in the first half. He did not return to the game.

Detroit Loyola will face Orchard Lake St. Marys (9-4) in the Division 7 championship game at Ford Field at 10 a.m. Saturday.

“It is another stop forward and we are happy about that,” Purlee, whose team won the school’s first regional championship said. “We feel good about the future. We have a lot of areas we need to continue to improve on, but we have a lot of quality players coming back and coming up. So if we can just worry about ourselves and keep getting better, we feel that we are going to have come big games down the road.”

A complete box score available at leaderpub.com.

 

LOYOLA 54, CASSOPOLIS 22

At Jackson

Loyola             16       24       14       0 – 54

Cassopolis      0          6          8          8 – 22

DL – D’anthony Robinson 49 run (conversion run).

DL – Hunter Harris 14 pass from Price Watkins (conversion run).

C – Shane Los 1 run (pass fails).

DL – Curtis Martin 9 run (conversion run).

DL – Jimmie Chappell 4 run (conversion run).

DL – Chappell 21 pass from Watkins (conversion run).

DL – Watkins 7 run (run fails).

DL – Luther Robinson 3 run (conversion run).

C – Brandon Anderson 65 kick return (Los pass to Micah Welch).

C – Hunter Parsons 1 run (Los run).

Varsity records: Detroit Loyola 11-2, Cassopolis 11-2.