By Sammy Taormina
West Bloomfield vs Davison: This is shaping up to be a very interesting Division One State Final in downtown Detroit on Saturday afternoon. Davison is the defending Division One State Champions and they are back to defend their state crown. The Cardinals defense led by Harry Unger, Carter Herriman, and Will Watkins have been dominant allowing 10 points in the last two weeks against Novi Detroit Catholic Central and Rockford. They held the Rams to 64 yards and had two interceptions both were caught by Watkins. He would take one back for a touchdown in a 27-3 stunner over Rockford on the road in the State Semifinals. Davison has a very good secondary led by Teavon Warren, JayLen Flowers, and Clarke Hamilton. The Cardinals offensively has rely on a wide receiver turned quarterback Dion Brown. Brown is a Wayne State commit. He has played every skill position at some time during the season but particularly at wide receiver. Brown became the starting quarterback after then quarterback Brendan Sullivan enrolled early at Northwestern. He has played well as a game manager and athlete in the last two weeks including going seven for 14 for 97 yards and a 31 yard touchdown pass to Flowers whom is also a wide receiver on a fourth down and 12 to blow the game wide open against the Rams. The Cardinals have two very good running backs whom are different in nature. They have a bruising back in Carter Cryderman. Cryderman has played really well and Warren as their speed back as well as he had 30 carries for 163 yards and two touchdowns against Rockford. What helps is that Davison has an experienced offensive line from the team that was in the State Finals last season against Brighton. They are well coached under Jacob Weingartz. Weingartz coached at Lapeer East and was an assistant at Lapeer before taking over the Davison job in 2019. The Cardinals will see a juggernaut of a player in Donovan Edwards. Edwards is having a monster season along with other very talented players in Dillion Tatum, Alex Short, Semaj Morgan, among others. The Lakers have been to the State Finals before in 2017 when they fell to Clarkston 3-2. This could be a low scoring game especially with how good both defenses are even though West Bloomfield played Belleville last week which required double overtime in the State Semifinals. Even though this will be the first ever meeting between the Lakers and Cardinals in varsity both of these programs are no strangers to one another. They met in junior varsity this season at Davison where the Lakers won that game. Both teams have been dominant this season but West Bloomfield has been more battle tested than Davison. Athletically favors the Lakers. They have played schools like Lake Orion, Oxford, and Clarkston that are similar to Davison in the Red. Physically favors the Cardinals especially up front. Like I said earlier this is going to be a very interesting Division One State Final at Ford Field.