MARQUETTE — For the third straight season, Suttons Bay will compete in the state championship in 8-player football. For the second consecutive year, the Norsemen will face Adrian Lenawee Christian.
“It’s a blessing and phenomenal that we even get the chance to do it,” Suttons Bay head coach Garrick Opie said. “The guys have worked very hard to get there.”
After a thrilling 42-36 overtime win over Rudyard in the semifinals, Suttons Bay got right to work, preparing for Saturday’s game.
“As a coach I think you sit there and you go ‘well that was awesome’ for five minutes and then you go home and you watch a bunch of film and you say on to the next,” Opie said.
On Friday, the community helped send them to Marquette, hoping that the third time is the charm and they come back as state champs.
“(It showed how much) the community really supports us and how much they want us to win and it’s more than just football sometimes,” Lake Leelanau St. Mary junior Shawn Bramer said.
The Norsemen will face Lenawee Christian in a rematch of last year’s state championship, where they lost 47-0. Both teams are undefeated entering this matchup, and the Norsemen know they are once again considered the underdogs in this matchup.
“I think being the underdog is always a great position to be in because I think when you’re at the top of the mountain, you never know what the mindset’s going to be,” Opie said. “Being the underdog, I think you have a little bit of a chip on your shoulder.”
The Norsemen will compete for a state championship on Saturday at the Superior Dome in Marquette at 11 a.m.
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