John Raffel
Sports Scene
Ithaca’s Travis Smith didn’t play like a sophomore quarterback in the Division 6 state championship game at Ford Field in the 42-14 win over Constantine. He looked more like a seasoned senior after throwing for 299 yards, passing for one touchdown, and running for two.
It was basically how Smith had performed since early in the regular season when called upon to replace the injured David Brown, who caught six passes for 122 yards in the title game.
“Coach Hessbrook told me to go in there and do what I could do,” Smith said. “I’ve got so many good athletes around me. It turned out so well.”
Smith was 18 of 25 against Constantine.
Brown had opened the season at quarterback before sustaining his injury.
“You score a touchdown, don’t know what’s happening, and you’re out of the game,” Brown said. “It’s been a heckuva ride just rehabbing it. To get back here is an amazing feeling. You hear your number called and coach put me in at quarterback, and it was fitting to score a touchdown and then end the game [at quarterback].”
Brown had a 2-yard touchdown run while playing quarterback late in the game.
Ithaca netted 130 yards rushing but stung the Constantine defense with the 299 passing yards.
“We want to be balanced, but we’ll take whatever they give us,” said Ithaca coach Terry Hessbrook. “We liked some of our match-ups in the passing game. With what we saw on film, we thought we could get our athletes in spaces and run a controlled passing game. We don’t throw a lot of deep balls. You don’t see us throw 50 to 60 yards down the field. Some of those short pass plays we run are like running plays for us. We just try to get it out quick and get it to guys like No. 4 [Brown] at the end, and he makes the coaches look really smart.”
“Every week we go over with the receivers and get our timing down,” Smith said. “I’m grateful for all the players around me. They’ve been good. Whenever I get down they pick me up. I’ve been lucky to have all the players around me. I give them the ball, let them do what they do, and we keep winning games.”
Winning games is something Brown enjoyed in his senior year.
“The second one feels so much more special,” Brown said. “It’s just being a senior and you’re top dog. Everyone is looking up to you and will lean on you to do what is right.”
“We’ve played offenses with that type of talent, last week for instance,” Constantine coach Shawn Griffith said, referring to his team’s 45-44 win in the semifinals over Ecorse. “We aren’t very gifted when it comes to playing in space. People see Ithaca and Ecorse running that spread and think everyone should run that against us. We won’t have the kids to put in those spaces.”
Griffith was asked to compare Ithaca’s quarterback and Ecorse’s quarterback.
“I think they’re both real good quarterbacks,” he said. “Ecorse’s quarterback probably has a strong arm and is more athletic. Ithaca has great athletes, runners. We didn’t do a good job of tackling them. When you look at quarterbacks like that at Division 6 level, that’s pretty impressive. We’ve got some good football here in Michigan.”
Brown missed seven games with a torn ankle ligament. He came back in week 8.
“They said I’d be out 6 to 12 [weeks], and I came back in seven,” Brown said. “When I went back to receiver, since I had played there two years, I went right in and our offense didn’t miss a beat.”