Local 4 Game of the Week: Walled Lake Western vs Mason

This week’s Local 4 high school football Game of the Week is a matchup between two state championship contenders that met in the playoffs last year.

The Walled Lake Western Warriors will travel out west to face the Mason Bulldogs on Friday, Oct. 18, at 7 p.m.

The game will be streaming live on Local 4+ in partnership with State Champs Sports Network.

These two teams met last season in the Division 3 regional final and Mason won an overtime thriller 44-41. Mason also beat Walled Lake Western during the regular season last year 30-7. Walled Lake Western Head Coach Kory Cioroch says the loss in the playoffs motivated his team ahead of this season.

“We‘ve lost two games in the last 19 and they’re both to these guys,” said Cioroch.

“We planned all summer and it had a sour taste in our mouth,” said Cioroch. “We really talked about where we were and trying to get back there and make sure it’s different this time.”

Walled Lake Western enters this game coming off a 37-0 blowout win against Milford.

The Warriors are undefeated and have blown out all of their opponents including Mott (52-14), Kettering (63-0), South Lyon (49-7), Walled Lake Northern (47-9), Lakeland (42-7) and South Lyon East (56-21).

Walled Lake Western has an explosive offense that is led by junior running back Donovan Triplett and sophomore quarterback David Krall.

Triplett is having a breakout season and is hailed as one of the premier running backs in the state. He currently has 1643 rushing yards, 25 total touchdowns and is ranked number nine in The D Zone’s latest Player of the Year Rankings. Triplett credits his faith, work ethic and his teammates for his standout year.

“My faith in God pushes me every single day to do what I do,” said Triplett. “I‘m not the biggest, I‘m not the tallest but my faith in God within me really helps me to just close all that out and just be the best version of myself. I workout a lot, put in the extra time so I can get the extra results. And just having these guys (teammates) blocking for me, such an amazing group of linemen, my fullback , my receivers are out there blocking for me so it’s really easy to be the best.”

Krall is a dual-threat quarterback who guides the Warriors offense as a game manager. Cioroch says his maturity and leadership are beyond his years.

“Sometimes I forget he‘s a sophomore,” said Cioroch on Krall. “He‘s a captain for us. He was voted captain by his teammates. He‘s not playing like a sophomore, he‘s playing like a senior. He‘s a mature kid. He loves football. He does anything we ask him to do. He’s playing really good ball right now and leading our football team.”

The defense is led by standout senior safety Troy Temple. Temple is a talented ball-hawk who currently has six interceptions, including four returned for touchdowns. Temple is also a special teams player and returned a kick for 99 yards to the house. Temple says the team is aiming to limit costly mistakes in special teams.

“We‘re focusing on special teams mainly because they got a big special teams touchdown on us last year that brought them back in the game and then we had a fumble after that,” said Temple. “So we’re focusing on special teams and the small things.”

The Walled Lake Western defense forces plenty of turnovers and only allows seven points per game but they will be going against a high-powered Mason offense scoring 35 points per game.

Mason enters this game coming off a 42-7 blowout win against Fowlerville.

The Bulldogs opened the season with a 26-7 win over Holt and followed with a 55-21 loss against Dewitt. Since the loss, Mason won five straight including Williamston (34-20), Haslett (30-24), Lansing Eastern (58-0) and St. Johns (40-10).

The offense is led by senior quarterback Cason Carswell who is committed to Western Illinois.

Carswell is regarded as the greatest quarterback in Mason’s history as he is the school’s all-time leader in career passing yards, career passing touchdowns, passing yards in a single game, and passing touchdowns in a single game.

The defense is led by senior linebacker Logan Doerr who sets the tone with his physical playstyle. The linebacker was the team‘s leading tackler last season and helped lead the team to its first ever state finals appearance.

Mason has dominated the Capital Area Red Division for the past several seasons.

Last year the Bulldogs finished as the league champion for a fifth straight season and made it all the way to the Division 3 state championship game but lost to Forest Hills Central 27-10.

Both of these teams are contenders for the Division 3 state championship this season. Walled Lake Western is looking to get revenge and continue their undefeated season while Mason is aiming to get back to the state championship game with a different outcome this time.