On Oct. 24, Fenton traveled to DeWitt to take on the Panthers in the 2023 Michigan High School Division Three Playoffs. Fenton did not have the easiest task in the first round of playing DeWitt, who was coming into the game at 6-2. If Fenton had beat DeWitt they would have moved on to play Mason for a second time, who they already lost to 49-20 at Fenton. Coming into the playoffs, Mason was the second best team in the state in Division Three football and the nineteenth best team in the state of Michigan, according to maxpreps.com.
In the end, Fenton had a good season with lots of momentum to build off. Fenton started the season 6-1 with several victories including against rivals Linden and Holly. But on Oct. 14, Fenton traveled to Corunna for the league championship game and everything changed. The Tigers could not get anything going as they ended up losing 57-7. The next week they lost to Mason 49-20 before losing to DeWitt in the playoffs 56-28.
Even though there can be lots of rationale for Fenton’s losses, including injuries and playing good teams, the truth is Fenton was just never able to get things going late in the season. But even though the Tigers couldn’t get things going late, they were still able to finish 5-0 in their division and finish their season with a winning record for the 16th straight year. Some teams can play well for a little bit, but Fenton has always been a good football program. To have a winning record for 16 straight years and to consistently have good enough players to win has made Fenton an intimidating team to many opponents. Fenton also finished first in their division for the fourth time in the last five years. Looking back to the 60’s and 70’s, even then, the Fenton football team would constantly be at the top of their league’s standings.
Although Fenton’s football team was hoping for a run in the playoffs, they’re going to have to settle for a good season that ended with a frustrating three-game losing streak. As the football season wraps up, this is yet again just another winning football season for the Tigers that will go into the history books.
Even though Fenton’s season ended with another frustrating playoff loss, the team has lots of reasons to be happy. Senior Noah Dotson (5) finished with a QB rating of 117 on the season and seniors Kristan Kilpatrick (2) and Ben Triola (4) were both great wide receivers who averaged 40 or more receiving yards per game. Senior Ja’Hion Bond (8) was also one of Fenton’s leading wide receivers but was hurt for the end of the season which hurt the Tigers a lot. Senior Jake Nicholas (6) also had a good year averaging 66.8 rushing yards per game and junior Evan Crane (18) was a beast on defense, averaging 7.1 tackles per game and also recovering two fumbles which both led the team. So even after a disappointing loss to DeWitt in the playoffs and a tough end of the season for the Tigers, the truth is Fenton showed a lot of growth from last year and has many reasons to be excited for the 2024 football season.
