Michigan

Dillon. Ypsilanti Lincoln’s senior quarterback, suddenly has his team asking itself a question that it hasn’t been able to ask for about a decade: Can the Railsplitters win a third straight game Friday Sept. 25 against Chelsea?

Lincoln, which now has two wins in a season for the first time since 2001, has the chance to go over the .500 mark thanks to back-to-back wins over Tecumseh (Sept. 11, 58-42) and Dexter (Sept. 18, 33-32).

In the Tecumseh game, Dillon had one of his career-best performances, throwing for 375 yards and five touchdowns, four of them to sophomore Kendall Thompson.

AnnArbor.com Tecumseh-Lincoln story

In the Dexter game, Lincoln’s first back-to-back victory since 1998, Dillon rushed for 122 yards and threw for 184 yards and three touchdowns as the Railsplitters held on for the victory.

Mlive Lincoln-Dexter story

On the season, in just four games, Dillon has passed for 936 yards and run for 249 yards, scoring 11 touchdowns through the air and four on the ground.

The weekly newsletter published by  Football University Michigan named the junior defensive back one of its players of the weeks for his performance, which included opening the game with an 80-yard kickoff return and closing it with a 73-yard fumble recovery.

“This guy is a combination of Deon (sic) Sanders and Ray Lewis. Don’t kick the ball to him, don’t throw the ball at him, and don’t run at him. That is, if you  want to win, guess the first four teams didn’t want to win too bad,” the web site said in its weekly newsletter.

Quigley also made the newsletter’s “Blue Chippers” list, along with his teammate University of Michigan recruit Ricardo Miller; Robert Bolden of Orchard Lake St Mary’s; Joe Boisture of Saline; Devin Gardner of Inkster; William Gholston of Detroit Southeastern;  Nick Hill of Chelsea; and Kevonte Manley of Brother Rice

Quigley’s team puts it undefeated record on the line Friday night in its first road game of the year against Southeastern Conference rival Temperance Bedford.

To see both the fumble recovery and the punt return, check out the beginning and end of this highlight video of the Pioneer-Saginaw Arthur Hill game produced by the Michigan Recruiting Connection. Quigley is wearing No. 2.

It’s the team’s defense, according to Mick McCabe, the lead prep sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press.

In his column this week, McCabe spotlighted the stinginess of Pioneer, which features Michigan Recruiting Connection client Reilly Quigley at defensive back.

Specifically, McCabe focused on the unit’s performance in last week’s 36-14 victory over Saline, the same Southeastern Conference rival that knocked the Ann Arbor school out of the playoffs last year. Facing a team that features Michigan State commitment Joe Boisture at quarterback, the Pioneers limited the Hornets to 4-for-13 passing for 39 yards.

You can read McCabe’s column here.

On the night, unofficially, Quigley recorded three tackles, including one sack. He also had two punt returns for 82 yards.

You can see the sack and his biggest return of the game in the video below at the 3:22 and 3:38 marks, respectively

The game, the concluding match-up of the season-opening Big Day Prep Showdown, featured a solid performance from Michigan Recruiting Connection client Reilly Quigley, who started at defensive back for the Pioneers. The junior recorded 7 tackles, 8 assisted tackles,  1 solo tackle,  1 forced fumble and 1 TFL.

Quigley also returned three kickoffs for 76 net yards – including this 40-plus yard gain that set up a Pioneer TD.

For complete highlights from this amazing game, please go to Michigan Recruiting Connection’s YouTube and Facebook pages.

MLive story

Detroit News story

Quigley was one of seven players cited by McCabe, who writes that “there is quality experience at virtually every position for the Pioneers.”

Quigley, a JV mid-season call-up as a sophomore, will start at defensive back for the Ann Arbor school. This past summer, he competed at Rivals.com’s National Underclassmen Combine after being selected as one of the top Class of 2011 defensive backs in the state.

Pioneer opens its 2009 season against Inkster Saturday night at Eastern MIchigan’s Rynearson Stadium at 8 p.m. The game is the concluding match-up for the two-day Big Day Prep Showdown, which features eight games over two days.

To give you a preview of what still may to come from Quigley, here is a spectacular one-handed catch he made at the Ball State football camp this past summer.

NationalUnderclassmen Combine

In a group that included 109 other sophomores, the Ann Arbor Pioneer mid-season varsity call-up was named MVP among defensive backs. According to NUC officials at the event, the award was based “on his testing results and most importantly on his football skills that he displayed in the individual position skill drills, as well as in the one on one drills against wide receivers.”

Further, according to those  at the combine, Reilly “displayed great closing speed as well as the ability to jam
receivers at the line and open up his hips and run with them.”

As a result of his performance, Reilly was automatically invited to Rivals “Ultimate 100″ camp in July, which will be a showcase for the nation’s top college football prospects.

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s Reilly’s Michigan Recruiting Connection Profile. More media is available for viewing at Reilly’s MRC web page, including unedited interviews with both Reilly and his coach Jeremy Gold and complete highlights from the 2009 season.

Michigan Recruiting Connection

MLive Greenhills page

An All-American goalie as a junior, the senior was just named named LaxPower National Player of the Week after Abdelnour made 13 saves to cap a rare 6-0 shutout win over Detroit Catholic Central.

With Livingston scoring 17 points to lead Saline and Dillon hauling down a team-high 13 rebounds for Lincoln, the Railsplitters (12-11) prevailed 46-44 to win their first district title in more than 20 years. Dillon, who was supposed to miss the entire basketball season because of an injury during football season, added eight points to his effort after scoring 27 points in Lincoln’s  district opening victory against Monroe earlier this week.

Livingston hit a 3-pointer to tie the game with eight seconds left, but Ryan Walton’s floor-length layup with 2.5 seconds remaining proved to be the game winner.

Livingston, a 1,000-point scorer who moved up to Class A from Class D during the off season, wound up averaging 12.9 points a gmae this season for the Hornets (9-14) – including 17 points a game over the season’s last nine games.

Lincoln starts regional play next week.

Mlive story on game

Corey Pfeiffer, Lincoln-Milan hockey

Huron High School’s hockey team shut out Lincoln-Milan 5-0 in a pre-regional Division 1 playoff game to end the seasons of Michigan Recruiting Connection clients Corey Pfeiffer and Corey MacIsaac.

But what a season it was.

For the first time in the history of the nine-year-old program, Lincoln notched a Southeastern Conference victory. In fact, the Railsplitters finished 4-4 in league play, sweeping Dexter, beating former state semifinalist Saline  and longtime powerhouse Pioneer along the way.

Corey MacIsaac, Lincoln-Milan hockey

The team’s final 12-11 record  not only set  a program record for victories in the season, but also marked the first time the Railsplitters had ever finished above .500.

As for Pfeiffer, one of the team’s assistant captains, the senior finished with 3 goals and 10 assists, mostly playing defense for a team hit hard on the back line by injuries and other issues. Perhaps more remarkbly, the 2008 Southeast Conference  Sportsmanship Award winner compiled only two penalty minutes, meaning that he finished his career with only four penalty minutes in more than 70 games.

MacIsaac, who also played in every game this year as a defenseman, finished his junior season with one goal and eight assists. He wound up with a plus/minus of +5, the best among Lincoln’s defensemen.

Huron blanks Lincoln 5-0

Lincoln-Milan’s Mlive page

Lincoln-Milan home page

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