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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
Monday October 22, 2018 — 3B

It’s time to believe

EAST 
LANSING 
— 
It 
was 
a 
scene 
not 
even 
Michigan 
State coach 
Mark 
Dantonio 
himself 
could 
have 
scripted. 
Rain 
pouring down for the second 
storm of the day, for the second 
consecutive year, Spartan fans 
gradually rising from the prior 
malaise 
with 
each 
passing 
moment.
All it took was a Chris Evans 
fumble on Michigan’s own 
10-yard line to turn that energy 
up to a fever pitch. Then, in a 
trademark Dantonio Moment, 
the Spartans tied the game 
on a wide receiver pass to 
quarterback Brian Lewerke — 
the Philly Special, as seen most 
famously in last year’s Super 
Bowl.
You’d seen this script before, 
and you knew how it ended. 
This is where Michigan lays 
down. 
The 
mentally-tough 
Spartans do what they do the 
way they want to do it, the 
way they’ve done it eight of 
the past 11 seasons against the 
Wolverines.
After seven breezy weeks, 
you wanted a test of this team’s 
mental fortitude? There it was. 
And with it rested the hopes 
and 
dreams 
of 
Michigan’s 
season, teetering precariously 
in the balance.
Then, 
junior 
quarterback 
Shea Patterson found Donovan 
Peoples-Jones for a 79-yard 
touchdown — a throw Peoples-
Jones called “the most perfect 
pass” — and the rain subsided. 

And so did the monkey draped 
on 
Michigan’s 
back, 
as 
it 
paraded to a 21-7 win.
“This was big time. Every 
week it seems that people will 
… find a reason to critique us, 
about why we don’t deserve 
to be a top-ranked team,” said 
junior running back Karan 
Higdon. “Last week it was we 
don’t show up in big games. This 
week it’s Michigan State has 
the number one run defense.
“Blah, blah blah.”
Certainly, 
though 
Higdon 
may dismiss them, many of 
those 
questions 
have 
been 
warranted. Prior to this win, the 
best road win of the Harbaugh 
era was either 
the 32-23 win 
in East Lansing 
two years ago, 
against a team 
that 
would 
finish 
3-9, 
or 
a 
come-from-
behind win over 
Minnesota 
in 
2015. Neither of 
those approach 
this triumph.
Along the step-ladder that 
has been the last seven weeks, 
there has been appropriate 
skepticism.
It had to come against a 
ranked opponent. It had to 
come on the road. It had to 
come against a rival. 
Check. Check. Check.
And 
you 
know 
what, 
Michigan fans? It’s time to 
believe.
You can believe this team 
is different, that those scars 
unearthed in the week one loss 
to Notre Dame are healing.
After 
beating 
a 
ranked 
opponent for the first time 
since 2006, the first time in 
18 attempts to do so, you can 

believe that this program is 
turning 
a 
corner. 
Perhaps 
permanently.
And you can believe that 
Saturday marked a new chapter 
for Michigan in this rivalry. Or 
so Wolverines players would 
like you to believe.
Two 
hours 
before 
the 
game, both teams got started 
as you might expect. With 
Michigan on the field for pre-
game 
warmups, 
Michigan 
State started their “Spartan 
Walk,” in which the players 
link and walk across the field. 
When the Wolverine players 
wouldn’t 
move, 
fifth-year 
senior Lawrence Marshall was 
clotheslined 
by a Michigan 
State player.
Minutes 
later, 
junior 
linebacker 
Devin 
Bush 
walked toward 
the 
logo 
on 
the middle of 
the 
field 
and 
adamantly 
scuffed 
it 
up 
with his cleats.
After the game, fifth-year 
senior Chase Winovich, still 
unquestionably pumping with 
adrenaline, channeled his inner 
Mike Hart in 2007.
“We came in here. I openly, in 
the public, called it a ‘Revenge 
Tour.’ Called them out, said 
they’re next. We came in here, 
slashed their field before the 
game, and we still came out 
here and just got after them 
every single play.
“We knew that they couldn’t 
hang with us. We did what we 
had to do. Sometimes your 
little brother starts acting up, 
and you just gotta put them in 
place.”

Put aside for a moment 
whether this will be used as 
motivation for the foreseeable 
future (it will) or whether 
Winovich — off to the NFL next 
season — will have to deal with 
the repurcussions (he won’t). 
That was the exhalation of a 
decade’s worth of frustration, a 
privilege he and his teammates 
have now earned.
After the game, Harbaugh 
mentioned a quote he’d come 
across for this week, from 
Alonzo Mourning.
“Adversity introduces a man 
to himself.”
Saturday 
afternoon, 
Michigan faced adversity like it 
hadn’t since South Bend. There 
was every form of precipitation, 
fumbles galore, a road crowd, 
one 
giant 
mental 
hurdle 
weighing down the program.
And on the other end the 
Wolverines found out who they 
are: a team with legitimate 
post-season aspirations, and 
with the mental fortitude to get 
there.
None of this is to say this 
team is assured a Big Ten title 
or a College Football Playoff 
appearance. Penn State and 
Ohio State will surely have 
something to say about that. 
But it’s now safe to say this 
team is different.
As the yards continued to 
churn and the clock wilted 
away, as fans in green and 
white streamed for the exit and 
the chants of “Let’s go blue” 
steadily gained volume, that 
became abundantly clear.
And then the clouds cleared 
and sunshine peaked through.

Marcovitch can be reached 

at maxmarco@umich.edu or on 

Twitter at @Max_Marcovitch.

MAX 

MARCOVITCH

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Fifth-year senior defensive end Chase Winovich recorded four tackles against Michigan State in Michigan’s 21-7 win over the Spartans on Saturday.

“We knew 
that they 
couldn’t hang 
with us.”

Michigan tops OSU 
in overtime thriller

It was a goal 87 minutes in 
the making.
Both teams were exhausted 
heading into a second overtime, 
and a back-to-back Big Ten 
regular season title was on the 
line for Michigan.
The 
Wolverines’ 
break 
came 
with 
just 
over 
two 
minutes 
remaining 
in 
the 
second overtime. Sophomore 
midfielder Kayla Reed found 
herself alone along the baseline 
with the ball on 
her 
stick 
and 
the game in her 
hands. 
Reed 
carried 
the 
ball along the 
right 
baseline 
directly toward 
the 
goal 
and 
snuck it behind 
the keeper.
With 
the 
goal, the No. 7 
Wolverines (11-5 overall, 6-1 
Big Ten) successfully clawed 
their way to a double-overtime 
victory against No. 21 Ohio 
State (11-6, 4-3), and with it, 
another conference title. 
“I guess I was lucky enough 
to find myself along the baseline 
... tried to look for the pass but 
they’d cut them off,” Reed said. 
“I’d seen the goalie so I just 
popped it down and hoped for 
the best.”
The game began slowly, with 
both teams failing to score in the 
first half. Michigan dominated 
possession 
but 
struggled 
offensively. The Wolverines had 
the momentum at the first half’s 
end, but it quickly switched 
in favor of the Buckeyes at the 
start of the second frame. Ohio 
State tallied six shots and five 
penalty corners.

A string of three corners led 
to Buckeye midfielder Esther 
Clotet scoring off a low, hard 
shot to the corner. No more 
than ten minutes later, the 
Wolverines had an answer to 
Ohio State’s goal. Reed sent a 
hard shot toward the goal off 
a restart, and junior forward 
Meg Dowthwaite deflected the 
ball into the net from the right 
post.
It was not smooth sailing 
for 
Michigan 
heading 
into 
overtime with the game tied at 
one. The Wolverines competed 
with a player 
down for five 
minutes of the 
first ten-minute 
overtime period 
— the result of 
a yellow card 
to 
junior 
Fay 
Keijer 
in 
the 
65th minute of 
regular time.
“I mean it’s 
extraordinary 
to go through an overtime 
down a player and survive 
that,” said Michigan coach 
Marcia Pankratz. “Once we 
got our player back, I felt really 
confident 
that 
things 
were 
gonna go our way.”
With 
the 
defeat 
of 
the 
Buckeyes, Michigan finished 
the regular season 7-1 in the Big 
Ten, good enough for a share of 
the conference title with No. 
2 Maryland. The Wolverines 
finished the season 8-0 at home 
and will host the first round of 
the Big Ten Tournament next 
Sunday.
“I love playing home, it’s such 
a good experience,” Reed said. 
“Just a sense of pride, keeping 
a clean slate on your field. It’s 
always a good atmosphere, it’s 
really cool to have your friends 
in the stands, cheering you on.”

MOLLY SHEA
For the Daily

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Sophomore midfielder Kayla Reed scored the game-winning goal on Sunday.

“I love playing 
at home, it’s 
such a good 
experience.”

