Southfield A&T football defeats River Rouge in final seconds 28-21

Rockford football downs Caledonia to clinch fourth straight OK Red title

Watch: Southfield A&T quarterback Isaiah Marshall on win against River Rouge

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – The Southfield A&T Warriors (7-2) defeated the River Rouge Panthers (5-3) 28-21 in a hard fought battle on at Southfield High School.

Here are four takeaways from the game:

Magnificent Marshall

Junior Warrior quarterback Isaiah Marshall is one of the most highly touted dual-threat quarterbacks in the class of 2024. Marshall finished with four total touchdowns Friday night, with three coming on the ground and one through the air.

“He’s our bread and butter,” Southfield A&T head coach Aaron Marshall said. “We trust him to make all the right decisions. Sometimes he gets us out of bad jams; we might call a play and the defense is bringing a blitz we didn’t expect, whatever it may be-- because of his IQ, not making too bad a decision, always making the right moves, being strong and explosive--he gets us out of a lot of bad things we do sometimes.”

Jarrett impresses

Junior Warrior cornerback/wide receiver Jawon Jarrett made big plays for his team on both sides of the ball. Late in the first quarter Jarrett intercepted a pass in the end zone to keep the game tied at zero. With 17 seconds left in the game, Jarrett caught the go-ahead touchdown from Marshall to put the Warriors up seven. Marshall said throwing the touchdown to Jarrett was all a part of the plan.

“We knew Jarrett was going to cook number three and get open for the post,” Marshall said. “That was my game plan the whole time, to throw it to Jarrett because I knew he was going to get open. That’s what happened and we scored--game over.”

Tale of two halves

The majority of Friday night’s game was a defensive battle, or at least is was early on. River Rouge led 7-6 going into halftime, and every first half point came in the second quarter. In the second half, each team seemed to move the ball more effectively and found the end zone multiple times. Marshall said he’s proud of the mentality his team showed Friday night.

“We both clearly made adjustments,” Marshall said. “On film they’re an awesome team, but we have to take care of us. We did some things in the first half (and) shot ourselves in the foot, some things (were) caused by them as well because they’re a great program, but I like the way our boys responded. Our attitude all season has been, 'We’re never out of a game, we always expect to win (and) we feel like we’re in control, so they kind of displayed that tonight.”

Defense shined

Both defenses had their moments of success Friday night. Each forced turnovers, and River Rouge came within 20 yards of turning an interception into a touchdown. Southfield’s defense proved opportunistic and made plenty of clutch plays to keep its team in the game. Marshall said the defense is the main reason they won.

“Defense played lights out ,and they’re absolutely the reason we won this game tonight,” Marshall said. “They caused I think about four turnovers, so the defense absolutely showed up and showed out.”