Early turnovers plagued the Grosse Pointe South Blue Devils as they were defeated by the Birmingham-Groves Falcons 34-21. 

Both teams came out of the gate looking sloppy. The game started with three consecutive turnovers. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, Groves’ Damon Dunbar picked off Senior Quarterback Alex Shaheen for the first of three South turnovers in the first half and took it to the house for 6.

“We should have won this game,” Lineman Noah Segletes said, “It was just a few miscommunications that we need to get on top of.”

When the Falcons offense got going they couldn’t be stopped scoring 28 unanswered points on the Blue Devil defense that had only allowed a total of 43 points in the first eight games last year. 

“We have a great group of guys,” Segletes said,” We just have to execute, execute, execute, that’s all I can say.”

Coming out of halftime being down 28-7, the Blue Devils looked like they were back on track, in the second half Quarterback Captain Alex Shaheen led the Blue Devils to outscore the Falcons 14-6. Shaheen finished the day going 19-30 for 205 yards and three touchdowns while only throwing one interception.

“We have a lot of young guys, and sometimes that first varsity game can be a tough one,” Captain LinebackerJames Doerer said,” We definitely need to keep up the intensity at practice and get ready for next week.” 

The Blue Devils will face the Utica Ford II Falcons next week on Friday, at 7 p.m. at Utica Ford II.  The Falcons also lost their first game to Stoney Creek 35-0.

“This game was important but we are going for something bigger this season, a state championship,” Doerer said,” We can’t let one game define us.”