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10/24/2005 In this millennium the Novi Wildcats have been right at home in the playoffs, fashioning a record of 8-5, including 3 District Titles and a Regional Title. They’ve toppled such statewide powerful foes as Canton, Adrian, Portage Northern, Lake Orion, Detroit MacKenzie and of course, Milford. In fact back in 2002, the Cats visited #3 statewide ranked, and undefeated Milford during the regular season. Coach Pat Fox featured a team that would send players to Division I, and a veteran team that boasted many three-year starters. They’d been averaging 38 points a game and were making short work of everybody they played. Add to that, Novi faced a must-win situation, as losing on the road that night would’ve meant their 4th loss and a record of 2-4, thus effectively ending their playoff hopes. The game went into overtime, and Novi prevailed 35-28. That spawned a 4-game winning streak and the Cats got the nod and found out that on Nov. 1, 2002, their playoff ‘Second Season’ would begin and you guessed it, they drew Milford, again. Once again the Cats got the job done, eliminating Milford 14-7 in a tough, gritty defensive struggle on the road. As Yogi Berra might say, ‘it’s déjà vu all over again!’ The powerful 7-2 Milford Mavericks visit Novi once again Friday night just a few weeks after their drubbing at Novi’s homecoming game. I look for the confident, poised Novi Wildcats to repeat history. Remember, just last year, Novi had to play Northville twice, in back-to-back weeks. After Week 9, they faced their crosstown rival again during the first round of the playoffs and you remember what happened. In fact, in both 2002 and last year, Novi then proceeded to win their District Championship over Lake Orion and Canton respectively the following week. Why am I so confident? Because Novi’s program is not only tough and resilient, they’re smart too. They learned a lot about Milford in that homecoming victory and they learned a lot about themselves. And they’ll take that knowledge on the field Friday night and use it to their advantage. And Milford will learn again, it’s tough duty to play at Wildcat Stadium. It’s even tougher when you have to do it twice in the same season. (c) 2005 Novi
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