Division 1: Warren Mott 35, Troy 21

Warren Mott breaks through for first playoff win

Tom Markowski / The Detroit News

Warren -- Step by step a program must proceed to gain respectability. Behind the running and throwing of quarterback Ben Filimon, Warren Mott took a big step Friday.

Filimon accounted for 313 yards of offense and three touchdowns to lead Mott to a 35-21 victory over Troy in a first-round Division 1 district game at Mott Friday.

It was Mott's first home playoff game and first state playoff victory. It lost its previous four.

Mott (8-2), champions of the Macomb Area Conference White Division, plays at top-ranked Sterling Heights Stevenson (10-1) at 7 p.m. next Friday in a district final. Stevenson defeated Mott at home 49-21 in the regular-season finale.

"It's nice to get the monkey off our back," Mott coach Tom Milanov said. "It's a big win, to take that next step. The special teams stepped up. The defense came up with big plays in the first half. And Benny's our playmaker. We wanted to get the ball more to him in the second half. And once we got up we wanted to kill the clock and he's our best clock-killer."

After a quiet first half, Filimon passed for a touchdown and ran for two in the first 14 minutes of the second half. His 2-yard touchdown run gave Mott a 35-13 lead with 10:22 remaining, before Troy scored a late touchdown.

Four of Mott's five touchdowns came on big plays and, perhaps, the biggest was Filimon's 89-yard touchdown pass to C.J. Olanyian that gave Mott a 28-7 lead with 3:54 left in the third. On the previous possession Troy elected to punt on a fourth-and-1 from Mott's 39. Troy pinned Mott deep but Filimon and Olanyian crossed up the strategy.

"We always play hard but when things like that happen, it just shows we have players who can make plays," Filimon said. "This is big. People used to look at Mott and say they make the playoffs but so what? They'll lose."

Filimon rushed 15 times for 131 yards and completed 9 of 15 passes for 182 yards. Mott had one turnover on a muffed punt.

Mott led 14-7 at halftime as Torico Searcy scored his second touchdown on a 47-yard sweep with 4:42 left. He broke a tackle at his 40, cut back and outran the secondary for the score.

Searcy blocked a punt, scooped up the ball and scooted 15 yards for his first touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 10:43 left in the first half.

Troy went 52 yards in five plays to tie the score at 7. Quarterback Bobby Wunderlich ran 25 yards on an option for the score with 6:04 left.

Troy had an opportunity to score before halftime as it faced a third-and-3 from Mott's 7-yard line.

Wunderlich, under pressure, was intercepted by Hassani Douglas on the last play of the first half.

Wunderlich had 13 carries for 83 yards and completed 14 of 26 passes for 147 yards. He was incepted twice and sacked three times.

"I told our kids what you need to do is shut down their big plays," Troy coach Gary Griffith said. "Number seven (Searcy) got it going. Number nine (Martez Kelly) made big plays and then number six (Filimon). We got outplayed. We had a chance to score at the end of the half and that hurt."

tom.markowski@detnews.com 313-223-4633.