“Bryce Kish is that guy. He’s just special. What a kid. Hard worker, heart and soul."
BRIGHTON — Justin Jones watched the game in street clothes from the sidelines, along with some other members of Howell’s unforgettable 2024 football team.
In some ways, it was as if he was still on the field in a Highlander uniform, not a graduate now playing at Western Michigan University.
Junior Bryce Kish looked every bit the part of Jones, who personally tormented Brighton in the last three games between the neighboring Livingston County schools.
Kish took the torch from Jones and delivered yet another special performance by a Highlander running back in the Little Brown Jug rivalry, scoring four touchdowns in Howell’s 37-28 victory on Friday, Oct. 17.
Kish ran 19 times for 216 yards, including an incredible 4-minute and 31-second stretch of the second half in which he racked up 157 yards and three touchdowns on six carries. Kish had a 52-yard touchdown run to break a 14-14 tie, a 44-yarder to make it 28-14 and a 40-yarder to give the Highlanders a 34-14 lead with 11:49 left in the game.
“Bryce Kish is that guy,” Howell coach Brian Lewis said. “He’s just special. What a kid. Hard worker, heart and soul. He pours it into other people. He’s a service guy. He could clean up the field by himself and he wouldn’t mind it.”
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Kish showed signs last year of being the next guy who would be a problem for Brighton, scoring on a 30-yard run during Howell’s regular-season victory. He was the No. 2 back last season behind Jones, who established himself as an all-time legend at Howell by scoring 12 touchdowns in three victories over Brighton, rushing for 557 yards in the process.
It was Jones who carried the box containing the Little Brown Jug onto the field to be returned to the Highlanders for a third straight season.
“He’s a Howell guy through and through,” Kish said. “He was at the game today. After the first one, he said, ‘Three more,’ and I gave him three more. All credit to the linemen and all credit to the seniors and all credit to the guys who come back and support Howell.”
With Kish leading the way, Howell racked up 402 yards and five touchdowns on 45 carries. Jack Gondick had 112 yards on 10 carries and Christian Farren had 75 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries.
“This offense runs off the linemen,” Kish said. “I trust those guys with everything. I’m just able to run freely. I asked the Lord to allow us to play freely. He answered my prayer.”
The Highlanders appeared to have the game put away when Kish’s fourth touchdown made it a 20-point game on the first play of the fourth quarter, but Brighton nearly staged a comeback for the ages.
Dom Nauss’ third touchdown run of the game with 7:57 left cut Howell’s lead to 34-21. After Brody Shannon recovered an onside kick, Dom D’Agosta threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jamo Parsell on fourth-and-goal with 5:55 remaining to make it a 34-28 game.
Howell recovered the ensuing onside kick, but Mason Grove recovered a fumble two plays later to give Brighton the ball at its own 39-yard line with 4:59 left. The Bulldogs drove to the Howell 23 before a false start on second-and-four put them behind the sticks. Three straight incompletions ended the drive with 3:36 left.
A 48-yard run by Gondick put Howell in position to ice the game with a 34-yard field goal by Wilson Zimlich with 37.5 seconds left.
“It was tough,” Lewis said. “They’re good. They do a lot of good things, and the ball was bouncing their way a little bit. For us, it was just continue on playing. The warship mentality we’ve been talking about, plowing through the waves, that was us.”
Howell took a 14-0 lead on its first two drives of the game, but Brighton came back to tie it 14-14 by halftime. The Bulldogs got the ball to start the second half, but couldn’t maintain their momentum.
Brighton and Howell will share the KLAA West crown with 6-1 division records, but the Highlanders will travel to Belleville for the KLAA championship next week because of the head-to-head victory. Northville was in the running for a tri-championship and possible KLAA title berth, but was upset 19-16 by Novi.
For the Bulldogs, the loss ended a six-game winning streak. It was Brighton's fourth straight loss in the rivalry.
“We can’t dwell on this one,” D’Agosta said. “We still have such a long road to go. Honestly, we might have needed this one to get over what can happen. It was my first loss (as starting varsity quarterback). I’m learning how to handle it. I’m just trying to take it all in. It’s a learning experience, obviously. On to the next one.”
Zimlich has 12 tackles to lead a Howell defense that held Nauss to 53 yards on 22 carries. Nauss came into the game with 1,245 yards on 137 carries. He was tackled for losses four times in the second half.
“They’ve got monsters up front,” D’Agosta said. “(Brody Stack) and (Jackson Pahl) are big kids who are going to play at the next level. They’ve got very well-fed kids over there. It’s a lot to push. They were catching our guys in pulling situations and they were taking it to open up the hole bigger for the linebackers and the linebackers were filling really good. (Zimlich) had a great game.”
Contact Bill Khan at [email protected]. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Another Howell football running back has monster game to beat Brighton
Category: General Sports
