Plymouth's Donte Fox sacks Saline quarterback Trey Heren during second quarter action of the 27-7 Plymouth win.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

CANTON - The Saline High School football team’s defense, allowing 12.3 points per game, has been its strong suit all season.

The Hornets met their match on Saturday afternoon in a Plymouth defensive unit that shut down Saline in a 27-7 Division 1 playoff win.

The Hornets, who were 2-3 and in danger of missing the playoffs before winning their last four regular season games, possessed the ball for just over 15 minutes in the game, the majority of that time coming in the second half. The Wildcats ran 23 more plays than Saline and outgained the Hornets 444-109.

“That is a good team,” Saline coach Mike Glennie said of Plymouth. “We knew they were a ball control team, and they did a real nice job on both sides of the ball.”

Saline mustered only five yards in the first quarter as Plymouth built a 14-0 lead on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Shaun Austin to Michael Olevnik and a 50-yard run by Donte Fox. On its first four drives Saline punted three times and lost a fumble.

The Hornets got things going midway through the second quarter. Quarterback Trey Heren connected on a pair of passes to get Saline to its own 46-yard line. That’s where, on 3rd-and-8, Heren lofted a pass down the right sideline to Nick Ostrander that the senior receiver snatched out of the air, shook off a Plymouth defender, and scampered 54 yards for the touchdown to make it 17-7.

That was as close as Saline would get.