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1:58 AM, Aug. 26, 2011 |

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Zac Merillat was not nervous, not even a little bit.

As one of only two starters back on the Canton defense, thediminutive outside linebacker could not wait to play Walled LakeCentral, a Division 2 semifinalist last season, in Thursday's openerat home.

"I was excited to get on the field for my senior year," he said. "It'stime to show out. A lot of people had doubts about what our defensecould do."

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It turns out the Canton defense did quite a bit in the win overCentral, 42-14.

Mick McCabe: Canton, led by Zac Merillat, tops Walled Lake Central1 Comments

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BY MICK MCCABE

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It was the perfect way to begin the seasonfor Canton, and less than perfect forCentral, which had a botched snap on apunt attempt and gave up a fumble returnfor a TD.

But in its own way, this will help theVikings, too, just as last year's 27-7 loss toCanton in the opener helped.

"The beauty of playing Canton Game Oneis we come away knowing exactly whatwe have to fix and correct," said Centralcoach Bob Meyer. "Instead of sitting therewinning some easy games and feelingeverything is fine, we know what's wrong.We'll get it fixed just like last year."

And just like last year, Canton is verygood on both sides of the ball.

Ryan Jones scored on a 29-yard run onCanton's first possession before Centralquarterback Zac Leimbach finished off histeam's opening drive with a 7-yard TD run.Leimbach gained 61 of the 67 yards onthe drive.

After Kevin Buford's 5-yard run helpedmake it 14-7 Canton, the Chiefs stoppedCentral's offense and a bad snap lost 27yards for Central, setting up Kyle Adams'14-yard keeper to go up, 21-7.

"We weren't getting that quarterbacktackled," Canton coach Tim Baechlersaid. "So we switched our assignments upand that helped us."

Merillat put the game away on the thirdplay of the third quarter. After DevanteWatkins forced a fumble, Merillat returnedit 49 yards for a 27-7 lead.

"I was in pursuit of the football and one ofour players had a nice tackle, put his

helmet right on the football," he said. "It was textbook, right whatthey tell you to do to make them fumble.

"I saw it on the turf, picked it up and turned around and ran into a bigpile of people. But luckily, I had some other Chiefs there pullingpeople off and I got out of the pile and saw green and ran."

In addition to the fumble return, Merillat had 12 tackles and filled arole bigger than his size might dictate.

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Canton's Ryan Jones scores the game's firsttouchdown as Walled Lake Central's Zac Leimbach(center) and Adam Kondrat give chase in the firstquarter of the Chiefs' 42-14 victory on Thursday. /JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/DFP

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Walled Lake Central's Tai Abiola makes a catch in theend zone in the fourth quarter Thursday at Canton. /Photos by JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/Detroit Free Press

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"I'm a little undersized -- 180 pounds, 5-foot-9," he said. "I'm 5-8, butI like to say 5-9. It's 5-9 in cleats. I make up for it a lot in heart andevery play 100%."

And he plays every play that way. He is also Canton's fullback in itssmash mouth, tight T-formation backfield that gained 276 yardsrushing and threw only two passes all night, one of which was for atwo-point conversion.

"I love it our offense," Merillat said. "It's pound people in the mouth.They know we're going off tackle, but it's: 'Are you a man or not?You going to stand up every play and pound it in or not?' So I likethat. There's not a lot of fancy-shmantzy stuff. We do have the fakes,but most of the time we run it inside the tackles and it's 'Can yousquare up with us or not?' "

Most of the time the answer will be "or not."

Contact Mick McCabe: 313-223-4744 or mmccabe@freepress.com .

Join the Free Press each Friday during high school football seasonfor a live chat about all of that nightʼs action. Find out scores, shareupdates from the stadium and discuss the games with fellow fans atwww.freep.com/prepblog.

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