A few thoughts on the 2013 Birmingham Seaholm football team, following Thursday's 24-0 opening-night throttling of Ann Arbor Pioneer:

As unlikely as it may seem the Maples DOWN&DIRTY 'D' could be better this year than it was last year when the squad captured an OAA Blue crown.

This unit is SCARY good!!!.......AGAIN!!

They're "The Wonderwall Defense," cause this group likes the classic Oasis tune from the 90s and take the form of a BRICKWALL every time they hit the field.

Lineman Karl "The MAPLE MANCHILD" Marback and Nick "The Human Landslide" Lanfear are bruising forces up front.

The linebacker corps of Chris Hill, Brendan Sullivan and Dominic "The Serpent" Sierpien aka THE NEW OC TIM RIGGINS (pass some of those gorgeous flowing locks over here buddy!) is as tough as they come.

Oh, and then there's that secondary. Can you say MAD NICE?.....These are bad, bad men on the gridiron.

Maples DB ROLL CALL;

SS Dylan "The K-Bomb" Kanaan

FS Andrew "The Assassin" Barton

CB Aaron "Slick WILLY" Ware

CB Jack "The JAMMER" Mentag

They might not look like much at first glance, but make no mistake about it, the safety tandem of Kanaan and Barton is one of the hardest-hitting duos in the state……YEAH I SAID IT!!!           

From now on, I'm calling these fellas the KNOCKOUT NASTYS……no explanation needed!!

Coach DeWald realizes how lucky he is to have the pair.

"Those two quarterback our defense so well and it's a tribute to their work ethic; they simply live in the film room and love to study the game and it pays off on the field," he said.

On offense, senior signal-caller Brandon Altman, in his first action as a starter, improved as the game progressed. By the second half, the Maples 'O' was rocking and rolling and Altman looked like an old pro.

Wide receivers and slotbacks like Ware, Mentag, Kerry Mott and Nick Vestevich each made big-plays on the night.

"This was a total team win, everyone did their jobs the way they were supposed to," he said. "We put in the time in the offseason and that effort showed tonight.