ROYAL OAK >> In most cases, entering the final week of the regular season 6-2 with a share of a division crown is a safe, satisfying place to be.

But living on the edge of the Division 6 playoff picture, Clawson was anything but safe before Friday night’s game at Royal Oak, and now the Trojans’ fate hangs in the balance after the Ravens defeated them, 21-7.

“Sometimes the players will laugh at me because I sometimes wouldn’t even know who we’re playing the next week because it’s just a ‘this week mentality’ kind of thing,” Clawson head coach Steve Haney said. “And so I just kept saying, you know, ‘You’ve gotta win to get in.’ I don’t know. We’re gonna have to just sit and wait until the playoff points are tabulated before I know what the story is.”

For almost the entire first half Friday, the story was half-chances that neither team could translate into trips to the end zone.

In the opening quarter, Royal Oak had the ball inside the 10-yard line before Nathan Heath came up with an interception to take potential points off the board. Later, after Clawson recovered a fumble on a reverse play by the Ravens, giving the Trojans the ball deep in opposing territory, Royal Oak linebacker Frank Minnick came up with a pick to deny Clawson a scoring drive.

Those mistakes combined with flags stunted Royal Oak from being able to jump out in front.

“I looked down, and Kyle Penny, one of our really good offensive coaches, he showed me, we were moving the ball, then penalty, moving the ball, penalty, so it was just us shooting ourselves in the foot,” Royal Oak head coach Colin Campbell said. “And Clawson is phenomenal, well-coached, they come to play. But boy, mental mistakes were really frustrating tonight (laughs).”

Eventually, those errors didn’t stop the Ravens from getting on the board first. Julien Burns made a tackler miss in open space for about a 20-yard reception, then quarterback Ethan Couzens churned out yards on a fourth down run before Liam Fleming broke a tackle inside the five on a 15-yard touchdown run with 1:16 left in the half.

When play resumed after halftime, the scoring picked up. Under center on Clawson’s opening drive of the third quarter, sophomore Elliot Groves kept it and went 38 yards to get in the red zone, and junior Jordan Davenport’s eight-yard keeper knotted it up.

Royal Oak responded quickly, scoring on a 37-yard scamper by Gage Orzel, restoring the Ravens’ lead, 14-7 with 6:06 remaining in the third quarter.

“We finally got out of our own way, trying to cut off both feet and played ball,” Campbell said. “All year, we’ve just been trying to put everything together, and I think finally, the line, the backs, everybody started kind of figuring it out. We had a lot of seniors that came and really played their butts off for their last game.”

The Trojans had a sustained drive beginning at its own 18-yard line with 7:13 left that eventually took up enough time it became apparent it might be both their best and last chance. Following a punishing 12-yard run by Groves to Royal Oak’s 26-yard line, though, the drive stalled on the last set of downs of the possession. The Trojans put the ball on the ground on first down, though they recovered. A pass was dropped across the middle on second down, then another at the goal line on third before an incompletion turned it over on fourth down with 1:57 remaining.

“To be honest, we’ve had momentum swings like that all year,” Haney said. “We’ve come from down a touchdown like four or five times this season, so we really didn’t panic. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh my god, they just scored off our score.’ We figured we’d come back, and we had an opportunity down there at the end of the game to tie it, and we just didn’t execute on some plays that we’d like back.”Thirty seconds after getting the ball back, Couzens put the game to bed for Royal Oak with a 74-yard touchdown run down the left sideline.

It was an ideal way to end the season for Royal Oak, who came into the night 2-6 and far less to play for than the visitors. Beating Clawson also meant the Ravens closed the regular season with a win for the first time since 2018.

“Yeah, I couldn’t tell you the last time we did it, so it means everything,” Campbell said. “It’s a process, right? We’re still trying to build and do something different and better, so it’s all about our process. We’ve got to trust that, and eventually the results will match that, but we’ve got to stay true to who we are, put the time and work in and keep digging.”

Meanwhile, the part-owners of this year’s MAC Bronze title must wait and see, but with 32 playoff spots, Clawson came into Week 9 tied for 31st in points, meaning the margin of error was already thin.

“Most the season we’ve started four sophomores and two freshmen on defense, and we start like four or five sophomores on the offensive side of the ball, and typically six underclassmen on each side of the ball,” Haney said. “And you know, we went toe-to-toe with a Division 2 school. We only had five seniors on our entire team, and I’m looking at their posters (around the stadium) of 20 (seniors). So I feel pretty good about how we came in here and played, had a chance to win.

“I just told the guys we’ve got to have the mindset we’re practicing Monday, because I think it would be hard otherwise to think the season’s over and then all the sudden turn it back around,” Haney said.