DEARBORN – The Dearborn vs. Fordson game is one of the biggest football rivalries in the state, but it had also become one of the more one-sided ones in recent years with the Tractors winning the past three games prior to the Friday, September 17 matchup at Fordson High School.

But the Pioneers bounced back in resounding fashion last week as they took a 30-0 halftime lead en route to a 30-12 win that stunned a sellout crowd and set off a celebration back at Dearborn High School.

“It was great, it was unbelievable, we came back to the parking lot to celebrate and it was a great atmosphere,” said Dearborn sophomore cornerback/wide receiver Ollie Ajami, who intercepted a halfback pass from Fordson in the second half, “our team has so much chemistry and we had a great time together especially after beating Fordson, a cross-town rival.”

Dearborn unleashed a bevy of big plays to take control of the game early as quarterback C.J. Mifsud threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Hansen capping an impressive 98-yard opening touchdown drive on their first possession to make it 7-0.

After a field goal made it 10-0 Dearborn, a holding call on a 20-yard run by Rabeah Beydoun deep into Dearborn territory and a dropped pass caused Fordson to miss key opportunities to get back into the game.

Dearborn extended their leads late in the half with two more long touchdown passes to Hansen, including a 54-yarder down the right sideline that made it 30-0 with just 19 seconds left.

Dearborn Head Coach Dave Mifsud called the play along with the Ajami interception the two biggest of the night in a game that had plenty of them for the Pioneers. He said he was a bit surprised at the final outcome of the game, although he knew his team had what was needed to pull off a win  that many considered an upset.

“I don’t think you ever go into a big rivalry game thinking you are going to win by a large margin.  I thought we could win – but knew we had to play well to do so,” he said.

“I am very proud of this team and very happy for the Dearborn High Football program and the Dearborn High community. Coach (Fouad) Zaban and the Fordson staff and players were very classy and good sports.  They have a first-class program.”

Zaban said that the outcome was tough for his team to handle and that the main focus should now be to simply get better game-by-game for a team that’s still young and improving after losing all but one starter from last year going into 2010.

The team also lost quarterback Mohammed Faraj to an injury in the second quarter, which didn’t help their comeback chances.

“They were better than us that night, they executed the game plan better, played harder.  We made too many mental mistakes,” Zaban said.

“We were pretty down and the kids were very disappointed but they understood we did not do anything well enough to win the game. Right now we are just looking to win the next game and improve, we’re not thinking anything further than that.”

On Friday, September 24, Fordson (2-2 record) travels to Edsel Ford while Dearborn (4-0) will take on Ecorse at home. Both games start at 7 p.m.

Ajami said that the sportsmanship has been good by both sides so far this week from what he’s seen but that anticipation for next year’s big game is already building.

“I saw some of them (Fordson players) the next day, it wasn’t too intense, it was just a friendly (conversation), they told me ‘good game,’ but there’s already a lot of hype going into next year’s game.”