Preview: Last Season's Runners-Up Returning, Seeking to Take Final Step
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
June 5, 2026
Last season's MHSAA Boys Lacrosse Finals runners-up will attempt to finish as this season's champions Saturday at Howell Parker.
But a pair of West Michigan hopefuls will be seeking to break up those celebrations.
Detroit Country Day, last season's second-place team in Division 2, will face Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central for this year's title at 11 a.m. Detroit Catholic Central, last season's Division 1 runner-up, will then take on first-time finalist Hudsonville in the Division 1 championship game at 2 p.m.
Tickets cost $11 and are good for both games, and may be purchased online only at GoFan. Both games also will be broadcast and available with subscription from MHSAA.tv.
Below is a glance at all four contenders. Rankings as part of “best wins” are based on the Michigan Power Rating formula.
Division 1
DETROIT CATHOLIC CENTRAL
Record/MPR: 16-5, No. 2
League finish: First in Catholic High School League Central
Coach: Dave Wilson, 20th season (309-106)
Championship history: Division 1 champion 2024 and 2018, 10 runner-up finishes.
Best wins: 13-7 (Semifinal) and 14-4 over No. 5 Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice, 15-4 over No. 10 Brighton in Quarterfinal, 13-3 over No. 8 Ann Arbor Pioneer in Regional Final, 11-9 over No. 1 Rockford, 10-9 over Division 2 No. 5 Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood.
Players to watch: Ryan Dye, sr. A; Travis Wasen, sr. G; Asher Miscovich. (Statistics not provided.)
Outlook: Detroit Catholic Central’s only in-state losses this season were to Division 2 finalist Detroit Country Day in the season opener and Brother Rice in the CHSL Bishop Tournament championship game, and the Shamrocks avenged the latter Wednesday to finish that season series with a 2-1 edge. This will be DCC’s fourth-straight championship game appearance, with last year’s runner-up finish coming on a 9-8 overtime loss to Rice. Dye made the all-state second team last season.
HUDSONVILLE
Record/MPR: 21-1, No. 3
League finish: First in Ottawa-Kent Conference Tier 2
Coach: Gunnar Elder, fifth season (66-30)
Championship history: Has never appeared in an MHSAA Final.
Best wins: 11-3 over No. 4 Grand Ledge in Semifinal, 11-8 over No. 7 Hartland in Regional Final, 10-8 over No. 1 Rockford in Regional Semifinal, 14-12 over No. 10 Brighton, 11-10 over Division 2 No. 4 East Grand Rapids, 12-11 over Division 2 No. 10 Ada Forest Hills Eastern, 10-4 over Division 2 No. 3 Caledonia.
Players to watch: Will Zuiderveen, sr. A (93 goals, 28 assists); Carson Campbell, soph. A (65 goals, 26 assists); Andrew McAleece, sr. A (40 goals, 29 assists); Andrew Hersberger, sr. G (6.09 goals-against average, .530 save %).
Outlook: After winning a third-straight league title, Hudsonville has taken another significant step this season reaching the Finals for the first time. Elder has been to this stage before – he was a three-time all-stater at East Grand Rapids and part of the 2011 Division 2 runner-up team. Zuiderveen made the Division 1 all-state first team last season and has paced an offense that also had received 29 goals from senior Lawsyn Weber, 24 from senior Zaidan Dykstra and 15 from junior Mason Weber entering the week. The lone loss came March 25 to Rockford, 18-5, and the Eagles avenged it in the Regional Semifinal.
Division 2
DETROIT COUNTRY DAY
Record/MPR: 19-1, No. 1
League finish: Does not play in a conference.
Coach: JD Hess, first season (19-1)
Championship history: Four MHSAA titles (most recent 2024), four runner-up finishes.
Best wins: 16-8 (Regional Final) and 9-7 over No. 5 Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, 17-3 over No. 9 Okemos, 16-5 over No. 3 Caledonia, 13-7 over No. 4 East Grand Rapids, 17-8 over No. 18 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central, 15-4 over Division 1 No. 10 Brighton, 13-11 over Division 1 No. 1 Rockford, 16-6 over Division 1 No. 4 Grand Ledge, 16-9 over Division 1 No. 7 Hartland, 12-8 over Division 1 No. 2 Detroit Catholic Central.
Players to watch: Keaton Yearego, sr. A (68 goals, 60 assists); Mason Gal, sr. A (68 goals, 49 assists); Rhys Kenney, jr. A (74 goals, 59 assists); Bonner Upshaw, sr. D.
Outlook: Country Day ended a step shy of a repeat title a year ago, falling to East Grand Rapids 15-10 in the Final, but has returned for a fifth-straight championship game appearance with the majority of its top offensive players from last season. Yearego and Gal made the all-state first team last season, as did Upshaw on defense and senior Zain Halabi at SSDM. Hess took over the program after leading Cranbrook Kingswood the last five seasons. Country Day’s lone loss came to Carmel, Ind., 10-8.
GRAND RAPIDS FOREST HILLS CENTRAL
Record/MPR: 11-11, No. 18
League finish: Fifth in O-K Tier 1
Coach: Andy Shira, ninth season (123-45)
Championship history: Six MHSAA titles (most recent 2023), four runner-up finishes.
Best wins: 14-13 over No. 4 East Grand Rapids in Semifinal, 11-5 over No. 3 Caledonia in Quarterfinal, 11-10 (OT) over No. 10 Ada Forest Hills Eastern in Regional Final, 18-9 over No. 9 Okemos, 15-2 over Division 1 No. 10 Brighton.
Players to watch: Henry McNamara, sr. M (35 goals, 22 assists); Blake Teliczan, jr. M (48 goals, 23 assists); Michael Timmer, jr. G (8.78 goals-against average, .560 save %); Luke Nuo, jr. D.
Outlook: Forest Hills Central is in the midst of a stunning run after losing 10 of its first 12 games this season. The Rangers have avenged two of those defeats, to Forest Hills Eastern and East Grand Rapids, during the postseason and will attempt to do the same Saturday after falling to Country Day 17-8 on April 14. Teliczan made the all-state second team last season, McNamara and Nuo made the third team and junior Lars Dupuie earned honorable mention at FOGO. Juniors Finn Brunink (29 goals), Brody Nieuwkoop and Andrew Karas (both 22 goals) also have averaged a goal or more per game.
(Photo by Michigan Sports Photo.)
Seniors Lead Forest Hills Central Back to #1
June 8, 2019
By Jeff Bleiler
Special for Second Half
HOWELL – The Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central boys lacrosse seniors played in the Division 2 championship game all four years of their high school careers.
Safe to say, Saturday’s capper was tops.
Senior Tate Hallock scored five goals and assisted on four others, and fellow senior Luke Majick added five goals and three assists as the Rangers overwhelmed a young Ada Forest Hills Eastern squad 20-4 on Saturday at Parker Field in Howell.
The championship was the fourth in program history, joining one in 2016 when this year’s seniors were freshmen. The past two years, the Rangers fell short to East Grand Rapids – by two goals two years ago and by one in double overtime last year.
“It feels amazing,” Hallock said. “Obviously, sophomore and junior year we didn’t get it, and freshman year we got it but I wasn’t able to play. So just taking it all in, and it’s amazing that I finally played, got some goals and was able to contribute.”
The Rangers finished the year 22-1, their lone loss to Division 1 champion Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice. The Hawks went 16-7 in their first season under coach Zack Grusell, who served as an offensive coordinator for Central in 2015.
“It’s amazing,” Central coach Andy Shira said. “These guys, especially this group of seniors, I’ve been coaching since they were 11 years old. So to see them go out this way is truly special. It’s sad to see it end, but it’s ending in the best way possible for them.”
In six MHSAA Tournament games, Central held each opponent to five goals or fewer and never scored fewer than 17 goals.
“Our senior class has been here four years,” Hallock said. “Eastern is a great team, they’re young, they’ll be here the next couple years too against us probably. But yeah, we’ve been a powerhouse with our senior class.”
After a first quarter that saw both teams kind of feel each other out – despite being familiar with one another after a 17-4 Central victory over Eastern in April – the Rangers opened the scoring gates in the second quarter and never looked back. Sophomore Carson Deines and Hallock both scored in the opening quarter to give Central a 2-0 lead that grew to seven by the 4:28 mark of the second quarter. Majick scored goals 13 seconds apart in the second, and his third of the quarter put Central ahead 7-0.
Sam Bowen and Kaden Dietrich – two of eight sophomores in the Eastern starting lineup – put the Hawks on the board in the second quarter, which ended with Central going ahead 9-2 on a Hallock goal with 19 seconds to play.
Central outscored Eastern 11-2 in the second half, with a running clock for much of the fourth quarter. Senior Evan Matej finished with four goals and an assist, Deines had three goals and two assists, junior Jackson Clay had two goals and two assists and junior Hayden Sarjeant scored a goal for the Rangers.
The 16-goal margin of victory was the widest in a Division 2 Finals game, with the previous high being eight.
It didn’t help matters that Eastern was without sophomore John Morgan, who had a 120-point season end when he broke his foot in a Semifinal victory over East Grand Rapids. But Grusell wasn’t about to use that as an excuse.
“It’s been an awesome season,” he said. “We’re a young team, and it’s been phenomenal to see these guys get to where they are. We scheduled some of the toughest teams in the state of Michigan this year, and they kind of got punched in the mouth earlier this year and had to do a bit of growing up.
“I can’t give a big enough shout-out to seniors Patterson Alward, Brandon Pham, Isaac Wittlinger and all of our seniors, really. They built this program and got us here. We certainly plan on getting another shot at it, so we’ll try to get back here. It’s been one fun run.”
Bowen finished with two goals for Eastern, and sophomore Kevin Sprague scored the Hawks’ other goal.
Click for the full scoring summary.
PHOTOS: (Top) Forest Hills Central’s Jackson Clay (1) makes a move in front of Forest Hills Eastern’s goal during Saturday’s Division 2 Final. (Middle) Forest Hills Eastern’s David Charron (7) gets physical in the midfield.