1st & Goal: 2023 Playoff Week 1 Preview
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 26, 2023
Part of the enchantment of high school sports is the relatively small window athletes receive to play them. Most get four seasons – and most football players just two on the varsity team under the frequently and fondly-referenced “Friday night lights.”
That enchantment makes it impossible to undersell the anticipation as another MHSAA Football Playoffs – the 49th – begin tonight.
It will be the first playoffs for thousands of players and the start of the last playoffs for thousands more as 11-Player District Semifinals and 8-Player Regional Semifinals kick off with 128 games, and 16 more Saturday.
The mini heat wave finishing its run through Michigan is another reason to check out a first-round game in person. But if you’re not heading out, you still can watch nearly all of them – as of Thursday evening, 122 of this weekend’s 144 playoff games will be broadcast live on MHSAA.tv, viewable with subscription. Keep up with scores as well and Round 2 matchups as they’re determined on the Football Playoff Scoreboard.
Here are just a handful of the intriguing matchups as this postseason gets underway. Games are Friday unless noted.
11-Player Division 1
Rochester Adams (6-3) at West Bloomfield (7-2) - WATCH
These two rank among the most successful playoff teams in the state over the last three seasons, with West Bloomfield a combined 8-2 in the postseason with a Division 1 championship in 2020, and Adams a combined 7-2 (not counting a COVID-related forfeit in 2020) with a runner-up finish in 2021 after the Highlanders defeated the Lakers 14-13 in a Regional Final during that run. This fall West Bloomfield was third and Adams fourth in the Oakland Activities Association Red, thanks in part to the Lakers' 36-32 win in their Week 5 meeting. West Bloomfield also handed Southfield Arts & Technology its only defeat, 31-20 in Week 8.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Detroit Catholic Central (7-2) at Novi (7-2) - WATCH, St. Clair Shores Lakeview (7-2) at Macomb Dakota (7-2) - WATCH, Detroit Cass Tech (6-3) at Westland John Glenn (7-2) - WATCH.
11-Player Division 2
Muskegon Reeths-Puffer (7-2) at Muskegon Mona Shores (6-3) - WATCH
This is also a rematch, as Mona Shores opened the Ottawa-Kent Conference Green schedule with a 28-10 win over Reeths-Puffer – and in fact, the Rockets are seeking their first win over Shores since 2016. But this also has been Reeths-Puffer’s winningest season since 2013, and they enter this opener coming off impressive back-to-back victories over Zeeland East 35-21 and Zeeland West 14-12, the latter avenging a 2022 defeat. Shores also defeated West, 14-6 two weeks ago, but was edged by East 21-20 in the regular-season finale.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Portage Northern (8-1) at Caledonia (7-2) - WATCH, Birmingham Groves (6-3) at Birmingham Seaholm (8-1) - WATCH, Dexter (6-3) at Allen Park (8-1) - WATCH.
11-Player Division 3
Zeeland East (6-3) at Zeeland West (6-3) - WATCH
Zeeland West has won its last six meetings with its neighbor, including once in the playoffs, since East swept a pair in 2018. The Dux claimed this season’s first matchup 36-13. But that shouldn’t be an indication a repeat is a sure thing. As noted above, East is coming off a one-point win over Mona Shores – avenging a 42-7 loss from a year ago and breaking a two-game losing streak to the Sailors since they rejoined the same league in 2020. West meanwhile has lost three straight games, but those beg for context as well – those defeats came to Muskegon High, Mona Shores and Reeths-Puffer, and all by eight points or fewer. Muskegon is the only team to score more than 14 points on the Dux, and the Big Reds put up just 22 in their six-point Week 7 win.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Battle Creek Harper Creek (6-3) at Parma Western (8-1), Fenton (6-3) at DeWitt (6-2) - WATCH, Detroit Martin Luther King (4-5) at Port Huron (7-2) - WATCH.
11-Player Division 4
Lansing Sexton (8-1) at Portland (9-0)
This is a rematch of the Week 8 decider for the Capital Area Activities Conference White title, and Portland’s 41-0 win over then-undefeated Sexton further emphasized the mightiness of the Raiders’ defense this year – they’ve given up just 47 points and also shut out Berrien Springs last week. Portland is up to No. 3 in the final coaches poll and enters having won District titles in Division 5 the last two seasons (and its Regional two years ago) and with a combined 29-5 record going back to the start of 2021. But Sexton, enjoying its best season since 2017, is ranked No. 10 and certainly has the ability to flip things if it can build up some success on offense and keep Portland’s off the field.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Big Rapids (8-1) at Spring Lake (7-2), Wayland (6-3) at Grand Rapids South Christian (6-3) - WATCH, Croswell-Lexington (7-2) at Harper Woods (6-3).
11-Player Division 5
Gladwin (7-2) at Ogemaw Heights (8-1) - WATCH
The only loss of Ogemaw Heights’ most successful regular season since 2009 came in the opener on the road at reigning Division 5 champion Gladwin, 42-28. The Falcons get the Flying Gs at home this time, and have given up just under 10 points per game on average since that defeat. Ogemaw Heights has downed five playoff teams over those eight games including previously-undefeated Almont 21-7 last week. About 40 miles southeast, Gladwin impressively ran its Jack Pine Conference winning streak to 19 games and three straight championships, and those defeats came last week to Frankenmuth and Week 7 to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep – which are 16-1 between them.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Berrien Springs (5-3) at South Haven (6-3) - WATCH, Flint Hamady (8-0) at Corunna (9-0) - WATCH, Detroit Denby (8-1) at Detroit Southeastern (6-3).
11-Player Division 6
Detroit Old Redford (8-1) at Detroit Edison (6-3), Saturday
Old Redford has built its most successful regular season, and the climb has been stunning. The Ravens didn’t play a game in 2020 or 2021, then went 4-5 last year before doubling their victories this fall – with their only loss in the season opener to playoff team Dearborn Heights Robichaud. Old Redford won the Charter School Conference Silver but should get one of its toughest challenges in Edison, which spent more than a month in the coaches poll top 10 and reached No. 6 on the list on the way to earning six wins for the third time in four seasons and after going just 2-7 a year ago. Edison tied for second in the Charter School Conference Gold behind undefeated Warren Michigan Collegiate.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Kent City (7-2) 39.000 at Hart (8-1) - WATCH, Lake City (6-3) at Manistee (7-2) - WATCH, Buchanan (6-3) at Kalamazoo United (5-4).
11-Player Division 7
Traverse City St. Francis (4-4) at Charlevoix (8-1) - WATCH
This is another fascinating rematch. These two didn’t play in the same league this fall, but they did open against each other with St. Francis winning 41-40 while filling in almost an entirely new starting lineup. The Gladiators were coming off finishing Division 7 runner-up a year ago and had to navigate six more eventual playoff qualifiers – but reached the postseason again, and now a large group of new contributors at the start of the year have a season of experience against strong competition. Charlevoix bounced back and didn’t lose again – or let anyone closer than 13 points on the way to winning a league title and reaching eight wins for the fourth-straight season.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Schoolcraft (7-2) at Lawton (8-1) - WATCH, Sandusky (6-3) at Cass City (7-2) - WATCH, Manchester (7-2) at Napoleon (8-1).
11-Player Division 8
Fowler (8-1) at Ithaca (9-0) - WATCH
The Division 8 bracket is loaded. Six teams are undefeated and five more have lost only once, and this game matches one from each group. Ithaca is playing in Division 8 for the first time and brings a streak of 15 straight league championships, Division 7 District titles two of the last three seasons and a current team that is outscoring its opponents on average 50-5 with shutouts in five of its last six games. But Fowler has seen this caliber of competition. The Eagles’ lone loss was 27-14 to Division 7 contender Pewamo-Westphalia in Week 6, and the Pirates are the only team to score on Fowler since Sept. 1. The Eagles have given up only 53 points this season with six shutouts, and five of those shutouts were of playoff teams including Frankfort, Laingsburg and McBain since the P-W loss.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Hudson (7-2) at Addison (9-0) - WATCH, Frankfort (7-2) at Beal City (8-1) - WATCH, Mount Clemens (5-4) at Riverview Gabriel Richard (5-4) - WATCH.
8-Player Division 1
Mendon (7-2) at Gobles (7-2) - WATCH
Gobles made the switch to 8-player in 2021 and has strung together two straight seven-win seasons, with this fall’s coming against a schedule featuring five teams with winning records. Mendon wasn’t on this year’s slate after a league change, but they’ll meet again after the Hornets won their matchup a year ago 36-6. Gobles has scored 53 points in all of its wins and has its 2022 points total by more than 100. Mendon, last season’s Division 2 runner-up, remains similarly able to match points with most and lost only to still-undefeated Climax-Scotts and Adrian Lenawee Christian.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Alcona (8-1) at Indian River Inland Lakes (8-1) - WATCH, Newberry (7-2) at Norway (7-2) - WATCH. SATURDAY Carson City-Crystal (8-1) at Brown City (9-0) - WATCH.
8-Player Division 2
Crystal Falls Forest Park (7-2) at Lake Linden-Hubbell (6-3), Saturday - WATCH
For more than a decade, this was a notable regular-season finale in the 11-player Great Western Conference, with these two meeting again in the playoffs six times between 2004-15. Forest Park switched to 8-player in 2016, Lake Linden-Hubbell in 2020, and this is the third season in a row they’ll meet in the regular season and playoffs. Forest Park won the Week 6 matchup this fall 36-28, but also won last year’s regular-season matchup 22-14 before the Lakes flipped things in the Regional Semifinal 44-12.
Keep an eye on these FRIDAY Bay City All Saints (7-2) at Marion (8-0) - WATCH. SATURDAY Au Gres-Sims (7-2) at Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart (8-1) - WATCH, Powers North Central (7-2) at Posen (8-0).
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PHOTO DeWitt's Elliott Larner (3) unloads a pass during a Week 9 win over Lansing Waverly. (Photo by TCP-Photography.)
Undefeated Contenders Make Claims as 1925 High School Football Champion
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
November 14, 2025
It was another football season without an official postseason, just as they all were prior to 1975 in Michigan.
Well – that’s not exactly true – but we will detail that story on another day.
In the Great Lakes State, the 1925 prep season – now 100 years ago - provides a beautiful illustration of the fun, fascination, and frustration in proclaiming gridiron championships in Michigan before the arrival of the MHSAA playoffs.
“The Roaring Twenties” – built in the age of prosperity that followed the end of World War I – were an age of excess, an era of more, and a time where anything seemed possible.
The Twenties are also known as the Golden Age of College Football, and excitement for the sport certainly trickled down to the high school level. The need or desire to open or break ground on impressively bigger and better stadiums hit schools around the nation. The 1925 season marked the opening of the University of Pittsburgh’s Pitt Stadium, with potential seating for 70,000. In Michigan, just upriver on Saginaw Bay in Bay City, the town’s Central High School unveiled a facility with a capacity of 7,100. That season marked the end of college careers for University of Illinois’ legend Harold “Red” Grange, Dartmouth’s Andy Oberlander, and Stanford’s Ernie Nevers. It was also the first varsity season at University of Michigan for Muskegon High School’s Bennie Oosterbaan, who became the school’s first three-time football All-American.
With a lack of lighted fields in Michigan, prep contests were mostly played on Saturdays, and the kickoff to seasons began around mid-September. Scheduled games generally ended in late November, with a few schools around the state closing their slate with a traditional Thanksgiving Day game.
Call it what you will – bragging rights, statewide acclaim, untethered validation, or an unsatisfied heart – but the regular season did not end the fascination and desire to name a state champion. While the state’s governing body did not sponsor championships, that did not stop cities, schools, the media, and the fan base from attempts to assign bragging rights to teams with unbeaten records. That was pretty much the case since the start of the prep game, dating back to 1888.
The era was often filled with “post season” challenges for games between teams to crystalize a claim on a championship. In general, they seldom came to fruition.
The MHSAA
The recently-created Michigan High School Athletic Association established three classes based on hard student enrollment numbers, with Class A – comprised of the state’s largest schools, each with a minimum of 500 students – Class B with between 175 and 499 enrolled, and Class C for schools with fewer than 175 pupils. Back then, the classifications were not segmented with an equal number of schools in each Class, as they are in today’s Division format. Rather, there were many more schools that fell into Class B and Class C than Class A. (Additional subdividing, adding Class D, and Class E, would come later).
Spurred on by fans and sportswriters, schools who wanted a share of the spotlight saw those classifications conveniently offering a means to segment claims on a state title. Acknowledging that they could seldom compete successfully against the larger schools in football, there was nothing to stop unbeaten teams from declaring themselves Class B or Class C gridiron champions.
The Fall of '25
Following the results of mid-November games across the state, just two prep teams in Michigan’s emerged as possible claimants to the title in Class A. Both Flint Central and Grand Rapids Union were unbeaten and untied. Flint would play Bay City Central at home on Saturday, Nov. 21, then square off for a Thanksgiving game with Ann Arbor in the university city.
Union would complete its regular season in a showdown with crosstown rival Grand Rapids South on Nov. 21. Unbeaten in 1924, South had shared that season’s mythical state title with Flint Central.
Just days before kickoff however, a third school emerged, making lots of noise.
Port Huron Times-Herald reporter Ray Bouslog penned an article that appeared in the Tuesday, Nov. 17 edition.
“Comparing Port Huron with the other two undefeated teams, the locals appear to have just as good a record as their rivals,” he noted. Comparing scores of games among the three schools against common opponents, and opponent’s common opponents – a common practice among fans and sportswriters then and now – he felt the local school was among the state’s best regardless of class.
Two days later, in the same paper, Port Huron’s athletic director and head coach Melvin J. Myers, acknowledging they had two more games on their schedule, was quoted by Bouslog:
“Having gone through the schedule unbeaten, untied, and unscored on, we consider that we have as much a claim (on the state title) as either Grand Rapids Union or Flint Central. But unlike the situation in former years, when the teams were unable to agree on terms of the post season battle, we are willing to play either of these schools at home or away.”
It was a bold statement. Port Huron was classified as a Class B school by the MHSAA. Five of its eight wins had come against Class B or Class C competition. While its goal line had not been crossed, Port Huron had scored 151 points – an average of just under 19 per contest.
Port Huron also had scheduled a Turkey Day game with Richmond, a Class C opponent. Myers considered the contest “only a workout for the team,” with victory by a large margin expected. But Saturday’s contest was on the road against a University of Detroit High School squad – no pushover. Port Huron, of course, would fall out of the race with a defeat in either contest.
On Friday, the Flint Daily Journal, in an Extra edition, acknowledged the Myers’ challenge: “(T)he recognized leader in Class B having no blemish on her record ... Port Huron is willing to step out of her class (and) has hurled challenges at both Flint and Union, provided they are untied and unbeaten.”
Since Union did not have a scheduled Thanksgiving Day contest, Myers stated he was willing to reschedule the Richmond game and meet Union, in Grand Rapids, on the holiday. The move would set up a “playoff” for an undisputed championship.
Union coach John Truesdale responded in the Grand Rapids Press, stating “This is no time to talk such stuff. The proper time for serious entertainment of such ideas is after the South game is played. If we win Saturday we talk. If we lose, and that is not impossible, then we will be in a position to consider such things.”
Union brushed off Coach Myers’ desire for a game on Thanksgiving. Truesdale indicated he was willing to listen to proposals from either Flint or Port Huron – not Thanksgiving Day – but on Saturday, Nov. 28, and no later.
Flint coach Charles Bassett was blunt with his response to the talk: “It is absolutely out of the question for Flint to even think of playing Union or any other team on Nov 28. We have a regularly scheduled game with Ann Arbor only two days before that time. It would be physically impossible for the boys to play two games in three days.”
Emphasizing that his two remaining games had been scheduled over a year ago, he stated, “Union knows our schedule and so does every other school in Michigan. I have no intention whatever of trying to change it. … If Union or Port Huron desire to play at some later date, after my boys have had a suitable rest, I shall be glad to listen to their proposals.”
Stage is Nearly Set
All three schools won their game on Saturday, Nov. 21. Rocky Parsaca nailed three out of four drop-kicks as Union topped South, 9-0, while Port Huron slipped past U of D High, 6-0, on a fourth-quarter TD by senior fullback Cecil Turner. Flint crushed Bay City Central, 32-0, to set the stage.
With that win, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Bassett told the Journal, “If Central is successful against Ann Arbor tomorrow, we stand ready and willing to play either Port Huron or Grand Rapids Union for the undisputed state championship. This should settle all doubts as to our sincerity in believing we have the best team in the state. We are willing to test it on any neutral field.”
By then, however, negotiations for a three-way series involving Union had broken down and the news had reached the paper. In the same edition, it was noted that Union had packed up for the fall. Without a game on Thanksgiving or the Saturday following, Truesdale stated Union could not carry its squad for two full weeks without a game. On Monday, Nov. 24, the Press had announced that Union had closed out its football season and was now focused on basketball.
With that bit of news, the Flint paper stated, “It is probable that Flint and Port Huron will arrange a game for Saturday, Dec 5.”
Thanksgiving
Played on Ann Arbor’s high school field, located just three blocks from University of Michigan’s Ferry Field, Flint had its hands full, downing the hosts, 6-3, on a second-quarter touchdown by senior captain Lloyd Brazil, before 5,000 fans. A future star, and later head coach at the University of Detroit, Brazil intercepted an Ann Arbor pass during the closing minutes, capping a scoreless second half and sealing the win.
As expected, Port Huron trounced Richmond, 55-0.
Talk about a game with Flint to be played at Michigan State College at the new State stadium hit the papers. But discussions failed, and by the weekend, Port Huron and Flint Central also closed out their seasons.
With that, multiple schools laid claim to the crown proving, once again, football championships from the era are valid, but “mythical.”
Check back next week for a second installment on the 1925 football “championship” race.
PHOTOS (Top) From left, Port Huron standout Cecil Turner, Grand Rapids Union football coach John Truesdale, Flint Central players huddling and Central’s Lloyd Brazil. (Middle) The 1925 Flint Central team. (Below) The 1925 Port Huron team. (Photos gathered by Ron Pesch.)