1st & Goal: 2025 Football Finals Review
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 3, 2025
This season’s MHSAA Football Finals saw only two of 20 teams reach championship games for the first time – the lowest number of first-timers since the start of the 2020s – but several more play for Finals titles for the first time in a decade, or two, or even three or four.
Dearborn Divine Child won its first championship since 1985, Portland St. Patrick its first since 1992, and Harbor Beach, Menominee and Detroit Catholic Central all claimed their first titles in more than a decade as this fall came to a close over the last two weekends.
We also had repeat winners – Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, Jackson Lumen Christi and Martin – and although their runs ended in defeat, Blanchard Montabella and Dexter did advance to championship weekends for the first time.
MHSAA.com once again covered all 10 championship games, with quick recaps and links to those stories below followed by notations of performances entered into the MHSAA Finals record books and a report on some of the main storylines to emerge as those championships were being decided.
Finals in Review
11-Player Division 1: Detroit Catholic Central 42, Detroit Cass Tech 19 – Read
DCC claimed its first Finals championship since 2009 by emerging from this matchup of undefeated teams and avenging a 2024 Semifinal loss to eventual champion Cass Tech. While Shamrocks senior Samson Gash has received some of the highest statewide praise for his offensive talents this season, junior brother Gideon Gash starred this time with three touchdown catches all 37 yards or longer.
11-Player Division 2: Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 51, Dexter 14 – Read
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s repeated as Division 2 champion following quarterback Jabin Gonzales (304 yards/4 TDs passing, 102 yards rushing) but also thanks to a stellar defensive effort against the Dreadnaughts’ record-setting offensive attack. The Eaglets held Dexter to just 266 total yards, and only 69 during the second half after taking a 24-14 lead into the break.
11-Player Division 3: DeWitt 54, Mount Pleasant 20 – Read
This was another matchup of undefeated contenders, and DeWitt again lit up the scoreboard in winning its second championship. The Panthers set a team Finals record for most rushing yards (575) with senior Traverse Moore claiming the individual Finals rushing record with 397 – 83 more than the previous all-time best.
11-Player Division 4: Dearborn Divine Child 23, Hudsonville Unity Christian 22 – Read
Divine Child’s first Finals championship since 1985 was a product of steady play on both sides of the ball. Offensively, Marcello Vitti ran 19 times for 120 yards and a score and Drew Sheridan completed 19 passes for 241 yards and two touchdowns. Defensively, Divine Child stopped a two-point conversion try midway through the fourth quarter to keep a one-point lead, then held Unity to two yards on its final possession.
11-Player Division 5: Grand Rapids West Catholic 42, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep – Read
West Catholic jumped out to a 28-0 lead and didn’t allow reigning champion Notre Dame Prep to get on the scoreboard until the final minute of the first half. The 1-2 punch of running back Collin Abram and quarterback Grady Augustyn accounted for a combined 347 yards for the Falcons, and the Fighting Irish also lost all-state quarterback Sam Stowe for the majority of the second half with an injury.
11-Player Division 6: Jackson Lumen Christi 28, Kingsley 15 – Read
The Titans claimed a fourth-straight Finals championship and repeat in Division 6 by scoring the game’s only second-half points – 14 to go ahead and stay there during the fourth quarter. Lumen Christi’s Sean Walicki starred on both sides of the ball, running for 142 yards and two touchdowns and making 17 tackles.
11-Player Division 7: Menominee 34, Schoolcraft 6 – Read
Two years after finishing Division 7 runner-up and only four points shy of Lumen Christi in that title decider, Menominee returned to Ford Field and won its first championship since 2007. Clayton Miller ran for 112 yards and three touchdowns for the Maroons, who finished a perfect 14-0. Schoolcraft’s only points came with 6:09 to play.
11-Player Division 8: Harbor Beach 31, Hudson 20 – Read
The 11-Player Finals opened with a matchup of undefeated contenders. Harbor Beach withstood Hudson’s powerful running attack and followed quarterback Caden Bucholtz (146 yards/1 TD rushing, 82 yards/2 TDs passing) to its first Finals title since 2012. The Pirates took a 21-0 lead into the final four minutes of the first half and got a scoring run, touchdown reception and 20-yard field goal from Skiler Kruse.
8-Player Division 1: Martin 52, Blanchard Montabella 8 - Read
Hudson claimed its third Division 1 title in four seasons with a dominating performance, as Montabella scored the game’s first points but were held off the board the rest of the way. Quarterback Haylen Buell ran for 179 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries, and completed all seven of his passes – including one for another score – for the undefeated Clippers.
8-Player Division 2: Portland St. Patrick 53, Felch North Dickinson 0 – Read
The Shamrocks seemed to set the tone on the opening kickoff – returning it to North Dickinson’s 3-yard line – on the way to winning their first 8-player championship and first in either football format since 1992. St. Patrick led 20-0 after just seven minutes and 33-0 at halftime, with seven players reaching the end zone at least once by the end of the contest.
Record Report
Detroit Catholic Central and Jackson Lumen Christi moved into a first-place tie with Farmington Hills Harrison for 11-Player Finals appearances as all three have played in 18. (Harrison closed in June 2019).
DeWitt senior Traverse Moore earned seven 11-Player Finals record book listings, his most notable for an all-time best 397 yards rushing – which broke Kadale Williams of Lumen Christi’s record of 314 set just last season. Moore also set records with three touchdown runs during the first quarter, and his 461 total yards (including 64 passing) are the second-most in Finals history. He made four more lists as well, including for 24 points scored.
Mount Pleasant quarterback Xavier Creguer also set a record during the Division 3 game, his 91-yard scoring run the longest rush in 11-player championship game history.
Three kickers made the 11-player single-game extra points list with six apiece – Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Beckett Keifer in Division 2, DeWitt’s Vincent Rose in Division 3 and Grand Rapids West Catholic’s Landon Smith in Division 5
A trio of quarterbacks also made 11-player record lists. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Jabin Gonzales did so with 304 yards passing, his four touchdown tosses, and 406 total yards (including 102 rushing); the total yards rank eighth all-time. Detroit Cass Tech’s Donald Tabron II made passing lists with 25 completions, 37 attempts and 285 yards, and Dearborn Divine Child quarterback Drew Sheridan also made the completions list with 19. Tabron’s attempts rank eighth, and his completions tied for fourth on that list.
On the receiving end of some fine quarterback play, Cass Tech’s Corey Sadler Jr. made the 11-player single-game receptions list with 11, tying for third-most catches, while Grand Rapids West Catholic’s Thomas Puksta made the single-game receiving yardage list with 161 and Detroit Catholic Central’s Gideon Gash tied for the second-most touchdown receptions with three.
Dexter’s Cole Novara rewrote the season receiving records this fall, and added an 11-player championship game listing with a 96-yard kickoff return touchdown. St. Mary’s Daniel Taylor Jr. also made a return list, bringing back a fumble 59 yards for a score.
DeWitt with 54 points made the 11-player team single-game scoring list, but that was just the start. The Panthers’ 575 rushing yards and 639 total yards were records, their seven rushing touchdowns tied another one, their 24 first downs made a record list and their combined 959 total yards with Mount Pleasant made the total offense list for both teams in one game.
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s also made the 11-player scoring list with 51 points, and earned another entry with 314 passing yards. Dexter made the single-game completions list in that game with 24, and Detroit Cass Tech made that same list with 25 completions. Hudsonville Unity Christian made the single-game rushing carries list with 66.
Grand Rapids West Catholic tied the Finals record with two other teams by returning two interceptions for touchdowns.
Hudson made the list of teams that did not punt in a Final, and also joined Harbor Beach – which punted once – on the list for fewest punts by both teams combined in one game.
Martin quarterback Haylen Buell made the 8-player total yardage list with 313 in the Division 1 game, leading a Clippers attack that also made the single-quarter points list with 30, single-Final rushing list with 364 yards and rushing touchdown list with six.
Portland St. Patrick quarterback Jerryd Scheurer made the list for fastest touchdowns to begin an 8-Player Final, scoring on a run just 20 seconds into his team’s Division 2 win against Felch North Dickinson. St. Patrick also made the single-game touchdowns list with seven.
Stories Behind the Scores
Single Wing, Several Records: We detailed above most of how DeWitt ran its way into the Finals record book, but the Panthers’ strategy this season deserves more credit for its brilliance. Recognizing his team’s strength on the offensive line and depth of dynamic ball carriers, DeWitt coach Rob Zimmerman leaned heavily on single wing concepts that saw direct snaps to Traverse Moore – technically his quarterback – who then ran behind multiple blockers or worked through counters and other slights of hand that opened up multiple running lanes on just about every play. The Panthers have added several record book entries over the last 25 years thanks to a high-scoring spread passing attack, but they followed last season’s 702 points (ranking eighth all-time before this fall) with 727 this season that will ran fifth on the single-season scoring list. Moore finished with 2,512 yards and 33 touchdowns rushing, and it will be interesting to see if other programs follow suit by incorporating single-wing looks.
Memorable Menominee: The Maroons were once known as one of the last teams to run the single wing, and although they’ve added different looks and more balance under fourth-year coach Chad Brandt, that tough-running, physical culture lives on – and played a big part in Menominee’s perfect season and first Finals championship since 2007. The Maroons just missed winning the Division 7 title in 2023, losing to Jackson Lumen Christi 34-30, but came through this time to claim the Upper Peninsula’s first 11-player championship since 2015. This season, only 16 UP teams played 11-player, while 19 played 8-player.
Watch List: A total of 44,733 fans attended the 11 or 8-Player Finals this season, the highest combined total for the three days since 2019 and despite a snowstorm that blanketed much of the Lower Peninsula over the 11-player weekend. A notable crowd of fans also watched online; although this was the first year the 11-Player Finals were streamed only, on the NFHS Network, we know that the Division 1 championship game drew the fourth-most viewers all-time of any event from any state broadcast on the Network, and that they watched the game for the most minutes ever for a Network broadcast.
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PHOTOS (Top) This collage shows action photos from all 10 MHSAA Finals played this season. (2) Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Kareem Pruit (7) brings down Dexter quarterback Cooper Arnedt in 11-player Division 2. (3) Kingsley’s Nolan Hodges (28) wraps up Lumen Christi’s Ayden Gatewood in Division 6. (4) Martin’s Seth Toris (24) charges through a hole with Montabella’s Noah Carlson lining up to attempt a tackle in 8-player Division 1.
1st Day of Practice Begins Final Run for Father & Son Ostipow at Forest Hills Northern
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 12, 2026
GRAND RAPIDS – For one obvious reason, no player on the Forest Hills Northern football team has received more wake-up calls from the head coach over his lifetime than Owen Ostipow.
But the one he and a handful of his teammates received about 4 p.m. Monday may prove memorable – especially if it ends up setting the tone for a successful fall.
The first practice of this season was set to begin at 3:45 p.m. That’s when Ostipow and others arrived, thinking they were early. That not being the case, and a few conversations over the confusion later, the Huskies headed to the goal line where varsity head coach Eddie Ostipow – Owen’s dad – opened what was to be his final first day of practice, at least for a while, by sending his team through push-ups and sprints as a reminder to sharpen up immediately for the work to come.
“Definitely a wake-up call for some of us to just get in line and get order. A lot of the guys were a little late today, me included,” Owen Ostipow said. “Absolutely deserved.”
Most likely, that brief bumpy start will end up as little more than a sidenote as Coach/Dad and his senior all-state candidate son/quarterback ride together through one more season, Owen before heading off to play at Ferris State and Eddie on the way to retiring after 27 years as a head coach in the West Michigan and Greater Lansing areas.
A total of 602 varsity football teams were scheduled to begin practices Monday, as were teams playing every fall sport at every MHSAA member school.
At Forest Hills Northern, that meant the beginning of the end of a recent era.
Eddie Ostipow will be retiring as head coach after this fall and from teaching later this school year, providing more time to watch his oldest son Evan’s football games at Hope College and next season Owen’s as he has committed to sign with the two-time reigning Division II national champion Bulldogs.
Of course, Owen nor Evan nor younger siter Auden were even on the radar when Eddie began his varsity coaching career at Charlotte as a 24-year-old in 1999 and led the Orioles to a combined 47-17 record over six seasons and the Division 3 Semifinals in 2004. He left after that season to coach three at East Kentwood, then returned to Charlotte for five more seasons before taking over at Ada Forest Hills Eastern and building the Hawks toward an 11-2 record and Division 4 Semifinal run in 2015 that remains that program’s most successful finish.
Ostipow moved on to coach Greenville from 2016-18, then took over at Forest Hills Northern in 2019. He enters this fall with a combined record of 116-112 while frequently matching up at his various stops with statewide powers like DeWitt early on, later Rockford and Muskegon, then Grand Rapids West Catholic and these days Muskegon, Mona Shores and Byron Center all during Ottawa-Kent Conference Green play.
On Monday, about 70 players took to FHN’s stadium turf to get things underway, including 45 varsity players. The Huskies are coming off two straight 4-5 finishes, last year after losing 14 players to injuries – including nearly half of those for the season – during the first half on opening night.
But they also return an all-region quarterback in Owen Ostipow, who ran for 1,435 yards and 22 touchdowns last season and threw for eight more scores. And that’s a great way to start anew.
“We’ve got an opportunity. We have a chance to surprise some people,” Eddie Ostipow said. “I like being the underdog sometimes too, so I think that makes it exciting. If you can get your kids to buy into that, I think that’s something that can be really powerful.
“My thing as a coach, I always try to have a perspective of what’s possible for us and then push them like crazy to get there. If we can get every ounce of effort and intensity and focus out of them, then I think we’ve had a great year.”
Of course, as life roles change, perspectives can evolve as well. Ostipow has gone from teaching and coaching kids who were less than a decade younger to turning 52 years old with Evan graduated, Owen on the way and Auden heading into her sophomore year.
His football staff at FHN is a collection of coaches who were part of the program before him and others who were with him at some of his other stops. None go back to his days at Charlotte, but athletic director can – he was an all-state receiver for the Orioles under Ostipow before graduating in 2005. Sherman then played at Northern Michigan, came home to coach with Ostipow at Charlotte and again at Forest Hills Eastern, and he inherited his old coach in taking over at FHN in 2024.
“Coaching, he lives it, probably a bit more than he should. But that’s the hobby,” Sherman said. “His passion, he’s always working on something – he always has some nuance or change, something new he’s trying to learn.
“I joke sometimes, when you have kids sometimes you soften up a little bit, but he’s not soft. We’re going to have expectations (this season), we’re going to have all those things. But as you go through it, and then you become a parent, you sometimes see that lens a little different.”
As a now-veteran coach as well, Ostipow has had opportunities to cheer on former players who have gone on to major accomplishments.
In January, his former quarterback Trinidad Chambliss nearly took Ole Miss past Miami at the Fiesta Bowl, just missing out on a chance to play in the College Football Playoff title game. On the opposite sideline celebrating that 31-27 Hurricanes win was Jack Clark, a member of the Miami staff who starred for Ostipow at Forest Hills Eastern and owns a national championship ring after serving on Michigan’s staff during its 2024 run. Another 2005 Charlotte graduate, Chad Richardson, has a Super Bowl ring from serving as director of game presentation for the Los Angeles Rams during their 2022 surge, and he’s now with the Buffalo Bills in the same capacity as they prepare to open a new stadium. Matt Packowski was a junior on that 2004 Orioles team and now is a Division I college football referee.
There surely will be more to come, and Ostipow did not sound Monday like a coach on his way out. But he’ll do his best to be fan for a while and cheer on the Huskies who came through his household as well before possibly making a return to the sideline when their playing days are done.
“I feel like it’s kinda special. Most people don’t get to get coached by their dad, and I think it’s a little more extra special because I remember when my brother was a senior, and I started on varsity as a sophomore, that was the first time I’d seen (my dad) cry,” Owen Ostipow said. “It was just kinda heartbreaking. You watch (your kids) grow, and then they’re just gone.
“Now it’s going to be me. Maybe we’ll see that again from him, but you never know.”
PHOTOS (Top) Forest Hills Northern coach Eddie Ostipow, far left, watches his senior son Owen (white helmet cap) run the offense during Monday’s first practice of the season. (Middle) Owen Ostipow, far right, runs sprints on the track with his teammates. (Below) Eddie Ostipow works with the Huskies linemen.