1st & Goal: 8-Player Finals Preview
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 15, 2021
Four undefeated teams will be the first to play for championships to cap the longest football season in MHSAA history.
Adrian Lenawee Christian and Suttons Bay in Division 1 and Portland St. Patrick and Powers North Central in Division 2 will take the field at Brighton’s Legacy Center on Saturday with this season’s two 8-player titles on the line. They returned to action last week after a nearly two-month pause due to COVID-19.
Suttons Bay and Portland St. Patrick are the 2019 runners-up in Divisions 1 and 2, respectively. Adrian Lenawee Christian is new to the format this season and like Suttons Bay is playing for its first football title. North Central, meanwhile, is the only program to win multiple 8-player championships since the format was added in 2011, and the Jets are back at the Finals for the first time since their repeat run in 2016.
Kickoff for the Division 2 game is 2 p.m., with the Division 1 game following approximately 5:30 p.m. Spectators remain limited, but both games will be broadcast live on the FOX Sports Detroit Facebook page, and replayed on FOX Sports Detroit’s primary channel Jan. 21 beginning at 8 p.m. Audio of both games will be streamed live on MHSAANetwork.com.
Below is a look at all four finalists. Team “rankings” are based on their playoff-point averages heading into the postseason.
Division 1
ADRIAN LENAWEE CHRISTIAN
Record/rank: 10-0, No. 3
Coach: Bill Wilharms, eighth season (59-21)
League finish: First in Southern Central Athletic Association A
Championship history: Has never played in an MHSAA Final.
Best wins: 49-0 over No. 1 Morrice in Regional Final, 47-12 over No. 8 Martin in Semifinal, 78-14 over No. 4 Mayville in Regional Semifinal, 24-6 over Division 2 No. 5 Colon.
Players to watch: RB/LB Jameson Chesser, 5-10/170, sr. (1,179 yards/29 TDs rushing, 506 yards/4 TDs receiving); QB/CB Landon Gallant, 5-10/155, sr. (1,331 yards/23 TDs passing, 388 yards/6 TDs rushing); OG/NG Coby Kegerreis, 5-8/185, jr.; C/DE Joey Breckel, 6-1/240, sr.
Outlook: Lenawee Christian’s 8-player debut couldn’t have gone better on the field, as the Cougars have won only one game by fewer than 35 points. That was an 18-point victory over league foe Colon, last season’s Division 1 champion, and Saturday the Cougars can make it a repeat for the SCAA Division A. Chesser – who also has thrown for 178 yards and two touchdowns on 17 attempts – made the all-state first team and scored five times against Martin in the Semifinal. Kegerreis also made the all-state first team, as did junior kicker Clay Ayers (41 of 48 XP), and Breckel earned honorable mention. Those four and Gallant also start on a defense that’s given up only 46 points over 10 games.
SUTTONS BAY
Record/rank: 10-0, No. 1
Coach: Garrick Opie, third season (30-2)
League finish: Does not play in a league.
Championship history: 8-player Division 1 runner-up 2019, 11-player Division 6 runner-up 2004.
Best wins: 38-22 over No. 8 Gaylord St. Mary in Regional Final, 35-0 over Brethren, 39-20 and 44-0 (Regional Semifinal) over Whittemore-Prescott.
Players to watch: RB/DB Hugh Periard, 6-0/175, jr. (799 yards/13 TDs rushing, 217 yards/3 TDs receiving); QB/DB Nate Devol, 6-0/175, sr. (901 yards/15 TDs passing, 301 yards/2 TDs rushing, 4 interceptions on defense); RB/LB Shawn Bramer, 6-2/195, jr. (622 yards/11 TDs rushing, 60 yards/1 TD receiving); OL/LB Michael Wittman, 6-4/230, sr.
Outlook: Suttons Bay is returning to the Division 1 championship game after falling short in a 26-14 defeat to Colon in 2019. The Norsemen have won all of their games by double digits, with a defense giving up only 7.6 points per game and a rushing attack that has piled up 2,506 yards over nine games (last week’s Semifinal win was a forfeit by Indian River Inland Lakes). Wittman made the all-state first team as a linebacker. Starting tight ends Jake Murphy and Brayden Opie add another element to the attack – both have caught 15 passes, with Murphy scoring on five and Opie on six.
Division 2
PORTLAND ST. PATRICK
Record/rank: 10-0, No. 1
Coach: Patrick Russman, 13th season (96-39)
League finish: Does not play in the league.
Championship history: 8-player Division 2 runner-up 2019 and 2017, 11-player Class D champion 1992, runner-up 1997 and 1991.
Best wins: 44-34 over No. 5 Colon in Regional Final, 34-12 over No. 7 Kinde North Huron in Semifinal, 52-19 over No. 4 Burr Oak, 26-22 over Division 1 No. 6 Merrill.
Players to watch: QB/DB Connor Cross, 6-3/190, sr. (1,245 yards/21 TDs passing, 429 yards/9 TDs rushing, 4 interceptions on defense); RB/LB Derec Fedewa, 5-10/185, jr. (1,369 yards/19 TDs, 311 yards/5 TDs receiving); WR/LB Braxton Teachworth, 6-3/190, jr. (193 yards/3 TDs receiving); OL/DL Chase Fitzsimmons, 6-3/240, sr.
Outlook: The Shamrocks have come within a win of the Division 2 championship twice over the last four seasons, and will make a run at it again with an offense featuring all-state first teamers at quarterback and running back. Cross and Fedewa have piled up big numbers this fall, as has leading receiving Shane Cook (502 yards/9 TDs), for a team scoring 43.5 points per game. But the key Saturday could be an opportunistic defense that has taken advantage of 28 turnovers – including 19 fumble recoveries – and allowed conversions on only 19 percent of opponent third downs. Fitzsimmons and Teachworth earned all-state honorable mentions, Teachworth at linebacker.
POWERS NORTH CENTRAL
Record/rank: 10-0, No. 2
Coach: Leo Gorzinski, third season (28-3)
League finish: First in Great Lakes Eight Conference West
Championship history: 8-player champion 2016 and 2015.
Best wins: 55-8 over No. 3 Cedarville in Regional Final, 50-2 over No. 8 Marion in Semifinal, 50-8 over Stephenson, 52-8 over Lake Linden-Hubbell in Regional Semifinal.
Players to watch: QB/LB Luke Gorzinski, 5-9/170, soph. (1,163 yards/18 TDs passing, 909 yards/20 TDs rushing); WR/LB Ian Gorzinski, 5-11/165, sr. (362 yards/5 TDs receiving, 101 yards/3 TDs rushing); RB/LB Alex Naser, 5-8/165, jr. (312 yards/7 TDs rushing, 301 yards/7 TDs receiving, 2 TDs on kickoff returns); OL/DL Carter Eichmeier, 6-2/190, sr.
Outlook: The Jets will match St. Patrick’s all-state quarterback with the other all-state first-team signal-caller this season in Luke Gorzinski, who is coming off four touchdown runs and a scoring pass in the Semifinal. He keys an offense that has outscored opponents 280-8 in the first quarter alone and 539-60 in nine games overall (one win was a forfeit). Eichmeier also made the all-state first team as North Central won all but one of its games by more than 40 points. In addition to the sparse points given up, the Jets are allowing only 114 yards per game.
Everyone Knows Riverview's ID: Pirates Bringing Full House with Powerful T
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
September 5, 2024
Several years ago, Riverview football coach Derek McLaughlin was talking to a colleague about his football team when something he said struck a chord.
“I was talking to a coach that I had coached against when I was struggling, and he said something to the effect of we didn’t have an identity,” McLaughlin said.
Those days are long gone.
The Pirates and their full-house T rushing attack have become one of the most identifiable football programs in southeast Michigan. They have won or shared four straight Huron League titles, haven’t lost more than three games in a season since 2015 and are hoping for an eighth-straight playoff appearance this year.
McLaughlin said he learned by making mistakes.
“We really like the full-house T, and we went all in,” he said. “It wasn’t good the first year. It wasn’t good at all. We’ve gotten better coaching it. There is still stuff that we need to learn, but that’s what we are. We have an identity. “
Riverview has built its team around the full-house T. Opponents know what they are going to face – they just have to line up and defend it. The deeper the Pirates go into running the same system year-after-year, the harder it seems to stop.
“The kids come into our program or to the varsity and have a basic idea of what they need to do,” McLaughlin said. “It comes down to technique. You can hone in on your craft and get more reps. That’s the mindset that we have. It doesn’t always go perfectly. There are things you must do to get better.”
McLaughlin feels with the offense being so consistent from week-to-week and year-to-year, the coaches can spend more time in practice on teaching technique and, more importantly, focusing on defense.
“You really don’t get the kids that long during a day,” he said. “We try to be consistent with our reps. We are all about limiting the mistakes.”
The Pirates have a host of returning players from last season’s 9-2 team that lost in the second round of the playoffs, including leading rusher Ian Adams, who ran for more than 1,500 yards and was one of the top tacklers on the team.
In the season opener against Detroit Renaissance, Adams carried the ball only four times but had 136 yards and two touchdowns. Another back, Nathan Pinkava, also had two touchdowns and more than 100 yards rushing.
Pinkava is one of the four team captains this season along with center/defensive lineman Garrett Timmerman, quarterback and safety Lucas Thompson, and linebacker and tight end Chris Sarnacki.
When the team voted to select them during the preseason, Timmerman was nearly unanimous.
“He’s a great kid who works really hard,” McLaughlin said.
There are 47 players total. Several will get a chance to carry the ball at some point.
“A lot of different backs carry the ball,” McLaughlin said. “In our offense, we’re trying to hide the ball and those four guys in the backfield all get touches at one time or another. We have plays for each of them in the system. There’s a fairly good distribution of who gets the ball.”
McLaughlin is 77-24 in 10 seasons at Riverview. In 2017 and 2022, the Pirates reached the MHSAA Semifinals.
The 2017 team rebounded from a 2-7 season the year before with a remarkable turnaround of nine wins.
As the Pirates’ legend grows, opponents tend to circle the Riverview game on their schedule. Everyone wants to knock off the team on top of the mountain.
“Because of the success we have had – a lot of teams will come to play against us,” McLaughlin said. “They play us tough. We must be ready each week. Some of these kids have never played varsity before, and they do not quite understand yet that every week is a rivalry game. We get the kitchen sink thrown at us. It is great. I think our league prepares us well.”
Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central coach Adam Kipf is one of the league coaches who has to prepare every season for Riverview’s full-house T.
“I have a lot of respect for Coach McLaughlin,” Kipf said. “He does things the right way and demands a lot of his players. We know that when we play them, the pads are strapped tight and to be ready for a long, physical game. I think their style of play reflects him as a leader. It's nothing flashy, just hard-nosed football, gritty football, which resonates with those kids and the Riverview community.”
Riverview went 9-2 last season and shared the league title with Carleton Airport. The Jets defeated Riverview in Week 2, stopping Riverview’s 22-game Huron League win streak.
McLaughlin is not out for revenge this week when Riverview hosts Airport to start the conference schedule.
“None of that matters when you start a new year,” he said. “Nothing you’ve done in the past really matters. You have to make a difference now.
“It starts in the offseason and goes on through the summer. That is what we preach to the kids. It doesn’t make any difference if you had a bad season the year before or a great season the year before; you have to come to work. You have to make yourself better physically and be prepared.
“We focus entirely on one game at a time. That’s how we are always going to do it as long as I’m here.”
It’s an identity thing.
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Riverview’s Nathan Pinkava carries the ball and eludes a Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central defender during their 2023 matchup. (Middle) Pirates coach Derek McLaughlin shares a moment with his team. (Below) Ian Adams (15) attempts to break a tackle. (Pinkava photo by Stephanie Hawkins; McLaughlin and Adams photos courtesy of the Riverview athletic department.)