Drive Completed: 2014 Finals in Review
December 1, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
A total of 56,303 fans attended this weekend’s 11-player Football Finals at Ford Field, the most to watch the event live since 2010 and more than 9,000 more fans than only two years ago.
They witnessed five games decided by 10 points or fewer. Four games where the eventual winner was not the first to score. Three repeat champions, but also a first-time winner and the ends of two of the longest winning streaks in MHSAA history.
Second Half covered all nine championship games including the 8-player Final on Nov. 21, with quick recaps and links to those stories below followed by notations of performances entered into the MHSAA record book and a report on some of the biggest and best stories to emerge from the 2014 Finals.
Finals in Review
D1: Clarkston 33, Saline 25
The Wolves took over as holders of the longest MHSAA winning streak at 27 straight after claiming a second consecutive Division 1 championship. Junior running back Nolan Eriksen followed up the starring 2013 Finals performance of his brother Ian with 28 carries for 172 yards and three touchdowns. Saline finished 12-2 in making its first MHSAA championship game. Click to read more.
D2: Warren DeLaSalle 44, Muskegon Mona Shores 8
DeLaSalle came back from a 3-3 start to this season to win its first MHSAA championship. The Pilots shut down a Mona Shores offense averaging 39.5 points per game and got plenty of offensive boost from sophomore running back Allen Stritzinger, who ran for 175 yards and a touchdown. Mona Shores made its first championship game appearance after making the playoffs in 2013 for the first time. Click to read more.
D3: Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 7, Muskegon 0
This final game of the weekend was decided by one touchdown – scored by a player courageously carrying on only two days after his mother’s death. Brandon Adams scored the deciding points on a first-quarter run; his mother Katie died Thursday after fighting lung cancer. The Eaglets returned to the playoffs after missing in 2013; Muskegon finished MHSAA runner-up for the third straight season after falling to Birmingham Brother Rice in the Division 2 Finals in 2013 and 2012. Click to read more.
D4: Grand Rapids South Christian 28, Lansing Sexton 27
Sailors quarterback Jon Wassink capped his career and the team’s third straight trip to Ford Field with a second title over those three seasons. He threw for 179 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 122 yards and another score, and South Christian’s defense hung on late as Sexton made a pair of last attempts at the lead in its first MHSAA championship game appearance. Click to read more.
D5: Grand Rapids West Catholic 24, Lansing Catholic 20
West Catholic quarterback Travis Russell led a 17-play, 64-yard drive over the final seven minutes of the fourth quarter to bring the Falcons back to win their second straight MHSAA title and finish the season perfect for the first time since 1976. West Catholic opened with 17 straight points before Lansing Catholic took the lead with 7:38 to play. Click to read more.
D6: Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central 22, Ithaca 12
The Falcons put an end to Ithaca’s national-best 69-game winning streak, adding some heavier impact to the team’s first MHSAA title since 1991. The Yellowjackets actually had defeated St. Mary in 2010 for their first of four straight championships, and fell just four wins shy of breaking the MHSAA record for consecutive football victories, held by Hudson. Click to read more.
D7: Detroit Loyola 29, Ishpeming 8
In the third straight Division 7 Final meeting between these two, Loyola won its first title and finished 14-0 thanks to 29 unanswered points and 297 yards rushing. Ishpeming had won 33 straight games, tied for the eighth-longest streak in MHSAA football history. Click to read more.
D8: Muskegon Catholic Central 31, Munising 6
The Crusaders became the first repeat champions in Division 8, running away after Munising scored the game’s first points. MCC had never trailed this season, but got three second-half touchdowns from senior Tommy Scott and held Munising to only 39 yards on the ground. Click to read more.
8-Player: Lawrence 56, Cedarville 12
Lawrence completed a turnaround from 1-17 over its final two seasons of 11-player in 2011 and 2012 to 8-player champion keyed by senior quarterback Derek Gribler and a speedy defense that locked down Cedarville, which also made its first 8-player Final appearance. Lawrence became the first program to win both 11 and 8-player championships. Click to read more.
Records Report
A number of team and individual entries have been added to the MHSAA Football Finals record book, found by clicking here. A breakdown:
- Warren DeLaSalle kicker Jake Townsley tied his career long field goal of 41 yards and set an MHSAA Finals record with three total, also making from 23 and 29 yards out. He also made the listing for connecting on all five of his extra-point attempts.
- DeLaSalle also became the 20th team to play in a Final and not punt in the game.
- Also in Division 2, Muskegon Mona Shores’ Darece Roberson caught what tied for the fifth-most receptions in a Final, 10.
- Muskegon Catholic Central’s Tommy Scott set the record for longest Finals kickoff return, bringing one back 99 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter of the Division 8 game against Munising. He also became the latest in a long list to score at least four touchdowns in a championship game, running for three more.
- Detroit Loyola’s Marvin Campbell also joined that list of players with at least four TDs in a Final, running for four in his team’s Division 7 victory over Ishpeming. His 215 rushing yards on 21 attempts made the championship game rushing list.
- Four quarterbacks joined the total offense list: Saline’s Josh Jackson with 319 yards – 82 rushing and 237 passing – against Clarkston in Division 1, Grand Rapids South Christian’s Jon Wassink with 312 yards – 122 rushing and 179 passing – in Division 4, and Lansing Catholic’s Tony Poljan (60 rush, 269 pass = 329) and Grand Rapids West Catholic’s Travis Russell (134, 203 = 327) in Division 5. Poljan’s 269 passing yards also made that list, and his 24 completions were fourth most for a Final.
- Muskegon Catholic Central became the sixth program in MHSAA history to play in 13 football championship games, and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s became one of nine to play in 12. Muskegon played in its eighth Final, South Christian in its seventh, Ishpeming and Monroe St. Mary in their sixth each, and West Catholic and Ithaca in their fifth each. Muskegon Catholic Central also became one of six with 10 MHSAA titles, and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s won its sixth.
- Lawrence quarterback Derek Gribler made the 8-player total offense list with 359 yards – 256 passing and 103 rushing. Lawrence as a team became the first to be listed for rushing offense – 341 yards – and set the 8-player Final record with 597 total yards and 23 first downs. Lawrence also made the most points in a quarter list with 28 in the first against Cedarville.
Stories behind the scores
End of an era: Ithaca’s winning streak began on opening night 2010 and just this month included a fourth-quarter comeback victory over Madison Heights Madison in the Regional Final and a near-goalline stand late against Boyne City in the Semifinal. The Yellowjackets’ magic ran out against Monroe St. Mary, but the streak will be remembered for years to come. Although Ithaca fell short of breaking the MHSAA football consecutive wins record, it did set a record for most in a row during the playoff era; Hudson’s 72-game winning streak ended in 1975 and included only one playoff win as that was the first season with an MHSAA tournament in the sport.
Repeat by 3: Clarkston in Division 1, Grand Rapids West Catholic in Division 5 and Muskegon Catholic Central in Division 8 all repeated after winning 2013 championships. Although MCC became the first repeat champ in Division 8, winning back-to-back has become relatively common during the 16-season division era. There have been 25 repeat champions winning back-to-back in the same division since 2000, the first season a team could accomplish the feat.
QB Power: As explained above, four quarterbacks were added to the MHSAA Finals records listing for most total yards in a championship game. Two of those signal-callers – Saline’s Jackson and Lansing Catholic’s Poljan – are juniors expected to lead teams next season with good chances of returning to Ford Field.
Loyola Wins Round 3: With a group of players who also were standouts in the first two matchups, Loyola claimed its first MHSAA football title by defeating Ishpeming in their third straight face-off in Division 7. Bulldogs senior linebackers Paul Engram and Darryl Clemons had been their team’s leading tacklers in the 2012 loss and two of the top three last season, and senior running back Marvin Campbell was the team’s leading rusher in the 2013 defeat and second-leading rusher the year before.
PHOTOS: (Top) Nine champions celebrated MHSAA titles over the last two weekends. (Middle) A jubilant Monroe St. Mary and disappointed Ithaca pose for team pictures after the Division 6 Final. (Below) Clarkston and Saline prepare to accept their trophies after the Division 1 Final. (Click to see more like the middle photos on the MHSAA Instagram page.)
Usually Called On to Contain Buzz, Rockafellow Ready to Make More Noise as Perry's Top Target
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 21, 2026
PERRY – Two nests already were packed away in the back of his vehicle when Alex Rockafellow rolled up at 9:45 p.m. under an impressive find – a basketball-sized sphere hanging from a single thin branch over a driveway and filled with black and white-lined bald-faced hornets.
While most of us surely would have considered removing the nest daunting, the Perry senior saw an easy task compared to his usual searching around in the dark for a nest of insects he doesn’t want to startle. With the nest out in the open, all he had to do was snap the branch, drop the nest and its hundreds or hornets into an open pillowcase, and move on to the next collection.
Rockafellow spent five or six nights a week this summer driving around mid-Michigan working for the family business, Rock’s Free Yellow Jacket & Hornet Removal, which contains and takes away yellow jacket and hornet nests for free and sends the insects off to laboratories in Washington and Idaho where their venom is extracted to create immunotherapies to treat allergy patients.
That’s obviously not the typical high schooler summer job – and surely it’s unique among all-state football receivers and MHSAA record-holders. But he enters this season as all three, having earned all-state honorable mention from the Detroit News last fall and after tying the record for longest reception with a 99-yarder from teammate Zach Miller.
“I’ve taken some of my teammates on a few (nest) runs before. They think it’s a great time, and it’s really great getting to know each other,” said Rockafellow, a 6-foot-1, 170-pound pass catcher who reeled in 47 total for 882 yards and seven touchdowns as a junior. “Just looking for the nests, it’s really fun, (and) it’s cool to have two people looking for it. One time I took my buddy Miles, and he was the one who found the nest, and he was pretty surprised. He was like two feet from the nest when he found it.”
Opening night is a week away for 600 football teams across Michigan, and preseason practice the last few weeks has allowed Rockafellow to step away from his nighttime insect runs. Tales from his summer vacation are fascinating on their own, but the story of his climb the last five years from being uninterested in football to becoming a college prospect has its share of riveting details as well.
Rockafellow was an eighth grader during the fall of 2022, a quiet kid mostly hanging out at home “probably solving Rubik’s Cubes or reading books” and not nearly physically active enough for his dad Travis’ liking.
Alex had no interest in playing football, but Travis – who with wife Amy teaches in the Perry district – decided to reach out to a past student who was now serving as a middle school football coach. The middle school team at the time had 11 players – seventh and eighth graders combined – so Alex joined, giving the Ramblers 12 and some of his teammates a chance to take a breath.
He enjoyed that season enough to play again, entering high school a notable 6-foot tall but also just 123 pounds. He liked catching passes, didn’t love tackling, and so football remained just something to do during the fall – until the end of his sophomore season, when he moved up to varsity, and it was like he’d been stung (in a good way).
“I got a little taste of what it was like to play varsity, and I loved it,” Rockafellow recalled. “After that … (I) was just wanting more of it.
“(Football is) like an art. It’s just beautiful to watch it and see the plays unfold. Just understanding how to run routes against different defenders, where they are, and utilizing their leverage, how to attack that off the ball and how I’m going to break down.”
Intensely pursuing his role as artist, Rockafellow became a tireless worker, often found on Perry’s football field during the offseasons running routes by himself, even during breaks in winter weather. Despite suffering a broken collarbone at the end of that sophomore season, and then a busted wrist during basketball that winter, Rockafellow dedicated himself. It was during one of those football field training sessions before last spring when football coach Steve Bentley – also the school’s longtime and successful track & field coach – proposed Rockafellow give that sport a try. Over April and May, Rockafellow cut nearly two seconds off his 200 time, added four inches to his high jump and ran on the Ramblers’ 800 relay.
He’s hoping the improvements he picked up in running mechanics pay off on the football field. Another bonus: His big numbers from last fall – piled up almost entirely against double teams – came mostly on passes from now-senior quarterback Tyger Whitbeck.
They are two of only 16 players on the Perry varsity. But there are 25 players on the Ramblers’ JV, and Rockafellow’s commitment provides an example that may continue to pay off after he’s moved on.
“He’s the sort of kid who is setting the foundation. He doesn’t care about any of the individual stuff or whatever. The only time he cares about that is when it can help him get to the next level,” Bentley said.
Rockafellow has been generating interest among Division II football programs and been offered 2027 roster spots by four Division III teams. “Courtney (Hawkins) is a friend of mine, at Michigan State, and we went and did some hand-to-hand stuff off the line of scrimmage with him, and (Alex) absorbs everything,” Bentley noted. “It’s almost to the point where it looks like he’s not paying attention to you, and he’s thinking of five different things on how he can apply what you just told him.”
Rockafellow also carries a 3.9 grade-point average, so maybe entomology is in his future?
Actually, he’s hoping to follow in the footsteps of his dad, a physical education teacher at Perry’s upper elementary school who Alex has watched impact students in a way he’d like to continue – like when Travis secured a grant to purchase mountain bikes and taught kids how to ride them.
“We’ve never been those parents to say ‘you’re going to do this, we want you to do this.’ He’s gone above and beyond what we’ve expected from him,” Travis Rockafellow said. “The best way to describe Alex is he gets himself in the right place in the right time. He puts himself out there. I was never that confident and outgoing, but to watch him make the transformation from a shy kid to this, he’s exceeded my expectations, and I’m really proud of him.”
Alex said his future could also include permanently adding a third generation to Rock's removal service. As a sweat bee darted around his helmet Monday, he didn’t seem to notice. He’s been helping out his dad and grandfather since he was 5, and the eight or so stings he received this year haven’t hurt like they used to when he was younger.
Rockafellow also will leave his mark as one of the all-time top receivers at Perry, but would love to be remembered in a less measurable way. Despite being few in numbers, the Ramblers this season are a close-knit group, and he’s plenty confident they’ll improve on their one win from a year ago.
“I would love to be just a different kind of team, one that hates losing more than they love winning,” Rockafellow said. “Just trying to be our best and fighting for everything we can get.”
Geoff Kimmerly joined the MHSAA in Sept. 2011 after 12 years as Prep Sports Editor of the Lansing State Journal. He is a senior editor of MHSAA.com's editorial content and has served as MHSAA Communications Director since January 2021. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Barry, Eaton, Ingham, Livingston, Ionia, Clinton, Shiawassee, Gratiot, Isabella, Clare and Montcalm counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Perry’s Alex Rockafellow hauls in a pass last season while closely covered. (Middle) Rockafellow prepares to collect a nest Friday, despite nearly being stung. (Below) Rockafellow makes a move up field, also last season. (Photos courtesy of the Rockafellow family.)