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Drive for Detroit: Week 1 in Review

September 3, 2019

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Four of last season’s 10 MHSAA football champions began 2019 over the weekend 0-1. Ten teams that didn’t win a game last season stand 1-0 – and the two longest losing streaks in the state came to an end.

How's that for a new season and fresh start? And that's not even mentioning the storms that pushed many games to finish near or after midnight Thursday and roughly 40 to be completed later in the holiday weekend. 

Below is our weekly review at some of the results that popped off the page most from every region of the state, with a little perspective on wins and losses that might mean even more as we get into late September and October.

"Drive for Detroit" is sponsored by MI Student Aid..

Bay & Thumb

HEADLINER Beaverton 16, Breckenridge 6 The Beavers are coming off two straight eight-win seasons and just missed catching Breckenridge on opening night last year, falling 20-19. This time they outpaced the Huskies, last season’s Division 8 runners-up, to take a 2-1 lead in their recent opening-night series. Click for more from the Midland Daily News and see highlights below from MI Sports Now.

Watch list Port Huron 33, Flint Carman-Ainsworth 6 Although Carman-Ainsworth is coming off a down season, expectations are always high – and Port Huron’s should be now too after avenging last season’s 38-22 defeat and as the Big Reds seek their first playoff berth since 2014.

Remember this one Montrose 16, Cass City 14 These two both could be on the way to big things; after last year’s 48-22 Montrose win, the Rams went on a Division 6 Semifinal run and Cass City won its league.

More shoutouts Freeland 27, Marshall 26 (OT) A blocked extra point and then a fumbled extra point attempt snap were part of a wild overtime that saw the Falcons defeat the Redhawks by three points or fewer for the second straight season. Davison 54, Fenton 27 The Cardinals came out best in a matchup of likely league contenders, scoring 50+ points against a Tigers program that hadn’t given up that many since 2016. 

Greater Detroit

HEADLINER Detroit Catholic Central 24, Detroit Martin Luther King 22 These two met for the first time since the 2001 playoffs, and the result was the most exhilarating of an exceptional weekend of games at the Xenith Prep Kickoff Classic at Wayne State. DCC didn’t score during the second half but held off a potential King scoring drive late in the fourth quarter to edge the reigning Division 3 champion. Click for more from MLive-Detroit and see below for highlights from State Champs Sports Network.

Watch list Southfield Arts & Technology 28, Clarkston 14 These two will meet again in league play in Week 6, and it might be the statewide game of that week after the Warriors began their rebound from two straight sub-.500 seasons with a massive win over the reigning Division 1 runner-up.

Remember this one Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice 7, Utica Eisenhower 0 It’s “six wins and in” the playoffs for one more season, and with these teams representing two of the strongest leagues statewide – Brother Rice the Detroit Catholic League Central and Eisenhower the Macomb Area Conference Red – every win counts that much more.

More shoutouts Clinton Township Chippewa Valley 35, Saline 21 Reigning Division 1 champion Chippewa Valley graduated a ton on offense but found enough against another 2018 semifinalist in Saline. Lake Orion 17, Lapeer 7 The Dragons are 1-0 for the first time since 2013 after handing the Lightning its first regular-season loss since Week 8 of 2017.

Mid-Michigan

HEADLINER Pewamo-Westphalia 14, Reading 0 The Pirates handed reigning Division 8 champion Reading its first defeat since the end of 2017, but more impressively P-W locked down an offense that a year ago posted the 10th-most points in MHSAA 11-player history. The Pirates haven’t lost a regular-season game since their 2017 opener. Click for more from the Hillsdale Daily News.

Watch list Lansing Eastern 35, Owosso 0 One win meant a million for the Quakers, who broke a 38-game losing streak – and with one more victory would equal their best finish since 2010.

Remember this one New Lothrop 54, Lake City 7 Only a game of the P-W/Reading magnitude could bump this rematch from last season’s Division 7 Semifinals out of the headlining spot, as the reigning champion Hornets again put up 50+ points on the Trojans after winning last November 51-22.  

More shoutouts DeWitt 31, Traverse City Central 26 The Panthers traveled to Thirlby Field and hung on for a nice win over an annual playoff qualifier. Central Montcalm 22, Morley Stanwood 20 After a winless 2018, Central Montcalm broke a 13-game losing streak with its first victory over Morley Stanwood since 2014.

Northern Lower Peninsula

HEADLINER Maple City Glen Lake 26, Millington 7 The Lakers’ nonleague schedule is loaded, and they almost couldn’t have hoped for better against a Millington team coming off its 15th straight playoff season. Glen Lake enjoyed three touchdown passes from Reece Hazelton in scoring all of its points during the first half. Click for more from the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

Watch list Evart 20, Frankfort 3 The Wildcats have made the playoffs once over the last five seasons and won a combined six games over the last two – but if opening night is an indication, they could match all of that this fall after downing a Frankfort team that’s made the playoffs five straight seasons and beat Evart in their last meeting 30-0 to open the 2016 playoffs.

Remember this one Grayling 22, Roscommon 6 The Vikings have made the playoffs seven times this decade, but finished only 3-6 a year ago – while Roscommon came into this season off a league title and 10-2 finish to 2018.

More shoutouts Alcona 16, Tawas 14 The Tigers went from two straight nine-win seasons to one victory in 2018, but the bounce-back has begun with this avenging of a 48-24 last-season loss. Kingsley 36, McBain 6 These teams combined to go 18-5 a year ago, and this result matched the second-best by the Stags’ defense from 2018.

Southeast & Border

HEADLINER Blissfield 33, Ottawa Lake Whiteford 14 The Royals broke a seven-game opening-night losing streak against Whiteford, in the process handing the Bobcats their first regular-season defeat since Week 9 of 2015. Whiteford also hadn’t given up 30 points in a game since the 2016 Division 8 Final. Click for more from the Toledo Blade and see highlights below from BCSN.

Watch list Erie Mason 58, Petersburg Summerfield 40 After four straight seasons of finishing 1-8, Erie Mason is 1-0 for the first time since 2003, the last time the Eagles made the playoffs.

Remember this one Jackson Lumen Christi 14, Kalamazoo United 12 The Titans ran their state-best winning streak to 24, but hardly with ease against a United team with some key new faces.

More shoutouts Homer 18, Michigan Center 0 The Trojans got off to the right start coming off their first sub-.500 season since 2009 by beating the reigning Cascades Conference runner-up. Ann Arbor Huron 63, Ecorse 14 The River Rats won for the first time in 40 games, putting up 63 points after scoring 98 over the entirety of 2018.

Southwest Corridor

HEADLINER Berrien Springs 28, Grand Rapids West Catholic 3 The Shamrocks are riding a string of five straight playoff seasons into the fall, but it’s hard to argue they’ve had a better start during this run. West Catholic has made the playoffs 16 straight seasons and is coming off a 2018 that saw respectable defeats to two eventual MHSAA champions. Click for more from the St. Joseph Herald-Palladium.

Watch list Paw Paw 42, Three Rivers 0 Edwardsburg tends to own the Wolverine Conference, and Three Rivers has been its biggest challenger the last few seasons – but that role could fall to Paw Paw coming off this big win and an 8-3 finish last year that also included a playoff victory over Three Rivers.

Remember this one Mendon 14, Decatur 7 Two of the best in the Southwest 10 Conference and also at least regionally in Division 8 saw each other right away with the Hornets running their recent winning streak over the Raiders to three straight.  

More shoutouts St. Joseph 32, Battle Creek Central 19 The Bears avenged last season’s 34-27 loss to the Bearcats, a meeting that led things off for two eventual playoff qualifiers. Coldwater 47, Haslett 30 The Cardinals also evened the score against their opening night opponent after falling to Haslett 28-7 a year ago and going on to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2012.

Upper Peninsula

HEADLINER Iron Mountain 17, Negaunee 14 These teams have proven to be just about even over two straight openers, with the Mountaineers now winning both by three points. Last year the same result previewed an 8-3 season for Iron Mountain and a 5-4 by the Miners, who are looking to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Click for more from the Iron Mountain Daily News.

Watch List Lake Linden-Hubbell 32, Norway 14 The Lakes are coming off their first back-to-back sub-.500 seasons since the early 1970s, but they’re hoping that breaking a three-game losing streak to Norway is the start of a turnaround. 

Remember this one Bark River-Harris 56, Gwinn 50 (OT) The Broncos are another team seeking a comeback after falling to 2-7 in 2018, and avenging last season’s 36-20 loss to Gwinn may have them on the way.

More shoutouts Sault Ste. Marie 22, Cheboygan 16 The Blue Devils went 5-4 last season while averaging just 15 points per game, and this week’s 22 would’ve been their second-highest total last fall. West Iron County 32, Munising 6 Beating Munising on opening night has been good to the Wykons, who made the playoffs all four previous seasons this decade after they won that matchup. West Iron missed the playoffs in 2015 after falling to the Mustangs in Week 1.

West Michigan

HEADLINER Muskegon 41, Warren De La Salle Collegiate 7 After closing last season with a tough defeat in the Division 3 Final, the Big Reds opened this fall with a second straight win over two-time reigning Division 2 champion De La Salle. During the first half alone, Muskegon quarterback Cameron Martinez ran 13 times for 109 yards and three scores. Click for more from the Muskegon Chronicle.

Watch List Grand Rapids Catholic Central 17, River Rouge 14 GRCC is coming off a third straight trip to at least the Division 4 Semifinals and is back in the swing after winning this one on a field goal with 2:15 to play.

Remember this one Hart 48, Holton 40 (2OT) Hart hasn’t had a winning season since 1997 and didn’t have a varsity at all in 2015, but started this fall with this victory over a 2018 Division 8 semifinalist.

More shoutouts Montague 42, Reed City 0 Last season’s Division 6 runner-up avenged a 34-13 loss to the Coyotes while handing them only their second regular-season defeat over the last five years. Zeeland West 28, East Grand Rapids 21 Surprisingly, this was the first meeting between these perennial Division 3 powers – so although they’d never met before, it’s not hard to anticipate them possibly meeting again in the playoffs.

8-Player

HEADLINER Brimley 24, Rapid River 12 Simply put, this was the Bay’s biggest win during a decade of 8-player football. Rapid River is the reigning 8-Player Division 2 champion and had beaten Brimley 80-55 in last year’s regular-season finale. Click for more from the Escanaba Daily Press.

Watch List Pickford 48, Crystal Falls Forest Park 16 A junior-heavy Pickford team finished 8-Player Division 1 runner-up last season and opened its return by nearly doubling up on last season’s 18-point win over the always-powerful Trojans.

Remember this one Climax-Scotts 16, Wyoming Tri-unity Christian 12 The Panthers’ 8-player debut was as good as expected, and they quickly will have more chances to show what they can do with Lawrence, Bellevue and Camden-Frontier coming up over the next three weeks.

More shoutouts Powers North Central 66, Cedarville 12 The Jets lasted only a week in last season’s Division 2 playoffs, but opened this fall with a win over a 2018 semifinalist. Martin 20, Bellevue 12 The Clippers are another new 8-player team and coming off a playoff season in 11, and they should be excited after this debut against one of the state’s best in 8 over the last two seasons.

Second Half’s weekly “Drive for Detroit” previews are powered by MI Student Aid, a part of the Office of Postsecondary Financial Planning located within the Michigan Department of Treasury. MI Student Aid encourages students to pursue postsecondary education by providing access to student financial resources and information. MI Student Aid administers the state’s 529 college savings programs (MET/MESP), as well as scholarship and grant programs that help make college Accessible, Affordable and Attainable for you. Connect with MI Student Aid at www.michigan.gov/mistudentaid and find more information on Facebook and Twitter@mistudentaid.

PHOTO: Davison put 54 points on the scoreboard to win its season opener against Fenton. (Photo by Terry Lyons.)

Marine City Focused on Comeback Quest

By Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com

October 11, 2016

Ryan Alexander was in a familiar place this past Thursday.

The Marine City senior running back was at East China Stadium, the junior varsity team on the field in front of him playing against Warren Woods-Tower and a group of junior program football players behind him, preparing to get onto the big field and play at halftime.

He and his Mariners teammates were coming off a win against archrival St. Clair, and had just finished their last practice in preparation for a Week 7 game against Warren Woods-Tower, one they would also win.

All of that is familiar for Alexander and the Mariners. The start of the season, however, was far from it. 

“It was different than anything I’ve ever experienced,” Alexander said of Marine City’s first 0-4 start since 1971. “I’ve been on varsity for three years now, and to start 0-4, it was the first time I’ve ever felt anything like that since I’ve been in the program, since I’ve been in Marine City.

“It was a new feeling, but it was also a sense of motivation. It pushed me harder knowing that we had something to prove and that everyone was doubting us because we were 0-4. It’s hard to go through, but I think it made us a better team.”

Alexander and his teammates are on the road back, sitting at 3-4 and eyeing two more wins which could possibly preserve the school’s streak of qualifying for the postseason, which started in 1998. He said getting there would show those junior program players that by coming together as a team, you can accomplish anything.

The Mariners have already shown their coach plenty.

“I wondered, because our program has had so much success, what would happen if we had a bad start like this, how would that team be and how difficult would it be to coach,” Marine City coach Ron Glodich, who is in his fifth season as head coach after serving as a longtime assistant in the program. “What I found is these kids are incredible. Their perseverance and their work ethic has not changed. Nobody has quit, even though I challenge them week in and week out, nobody has quit. The bigger the challenge I give them, the bigger they step up.”

‘We live football’

Football in Marine City has a bit of a “Friday Night Lights” feel to it.

The town with a population of a little more than 4,000 essentially shuts down on game nights to support its team. Not long ago, it moved trick-or-treating because it conflicted with a Friday night playoff game. When the team went to Ford Field for MHSAA championship games in 2007, 2011 and 2013, it filled its entire side of the lower bowl with fans clad in orange and black.

“It’s a football crazy town,” Alexander said. “We live football.”

Kids grow up wanting to be Mariners as much as they grow up wanting to be Wolverines or Spartans, and you can’t even go to a JV game without seeing groups of them playing a side game of touch – or tackle – at East China Stadium.

“They were always winning, ever since I’ve been a kid and ever since my parents have been around,” senior lineman Andrew Steinmetz said. “It’s a great feeling to grow up here, live here and then play here.”

Always winning isn’t hyperbole, especially for someone Steinmetz’s age. The playoff streak is only scratching the surface of the Mariners’ success in the past few decades.

The program won MHSAA championships in 2007 and 2013, and – prior to this year – had lost more than two games in a season only three times since 1992.

From 2006 through 2009, Marine City had three undefeated regular seasons, and in the only exception, it went 13-1 with a Division 4 championship. The Mariners’ last losing season came in 1982.

There have been stars who went onto play Division I college football – Brendon Kay, a 2008 graduate went to Cincinnati and was the Most Valuable Player of the Belk Bowl, and Anthony Scarcelli, who was the Associated Press Division 3-4 Player of the Year in 2011 and is currently a senior on Central Michigan University’s football team – but most of Marine City’s success has come thanks to players who don’t have a recruiting site ranking.

“When you mention the name Marine City outside the area, it’s common for someone to say, ‘Oh, you’ve got a great football program,’” Glodich said. “And we’re proud of that. It’s been a long time since we built it, and a lot of people are proud of it in the area and they come out to support it. It’s nice that that’s linked to the town, and that people believe we have a great football program. And I believe we do.”

In Marine City, even 8-1 teams catch flack. At 0-4, the loud minority of the fan base gets more vocal.

“As any coach who doesn’t win, there are critics out there,” Glodich said. “I happened to get a letter and I shared it with the kids. I told them, ‘We’re all in this together. You’re being criticized in the stands, I’m being criticized, so understand that we’re all in this together and it’s all about getting better.’

“The good news is, I’m at the point in my career where I know that this staff does a great job. So when you get letters like that, you chuckle and say, ‘OK, this person is venting, but they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.’ And I would tell that person if they ever had the guts to look me in the eye, I would tell them, ‘You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.’”

Glodich’s players said they were able to shut out the outside noise, for the most part, and anything that did enter their brains was used as motivation. Alexander said it went in one ear and out the other, because practicing with a clear mind was much more necessary than reacting to insults.

Even better, however, was the fact there was much more support than derision. Marine City may be football crazy and unaccustomed to waking up on a Saturday after a loss, but its love for football goes beyond a stunning win-loss record.

“The parents and the past players, they really had our backs,” senior lineman Tom Kaminski said. “(Former player) Ethan Cleve made a nice Facebook message on the Marine City football fans page, and (former player) Jarrett Mathison was saying, ‘Don’t worry about it, it will get better.’”

Writing the final chapter

The message within the team was similar to Mathison’s, but the players knew they were the ones who would have to make things better. 

“A lot of it came from themselves,” Glodich said. “After that fourth loss, we challenged them and said you guys make a decision of how you want to move forward. That’s where your senior leadership and the guys that really care about the program, they kind of step forward and they rally the troops. We challenged them come Monday, and they responded to the challenge.”

The change could be seen in practice, and it translated into a 37-29 win against Madison Heights Madison in Week 5. That was followed by a 27-6 win against St. Clair in Week 6 and most recently a 49-31 win against Warren Woods-Tower in Week 7.

“We just had to put our heads down and keep fighting for it, because we knew we were better than what we were,” Kaminski said. “It’s big on your shoulders, because everyone’s used to 9-0 teams here, so that was a big wake-up call, but I think we’ve got it.”

As stated above, while this is a position Glodich never wanted to be in, he said he’s always wondered what would happen if a Marine City team had a start like this one. He’s wondered how the players would react. He’s wondered how difficult it would be to coach a team that no longer held its playoff destiny in its own hands before the midpoint of the season. 

“I’m amazed that these kids are working this hard – I don’t know if any other team that was 0-4 is working as hard as we do,” Glodich said. “It’s just a credit to these kids and their background; they’re not afraid to work. The kids that come to school here in this community are not afraid to work, and that’s why I’m one of the luckiest guys in the state to be able to coach in this community.”

The 0-4 start may have put the Mariners on the brink of playoff extinction, but their opponents in weeks 1-4 could wind up helping push them over the top when it comes to playoff selection, should Marine City get to 5-4. 

Algonac, Port Huron Northern, Detroit Loyola and Marysville were a combined 25-3 through seven weeks, with one of those losses a Northern defeat against Marysville. 

The Mariners are taking the one-game-at-a-time approach to the end of the season, but they know that can help. They know they can do something special to close it out, and accomplish something no Marine City team has done before – rebound from a start that could cause some to pack it in.

Glodich said he can’t look past the next game, but admits he and his coaches have talked to the players about writing the final chapter in their book, and how they want their story to end.

Alexander has already started writing in his head.

“It would mean the world (to finish 5-4) especially because it’s my senior year and I’d love to end on a high note,” he said. “I’d love to be the team that started 0-4, won the last five games and then proved what we have in the playoffs. We have a good team, we have a good shot.

“We just want to get to 5-4. We don’t really focus on anything else (in terms of playoff points). If we get there, it doesn’t matter, we’ll be happy.”

Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.

PHOTOS: (Top) Marine City's MJ Frank cuts through an opening against Marysville this season. (Middle) A group of Mariners surround and take down a Port Huron Northern ball carrier. (Photos courtesy of the Marine City football program.)