Drive for Detroit: Week 8 in Review
October 17, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
On one hand, this weekend was the second-to-last of a football regular season that seemed this fall to roll by as quickly as ever.
On the other, this weekend was just the start of the second half of the 14-week Michigan high school football season that finishes up in six weeks at Ford Field – and 174 teams have clinched opportunities to continue on the hunt for an MHSAA title.
This annually is one of the most important weeks of the season; more than 600 teams finish up regular-season play, and Sunday we'll announce the 256-team 11-player playoff field and 16 teams that will advance in 8-player. We'll talk about that more as this week goes on. But we'll start with the highlights of all that was Week 8 below.
Bay & Thumb
Flint Carman-Ainsworth 34, Midland Dow 27
The Cavaliers (6-2) bounced back from a 1-2 start to go undefeated in winning the Saginaw Valley League Blue title, but had to beat co-leader Dow in the final game to finish the run. Carman-Ainsworth last won a league title in 2013, but had finished fifth and then fourth in the SVL Red over the last two seasons while Dow was hoping for a third straight Blue title. Click for more from the Flint Journal.
Also noted:
Richmond 28, Algonac 13 – For the second straight season, this matchup decided at least partially the Blue Water Area Conference title; for the second straight season, Richmond (7-1) beat Algonac (7-1), this time to win the league outright.
Bay City Central 17, Saginaw Heritage 14 – The Wolves (5-3) held on against the Hawks (3-5) to edge closer to a first playoff berth since 2007, and can clinch a spot this week against rival Bay City Western.
Ubly 54, Harbor Beach 12 – The Bearcats (8-0) won the Greater Thumb Conference East title outright while guaranteeing their best season finish since 2010 and sending Harbor Beach to 4-4.
Marysville 28, St. Clair 27 – The Macomb Area Conference Gold champion Vikings (8-0) guaranteed their best record since 2011 and have a chance to go 9-0 for the first time since 2003 after just edging St. Clair (4-4).
Greater Detroit
Utica Eisenhower 38, Warren Mott 6
The Eagles (8-0) couldn’t clinch the Macomb Area Conference Red title outright until this final league game, but did so comfortably after jumping out to a 24-0 lead. Five of six teams in the league are still alive for playoff berths – Eisenhower and Mott (6-2) have clinched, and Romeo, Clinton Township Chippewa Valley and Macomb Dakota can get in with wins this week – which makes Eisenhower’s first league title since 2011 all the more impressive. Click for more from the Macomb Daily.
Also noted:
Birmingham Brother Rice 20, Traverse City Central 17 (3OT) – The Warriors (5-3) kept themselves alive to return to the playoffs by handing Central (7-1) its first loss with a marathon effort.
Dearborn 28, Dearborn Fordson 23 – This matchup of neighborly rivals also ended up as a matchup of Western Wayne Athletic Conference divisional champs; Dearborn (7-1) broke a three-game losing streak against the Tractors (7-1).
Clarkston 45, Lake Orion 16 – Despite a Week 2 overtime loss to Southfield Arts & Technology, Clarkston (6-2) stormed back to earn a share of the Oakland Activities Association Red title in part because Lake Orion (5-3) handed the Warriors a league loss in Week 5.
Warren Michigan Collegiate 34, Harper Woods Chandler Park 22 – The Cougars (7-1) clinched the Charter School Conference championship for the first time since 2011 as these two met to decide the league title for the third straight year; Chandler Park (5-3) has the week off but will make the playoffs with five wins in eight games.
Mid-Michigan
Grand Ledge 31, East Lansing 28
The Comets (7-1) jumped to an early lead and saw four players score as they stayed just ahead of East Lansing to clinch the Capital Area Activities Conference Blue title outright for the second straight season. East Lansing (5-3) had fallen to Jackson in its league opener but had a chance to create a shared championship with a victory. Grand Ledge’s only loss this season was on opening night, by seven, to Hudsonville. Click for more from the Lansing State Journal.
Also noted:
Clare 31, Beaverton 14 – The Pioneers (7-1) earned a share of their ninth Jack Pine Conference championship in 10 seasons while putting the Beavers (5-3) in a must-win situation this week.
Fowlerville 30, Corunna 15 – The Gladiators (6-2) secured their first playoff berth since 2010, also the last season they won at least six games; Corunna fell to 6-2 as well but had already clinched a spot.
DeWitt 48, Menominee 14 – In a battle of annual Ford Field hopefuls, DeWitt (7-1) became the first this season to hold the Maroons (7-1) to fewer than 28 points.
Brighton 41, Howell 20 – The Bulldogs (7-1) staved off the Highlanders (5-3) to win the Kensington Lakes Activities Association West outright and earn this week’s Lakes final berth against Walled Lake Western.
Northern Lower Peninsula
Frankfort 28, Charlevoix 0
The Panthers (8-0) repeated at Northern Michigan Football Conference Legends division champions with their second straight shutout and third this season. They earned a share and can clinch outright this week against Onekama. The win also extended Frankfort’s best start since 2004, the last time the team finished a perfect regular season. Charlevoix (6-2) still can finish with its most wins since 2006 with another this week against Mesick. Click for more from 9&10 News.
Also noted:
Johannesburg-Lewiston 30, East Jordan 28 – The Cardinals (4-4) kept themselves in the hunt for a sixth straight playoff berth while also forcing East Jordan (4-4) into hoping for an at-large bid.
Harbor Springs 38, Gaylord St. Mary 24 – In what could be considered an upset, Harbor Springs (4-4) actually moved past St. Mary (6-2) in the NMFC Legacy standings with a third straight win.
Cadillac 26, Manistee 22 – With one-loss Traverse City Central and a shot at a share of the Big North Conference title up this week, Cadillac (6-2) was wise to get playoff qualification out of the way with a close win over Manistee (4-4).
Whittemore-Prescott 14, Hillman 0 – The Cardinals (5-3) kept themselves alive for an automatic berth to their 10th straight playoffs, but Hillman (4-4) will need a win and some help to qualify for the 11th straight season.
Southeast & Border
Ottawa Lake Whiteford 48, Sand Creek 20
Whiteford (8-0) closed out its first perfect run through the Tri-County Conference since joining the league in 1975 and set itself up for its first perfect regular season since 1965. The Bobcats have won five straight over Sand Creek, which still is enjoying its best season since 2005. Click for more from the Toledo Blade.
Also noted:
Brooklyn Columbia Central 28, Dundee 26 – The Golden Eagles (6-2) clinched back-to-back playoff berths for the first time in program history while eliminating Dundee (3-5) from postseason consideration.
Ida 52, Hillsdale 13 – The Bluestreaks (7-1) came up big against a dangerous opponent in Hillsdale (4-4) to remain tied for first with Hudson in the Lenawee County Athletic Association with a game to play.
Monroe Jefferson 20, Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central 14 – The Bears (4-4) guaranteed their best finish since 2011 and gave themselves a chance at making the playoffs for the first time since 2006 while also putting the Falcons (4-4) in a tougher spot as they go for a 13th berth in 14 seasons.
Michigan Center 24, Grass Lake 22 – In arguably the night’s biggest upset statewide, Michigan Center (5-3) gave itself a chance to earn a playoff berth this week and gave Napoleon a share of the Cascades Conference title by dealing co-champion Grass Lake (7-1) its first loss.
Southwest Corridor
Berrien Springs 33, Buchanan 27 (OT)
A two-point loss to Buchanan kept Berrien Springs from winning the Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph White title last season, but the Shamrocks finished the run this time after coming back from nine down in the fourth quarter to force overtime. Berrien Springs (5-2) also clinched a playoff berth because it has an eight-game schedule; Buchanan (4-3) also is playing eight games and must beat Niles Brandywine this week to get in automatically. Click for more from the South Bend Tribune.
Also noted:
Battle Creek Harper Creek 21, Marshall 20 – The Beavers (7-1) bounced back from their only loss to just edge Marshall (4-4) and keep a share of the Interstate 8 Athletic Conference championship, with Jackson Lumen Christi securing the other half.
Benton Harbor 47, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep 21 – The Tigers (8-1) tied their highest win total since 1985 in sending Notre Dame Prep to 4-4.
Schoolcraft 20, Constantine 10 – The Eagles (8-0) got by far their best game of the season from the old rival Falcons (5-3) in a matchup of Southwestern Athletic Conference divisional champions.
Edwardsburg 38, Three Rivers 0 – Make that 28 straight Wolverine Conference wins, four straight league titles (after clinching a share), and three straight shutouts for Edwardsburg (8-0), which has beaten Three Rivers (6-2) in five straight.
Upper Peninsula
Norway 25, Gwinn 2
Norway will need help to claim a share of the Mid-Peninsula Conference title – leader Negaunee can clinch outright this week against two-win Ishpeming Westwood. But the Knights (7-1) have equaled their most victories since 2010 and with another will guarantee their best finish since 2006. Gwinn (5-3) must beat Ishpeming this week to clinch a first playoff berth since 1999. Click for more from the Iron Mountain Daily News.
Also noted:
Iron River West Iron County 34, Hancock 7 – The Wykons (5-3) remain alive for an automatic berth with L’Anse (2-6) up next; Hancock (4-4) lost that automatic berth chance and must beat rival Houghton (3-5) this week to have an at-large shot.
St. Ignace 24, Ishpeming 16 – The Saints (7-1) avenged last season’s six-point loss to the Hematites (3-4), who must win this week to have a chance at extending their 14-season playoff streak.
Lake Linden-Hubbell 24, Felch North Dickinson 6 – The Broncos (8-0) clinched a share of the Mid-Eastern Conference title and sent North Dickinson (5-3) out of second place and into a must-win situation.
Kingsford 43, Gladstone 14 – The Flivvers (6-2) clinched their second straight playoff berth and fourth in five seasons while knocking Gladstone (3-5) out of consideration.
West Michigan
Muskegon Oakridge 31, Montague 28
Oakridge is another that enjoyed revenge and a league title celebration Friday. The Eagles (8-0) dominated the West Michigan Conference last season before losing to Montague (6-2) by seven in the final league game and finishing second to the Wildcats. This time, Oakridge hung on by scoring the final 17 points including the winning field goal with 25 seconds to play to claim the championship outright. Click for more from the Local Sports Journal.
Also noted:
Byron Center 62, Zeeland East 14 – One of the most competitive league races in all of Michigan will go at least in part to Byron Center(7-1), which clinched a share of the Ottawa-Kent Conference Green title while sending East (6-2) into a tie for third.
Grand Rapids West Catholic 20, Grand Rapids Catholic Central 3 – By many accounts, this was closer than the score indicates; West Catholic now owns a share of the O-K Blue title and has given up only 17 points over five league games after holding GRCC (7-1) 18 below its previous season low.
Lowell 41, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern 34 – The comeback Red Arrows (8-0) were down 11 this time before coming back to clinch the O-K White championship and send Forest Hills Northern to 4-4.
Wyoming 20, Greenville 13 – The Wolves (5-3) pulled to within a win of clinching the first playoff berth in the program’s five-year history and kept Greenville (5-3) from clinching as well.
8-Player
Wyoming Tri-unity Christian 8, Fife Lake Forest Area 6
Tri-unity (8-0) assuredly will make the MHSAA playoffs for the first time – the Defenders have the second-highest playoff point average in 8-player. This win also gave them the Midwest Central Conference championship outright over second-place Fife Lake Forest Area (6-2), which is now playing for one of the final spots in the postseason field. Click for more from the Cadillac News.
Also noted:
Powers North Central 76, Rapid River 18 – Well, the reigning champion Jets look ready for the playoffs with three straight games with more than 75 points, although Rapid River (5-3) did score more than any opponent had since Sept. 9.
Pickford 44, Cedarville 14 – The first-season 8-player Panthers (7-1) handed Cedarville (6-2) the latter’s second straight loss to move into second in the Bridge Alliance.
Webberville 46, Morrice 14 – The Spartans (6-2) battled through a heart-wrenching Friday to win a key game that may have cemented their spot in the playoff field.
PHOTO: Muskegon Oakridge players celebrate during Friday's West Michigan Conference title-clinching win over Montague. (Photo by Tim Reilly.)
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.)