Forest Park Tradition Gains Another Title
November 18, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
MARQUETTE – Fans wearing black and red chanted “U.P. Power” while their favorite team ran for nearly 500 yards without throwing a pass Saturday at the Superior Dome.
This was Crystal Falls Forest Park football. And it didn’t matter how many players were on the field.
The Trojans, in their second season of 8-player, added a fourth MHSAA football championship running away early and often on the way to a 54-12 win in the inaugural 8-Player Division 2 Final.
The way Forest Park won, it could’ve been Ford Field or Pontiac Silverdome – where the Trojans made most of their first 13 championship game appearances. They gained an 8-Player Finals record 481 yards on 52 carries and set another record with eight rushing touchdowns.
The championship was the program's first since 2007.
“Last week, we watched 2007 states in our class, and (Saturday) was just like it,” Forest Park senior running back Connor Bortolini said. “We just stick to running the ball, and that’s what we do.
“The 2007 guys, some of them came up to us before the game, told us ‘Good luck.’ And now it’s our turn to do that.”
Senior Peter Ropiak had 275 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, sharing the backfield load with Bortolini, who totaled 196 yards and four rushing scores. Junior Calvin Post added the eighth rushing touchdown on a 1-yarder with 6:02 to play.
Bortolini scored the first just 1:47 into the game. Portland St. Patrick scored 1:26 later. And then the Trojans (10-2) put up the next 40 points, with Bortolini scoring four in a row total before Ropiak scored three consecutive.
The Trojans might have been the second or third best team in 8-player last season, but ran into Powers North Central in a Regional Final as North Central was finishing its second straight perfect season. Forest Park opened this fall 1-2, but then won its final nine games to return to the state’s elite.
“These kids don’t know the difference between 8-man and 11-man. They are out there competing. They’re out there being the best that they can be,” Trojans coach Dave Graff said. “For them to turn the page here, and do it in style where you have a sophomore middle linebacker who bench presses 115 pounds and runs a 5.5 40, a corner who’s 5-foot-5 and runs a 5-5 40. We’re doing it with people who are young, inexperienced, and yet they come out and get better every week. And they just have a new tradition, an 8-man tradition at Forest Park, and it’s good for them.”
Bortolini and Ropiak did their damage behind a line of junior guard Jacob Peterson, junior center Hal Hoenig, senior guard Robert Ponchaud and senior tight end Jonah Logan. All four weigh in between 205-240 pounds. St. Patrick has only one player tipping above 190.
“They’ve got some big bodies and they’re pretty simple – they come downhill at you,” St. Patrick coach Patrick Russman said “It’s a great scheme for them. We’ve just got to work on getting a little bigger.”
And the Trojans’ defense cannot be forgotten. St. Patrick gained only 169 yards on 43 plays, and the 12 points were the second-fewest the team scored this season as the Shamrocks averaged 35 per game. The inability to move the ball on offense kept the pressure on the defense – a lot to manage against such a productive attack.
The Shamrocks (11-2) were playing for their first football championship since 1992 and in their first Final since 1997 after reaching the Semifinals for the third time since switching to 8-player in 2012. Their only other loss this fall was to Division 1 semifinalist Bellevue.
“Just being around these kids and the seniors especially, all of them, they’re such great leaders off the field. It’s going to carry over for us,” said Russman, also the school’s athletic director. “They’re really good football players on the field, obviously, but the things they’ve done off the field have just been life-changing for the coaches and kids around it.
“So you hope they continue all those things going into their next sports, and we’ll build on it next year.”
Junior Tanner Lawson threw for 125 yards and a touchdown for St. Patrick, connecting with senior Will Simon on a 19-yard score in the first quarter. Senior Isaiah Smith added a fourth-quarter 1-yard rushing touchdown. Smith had 13 tackles and Simon had 11, while junior linebacker Paul Cook added 10.
The MHSAA Playoffs are sponsored by the Michigan Army National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Crystal Falls Forest Park’s Connor Bortolini charges toward the end zone for one of his four touchdowns Saturday. (Middle) A Trojans defender wraps up Portland St. Patrick’s Ned Smith. (Photos by John Johnson.)
DeWitt Caps Finals with 1st Title Celebration
January 23, 2021
By Jason Schmitt
Special for Second Half
DETROIT – DeWitt head football coach Rob Zimmerman had every right to talk about how good it felt to capture his school’s first-ever MHSAA Finals football championship Saturday night at Ford Field.
But all he wanted to talk about after DeWitt’s 40-30 victory over River Rouge in the Division 3 Final was the character and drive of his players. That’s what was first and foremost on his mind.
“It’s unbelievable, but I think the greatest part of it all is this is such a great group of kids,” said the veteran coach, who previously has coached four Finals runners-up, the most recent in 2013. “I’ve been saying it all year long, but their character is unbelievable – the motivation, the drive, the leadership. If there’s a group of kids who deserve to win a state championship, it’s this group. I’m so happy for them.”
Total, the program was making its sixth championship game appearance, seeking its first title.
And it didn’t take long Saturday for Zimmerman and his group to take steps toward earning it.
Junior quarterback Tyler Holtz broke open a scoreless game at the 5:50 mark of the first quarter, connecting with senior Blake Beachnau for a 15-yard touchdown to make it 7-0.
River Rouge would answer back early in the second quarter, as senior Mareyohn Hrabowski would find junior Jalen Holly for a 52-yard touchdown. A two-point conversion pass from Hrabowski to freshman Nicholas Marsh gave Rouge an 8-7 lead.
But it was at that point that the DeWitt defense stepped things up. And it also was the point when Holtz began to take over the game. The Associated Press’ Player of the Year in Divisions 3 and 4 threw two more touchdown passes before halftime, then added another midway through the third quarter to help his team to a 27-8 lead. All three scores went to different receivers – eight yards to senior Andrew Debri, 35 yards to senior Nick Flegler and 25 yards to junior Thomas McIntosh.
“That’s why he’s the player of the year,” Zimmerman said of his junior signal caller. “He was front and center today, and his composure was unbelievable. He’s just off the charts, and he was the difference-maker in this game.
“We felt that we had the matchup advantage in the passing game going into this because our receivers are very good. We felt like we could throw the ball, too. We just had to mix in the run enough to take some shots without them just playing pass the whole time like they did against (Detroit Martin Luther) King (in the Regional Final).”
Holtz finished the game 12-of-16 passing for 177 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed the ball 15 times for a game-high 118 yards – and another score. River Rouge head coach Corey Parker admitted his team couldn’t find a way to stop Holtz.
“(Holtz) is able to throw the ball on the run, and that creates threats to a defense like no other,” Parker said. “Throwing the ball on the run, that’s truly a dual-threat guy. He didn’t really run the ball on the perimeter, he ran the ball on the interior and he was able to throw the ball real well.”
Hrabowski did his best to keep his team in the game. A four-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter and a 12-yard touchdown pass to Marsh early in the fourth helped keep it a two-touchdown game. He also added a three-yard touchdown run and ensuing two-point conversion to cap off a game in which he threw for 227 yards and ran for another 94, while accounting for all of his team’s touchdowns.
“They didn’t give up. Their kids played hard,” Zimmerman said of Rouge (9-2). “They’re the defending state champs so we knew they weren’t going to go easy. We kept scoring and they kept coming back. I’m just so proud of our kids.”
Rouge defeated Muskegon, 30-7, in last year’s Division 3 Final. Hrabowski returned this season, but many of the players on this year’s roster were new.
“Our goal is to get here (every year),” Parker said. “If you’ve got young guys making plays like that, you know exactly what your future looks like, so I’m pretty excited about what we’re going to do moving forward.”
DeWitt (12-0) capped off a magical season which saw its offense put up nearly 500 points in 11 games played, while its defense was dominant, allowing just 78, including Saturday’s Final. Flegler and fellow seniors Grant Uyl and Cooper Brumfield all led the team with 10 tackles each.
“We have unity, no matter what, on defense,” said Flegler, who also handled all the kicking duties for the team. “Our mindset is always, ‘What the next play? What’s the next play?’ We don’t linger on failure and we’re always looking to improve on the next play, and I think that’s what brings us success.”
PHOTOS: (Top) DeWitt junior Thomas McIntosh (10) looks back to see if defenders are closing in as he makes his way toward the end zone Saturday. (Middle) DeWitt quarterback Tyler Holtz breaks into the open. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)