Forest Park's Playoff Tradition Began with Statement-Making Title Run
By
Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com
November 29, 2024
CRYSTAL FALLS — The Crystal Falls Forest Park football team played in its 15th Football Final last weekend, tying it for fourth-most championship game appearances in MHSAA history.
The first came back in 1975, the very first year the MHSAA conducted a football postseason tournament.
The Trojans already had a strong tradition before that, but champions were only mythical then, based on records, strength of schedule and opinions.
Forest Park players were excited to hear about the chance to prove it on the field, said Bill Santilli, the team’s standout running back that season.
“We had high expectations,” said Santilli, who also took the Trojans to seven Finals as their coach, leading them to the Division 8 title in 2007. “The team that we had put together my senior year, I felt we had a lot of really good athletes and our school had a strong tradition of football back then through the 60s and early 70s.”
Only four teams in each class made the MHSAA Playoffs that first year. So when Forest Park lost to Norway – a physical team that finished the season undefeated – 14-13 during the regular season, the Trojans thought their playoff hopes were pretty dim.
Their schedule, though, was made up of mostly larger schools and the point system rewarded them for it, making Forest Park the region’s Class D representative.
The Semifinal final game against Posen was scheduled to be played in Traverse City on Nov. 15, the first day of deer season. One of the coaches joked they had never missed a first day and he was going hunting.
The only hunting they did that day was for a spot in the state title game, and they traded bagging a buck for blanking Posen 67-0.
“Their credit was they had a strong running game,” Santilli said. “They had been beating teams by quite a margin throughout the season. We just played and did a great job of what we had to do by our game plan.”
Up next was Flint Holy Rosary in the Final at Western Michigan University the next Saturday.
“I would say we had a confidence as a team, based on the confidence of our coaching staff, based on the confidence of our Semifinal victory,” Santilli said. “We were ready to play.”
Beyond seeking the thrill of a championship, the Trojans wanted to prove how good the football was in the Upper Peninsula. Players kept track of high school football results throughout the state – this being well before the internet made finding news and results so easy, they looked to the Detroit Free Press — and found teams in the larger metropolitan areas were more highly-touted.
“We wanted to prove that there were some good football teams in the Upper Peninsula that in my opinion seemed to get overlooked,” Santilli said. “I think it was not only our mission to win that first state championship, but also our mission to make a statement that we play good football.”
Forest Park won 50-0.
“Just the feeling to play and win the inaugural event, to be able to have the memories, to talk about it, to play so well and to hold onto that state championship trophy, the real, true state championship trophy, we didn’t think there was anything better in our lives,” Santilli said.
No team reached 50 points in a championship game again until 1994; no one exceeded it until 2002.
“We played extremely well,” Santilli said.
The Trojans led by that score going into the fourth quarter. They were able to put the second unit in and watch those teammates preserve the shutout.
“We just had a good group of athletes, we all got along, we had guys that knew their role, they were all very good at their positions and we just gelled as a group,” Santilli said. “We had really good linemen, we had tough hitters on defense, we had defensive backs who could cover a pass and yet had the speed to come up and make tackles on the line of scrimmage. We had an offensive running game that I would describe as consistent and powerful. And if we needed to throw, we had a good quarterback and receivers.”
Santilli, a 5-foot-9 senior, was double and triple-teamed, according to MHSAA accounts of the game, and he still rushed for 178 yards and three touchdowns on 37 carries. He finished with 226 points for the season, including 46 in the Semifinal, setting an MHSAA single-season record at the time. Quarterback Rich Mettlach tallied 148 yards through the air, with 103 to Bryan LaChapelle.
Forest Park’s defense was dominant, holding Holy Rosary to minus-32 yards rushing, 78 passing and just four first downs.
“They told us the competition got tougher the farther south we got,” coach Richard Mettlach said afterward. “We like it down here and may come back next year.”
Santilli was the first Class D player to earn a spot on the Detroit Free Press all-state Dream Team, according to the U.P. Sports Hall of Fame, which welcomed Santilli in 2005. His 1,865 rushing yards were a state record, the Hall of Fame indicated.
He said he received much of the recognition that season because he was the ballcarrier, but he credited his teammates with making it all possible.
“I got the recognition only because of the other guys with the jerseys with the same team name on them,” he said.
Forest Park football has been good ever since.
They beat Flint Holy Rosary again the next year in the Class D title game, although the score was closer, 14-6. Rosary came out on top in 1977 with a 21-20 win over Forest Park, and the Trojans fell 38-14 to Detroit St. Martin dePorres in the 1978 finale.
PHOTO From left: Forest Park’s Bryan LaChapelle, coach Dick Mettlach, Dick Mettlach Jr., and Bill Santilli pose with the first Class D championship trophy Nov. 22, 1975, at Waldo Field in Kalamazoo. (Photo by Bill Santilli.)
Lansing Catholic Comes Back to Claim D5
November 30, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
DETROIT – Zach Gillespie was just part of what was out of rhythm for Lansing Catholic during the first half of Saturday’s Division 5 Final against Almont.
The senior quarterback headed into the break 2-of-6 passing for 16 yards with an interception, and had eight carries for nine yards – not at all characteristic for a standout who had thrown for nearly 2,500 yards and run for more than 550 through his first 13 games this season.
But somehow, the Cougars and Raiders were tied. And that meant Lansing Catholic was in position to win.
Gillespie stormed back with a big second half, the offense meeting halfway a defense that had kept the Cougars in the game, and the lessons of comebacks earlier this season made the difference in Lansing Catholic finishing a 31-17 win over Almont to earn its first Finals championship since 1985.
“I probably shouldn’t say that with these guys here, but I don’t think this team is the most talented team from top to bottom that we’ve ever had,” said Cougars coach Jim Ahern, who also brought Lansing Catholic to Ford Field in 2011 and 2014. “But I’ll tell ya, I don’t think I’ve had a team that has more chemistry and more heart than this group of kids did. We’ve been behind in a lot of games this year and they never quit, and I think that’s why.”
They call it a “21-7 mentality” and it was born from a loss this season, the sixth-straight over four seasons to rival Portland.
The Cougars (13-1) trailed in that Week 5 matchup 21-7 at halftime, and lightning forced the second half to be played the next day. Lansing Catholic came back to make the final score 21-20 – but even in defeat, the message hit home that the team can change the course of a game over the final two quarters. (And Lansing Catholic went on to defeat Portland 21-0 in the District Final.)
“We write it on the board at halftime – 21-7 mentality in the second half – and I think that was a big turning point coming out firing that game,” Cougars senior linebacker Sam Edwards said. “We’ve just carried that with us since, and it’s made us better.”
This time, as in many before, Gillespie led the way. He found his footing and touch after the break, completing 9-of-17 passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns over the final two quarters and running for two scores as well.
Almont carried a 17-7 lead into the final two minutes of the third quarter. But Lansing Catholic scored 24 unanswered points to finish the game, with Gillespie shutting the door with a four-yard scoring run with 1:39 to play.
That followed touchdown passes of seven yards to senior Vince Salquist and 23 to senior Mitch Raphael, a soccer player last year who showed some delicate footwork getting one down before exiting the side of the end zone. Raphael’s score put the Cougars ahead 24-17 with 3:41 to play.
“We just knew. We knew we could come out and score with anyone,” Gillespie said. “We knew we had a couple three-and-outs, and it wasn’t going our way. We kinda just had all gas, no brakes, and weren’t just satisfied with going up seven there. We wanted to score again.
“I don’t think I could’ve had a worse first half. Especially in the state championship game, I went in at halftime and I was pretty down on myself. I (restored) the confidence in myself that I can make the throws, and I’ve got great playmakers that are going to catch it. Our line blocked pretty good in the second half … and everyone just got open for me and I was able to deliver.”
Almont (13-1) was making its first trip to the Finals for football, concluding an impressive run that saw it win on the road three of the first four weeks of the playoffs.
But the first half Saturday was frustrating, as the Raiders ended two drives throwing interceptions and a third giving up a fumble. The only first-half possession that didn’t end in a turnover finished with a touchdown.
Almont then scored on a field goal and touchdown on the first two possessions of the second half. But the Raiders threw another interception and fumbled the ball away again on the next two, allowing Lansing Catholic opportunities to catch up.
Senior Jack Paupert and junior Michael Lulgjuraj scored those Almont touchdowns, and Paupert ran 18 times for a team-high 78 yards. Senior Colby Schapman caught five passes for 80 yards. Senior Ryan Miller booted a 31-yard field goal to round out the team’s scoring.
Senior linebacker Jacob Hausmann with seven tackles led a defense that again this season measured up with the state’s best. The Raiders gave up just 11.6 points per game, holding teams below 15 per game for the sixth time in seven seasons. Lansing Catholic’s 31 points were the most surrendered by the Raiders since the 2017 playoffs.
“The backbone of our team is our defense. Coach (Ritchie) Feys does an excellent job preparing these guys, and these guys execut(e) the game plan,” Almont coach James Leusby said. “When we came out (after halftime) we were 0-0 ballgame, and we were going after it.”
Sophomore Alex Watters caught five passes for 107 yards for Lansing Catholic as Gillespie finished with 187 total through the air. Edwards had 19 tackles, recovered both fumbles and snagged an interception, and senior Daniel Magaway had 10 tackles as the Cougars locked down an offense that averaged 39.5 points this fall. Ahern directed the credit to assistants Kelly Carrier, Mike Doran and Pat Barner, who handle all of the defensive play-calling and made adjustments at halftime to slow down Almont’s outside running attack.
Ahern, meanwhile, claimed his first championship five decades after he began his head coaching career at Gobles in 1969. He spent more than three decades at Ithaca and came back from Florida in 2009 to take over at Lansing Catholic – going over 300 career wins this season and moving up to 11th on the in-state career list with a 301-152-6 record while coaching at those three Michigan high schools.
“When you get here and you don’t win, you don’t realize until I think months after that you had a great season. This is definitely a different feeling,” Ahern said.
“The message all week was let’s get him to 301,” Edwards said. “It means the world to me to be able to put on the jersey and play for this guy. It’s kinda bittersweet that I won’t get to do it again, but to end it on a high – there’s no one that deserves this more than this guy right here.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Lansing Catholic quarterback Zach Gillespie follows his blockers during Saturday’s Division 5 Final. (Middle) Mitch Raphael (7) helps bring down Almont’s Michael Lulgjuraj.