Hudson Rides Dominating Defense to Lock Down Division 8 Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 26, 2021
DETROIT – For a team not used to giving up points – or yards, for that matter – it would have been easy Friday for Hudson to make some big changes at halftime to slow down a Beal City offense that had found success through the passing game.
But the Tigers – who entered the MHSAA Division 8 Final having allowed 107.7 yards and less than a touchdown per game through the Semifinals – didn’t stray from the gameplan.
“Honestly, (the adjustment was) just keep playing,” Hudson coach Dan Rogers said. “They did a great job, their line, we couldn’t get pressure on the quarterback. He could get out on the edge and we struggled getting to him. That made us cover a lot longer than we want to, so we were trying to get to the quarterback a little bit more, keep the receivers in front of us and make plays on the football.”
It worked, as Hudson smothered Beal City in the second half, allowing just 17 yards over the final 24 minutes of its 14-7 victory at Ford Field to claim its second Finals title.
“I can’t even describe it yet; it hasn’t really hit me yet,” said Hudson senior running back and safety Bronson Marry, who had a crucial late-game interception. “I’m just waiting to walk out of the locker room and find our families. It’s going to (hit like) a brick wall.”
While Hudson (14-0) never led by more than one score, Beal City never threatened to overcome it, spending the entirety of the second half offensively on its own side of the field. The Aggies’ five second-half possessions went for 4, -6, 13, 1 and 5 yards, and totaled 5 minutes and 29 seconds.
A fumble, an interception and downs ended the last three drives, with Nick Kopin breaking up the final Beal City pass attempt with 1:51 to play, sealing the game. It was a fitting end to Kopin’s big day, as he also had forced a fumble earlier in the fourth quarter and rushed for 131 yards and both of Hudson’s touchdowns.
“It’s amazing,” Kopin said. “Obviously, I’m going to credit all my runs to our offensive line and our play-calling by coach (Jeremy) Beal. It set up really good cutbacks, and they were blocking real well. Defensively, credit to (Coach Rogers), he’s very strict on us reading our keys and doing our jobs. I think all of us, including myself, just did that, and the game turned out in our favor.”
Kopin’s second score, a 2-yard run, came with 6:58 to play and put the Tigers up 14-7. The two-point pass was no good, however, keeping Beal City within a touchdown. The Aggies received a further boost with the return of quarterback Hunter Miles, who had been injured midway through the third quarter, but Hudson’s defense didn’t allow for a storybook comeback.
“Hunter Miles is Hunter Miles; he’s a warrior,” Beal City coach Brad Gross said. “That’s Hunter Miles. Ankle, ribs, everything else (was hurt). We have a lot of guys dinged up. Cade Block’s had a (injured) shoulder that he’s been playing with for three weeks. Wade Wilson has a broken hand that he played the whole game with. We’re just banged up. We have a bunch of warriors. That’s why we’re here.”
Miles had more success in the first half, mostly on the strength of a pair of big pass plays to Carter Fussman. The first was a 53-yard touchdown pass late in the first quarter. Miles rolled to his right before finding Fussman open near the 10-yard line.
The second was a 56-yard throw and catch on the penultimate play of the first half, which came immediately after Hudson had taken an 8-7 lead on a 2-yard run from Kopin and a two-point conversion pass from Anthony Arredondo to Ambrose Horwath. The big pass play ended with Fussman being hauled down by Horwath at the Hudson 7-yard line with four seconds left in the half.
That tackle wound up being enormous, as an incomplete pass on the next play ended the half with Hudson still in the lead.
“It probably made the conversation at halftime better,” Rogers said. “It was a huge tackle. That’s what we talk about: You just have to keep playing. They’re going to make plays, things are going to happen, and it would have been just as easy to hang your head and he runs into the end zone. Our kids don’t do that, and Ambrose, he made a play, and that’s what we had to have.”
Hudson’s offense had success on the ground, rushing for 282 yards, but strong red zone defense from the Aggies kept them in the game. All five of Hudson’s second half drives – excluding the final one, which consisted of three kneel downs – ended at least within the Beal City 35, but just one led to a score.
“You have to give credit to Beal City, too,” Rogers said. “When we got down there, they stiffened up defensively and took all the inside runs away. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to score and it kept the game close.”
Payton Rogers added 62 yards on the ground for Hudson, while Horwath hauled in the lone completed pass for the Tigers, a 17-yard catch from Easten Strodtman that converted a 3rd-and-long on the Tigers’ fourth-quarter touchdown drive. Kopin led the Hudson defense with six tackles, while Strodtman and Ethan Harris each recorded a sack.
Fussman led the Beal City (12-2) offense with two catches for 109 yards, while Miles finished with 128 yards through the air – all in the first half. Josh Wilson recorded 13 tackles to lead the Beal City defense, while Miles had eight.
PHOTOS (Top) Hudson’s Easten Strodtman brings down Beal City quarterback Jack Fussman during Friday’s Division 8 Final. (Middle) The Tigers’ Ambrose Horwath (10) tries to get a hand on the ball with the Aggies’ Carter Fussman (2) and Jack Fussman defending. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Champion Coaches - Including Local Legends - Unite to Restore Ravenna Glory
By
Scott DeCamp
Special for MHSAA.com
October 8, 2026
RAVENNA – Whether they want to or not, Ravenna seniors Joel Kantola and Colton Rolison hear about the glory days of Bulldogs football from their fathers.
Kantola’s dad, Brandon, watches old games from the 1994 season when he was a two-way starter on Ravenna’s first MHSAA Finals championship team.
“He can’t remember very well, but he’ll see a play and he’s like, ‘Oh, I remember doing that play!’” Joel Kantola said. “It’s one of the best things to hear something (from that era). He loves it, too.”
Rolison’s dad, Willy, shares memorable stories from back in the day when he was a dynamic running back on the Bulldogs’ 1997 Class C title squad.
“It’s just insane that he still has all these stories that I’ve never heard. He’s still bringing them up, new ones every day,” Colton Rolison said with a smile.
Three decades have passed since the 1990s heyday of Ravenna football, when the Bulldogs won three of their program’s four Finals titles. But in the small town located on the eastern edge of Muskegon County, the band is back together, one might say.
Steve Czerwon was hired in March as Ravenna’s head football coach, coming from a highly successful 13-year tenure at his Muskegon Catholic Central alma mater where he guided the Crusaders to Division 8 championships all of his first four seasons (2013-16).
One of Czerwon’s first orders of business in Ravenna was securing the commitments of legendary coaches Dusty Fairfield and Randy Helsen – architects of the Bulldogs’ championship teams in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2003 – to bring their wisdom and serve as a link from the storied era to this current one.
They agreed, others from the old guard hopped aboard, and a couple more experienced coaches joined Czerwon’s staff. Now, entering the final third of the 2026 regular season, the Bulldogs appear to have regained a little traction despite coming off three straight losing campaigns.
Ravenna carries a 5-1 overall record and five-game winning streak into this Friday’s West Michigan Conference Rivers home game against Hesperia.
Next week, Ravenna plays at North Muskegon with at least a share of the WMC Rivers title on the line. Should the Bulldogs win this Friday, they’ll take on the Norsemen for the outright league championship.
Since the WMC expanded and split into two divisions in 2022, North Muskegon has not lost a Rivers football game. Meanwhile, Ravenna has not won a conference title since sharing one with two teams in 2001.
In their football history, the Bulldogs have as many Finals titles as they do conference championships (four), illustrating the enduring strength of the West Michigan Conference.
This pack is hungry to etch its own history: Winning a conference title and making a run in the Division 7 playoffs. But, as Helsen laid out, there’s a price to pay.
“Steve addressed the fact (with the players),” Helsen recalled. “‘You wanted these guys to come back and you wanted what they had in the ’80s through the ’90s into the 2000s, and what it’s going to take is every effort you’ve got and even take it up from where you are. If you want to leave a legacy, that’s what you have to do. These guys (have) a legacy.’”
When Helsen says “these guys,” he’s referring to Fairfield and himself, but also other connections from the days of Ravenna football prominence.
In 20 seasons as Ravenna’s head coach covering two stints – the second ending in 2010 – Fairfield sported a 164-55 record. He’s a Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Famer.
Helsen served as Ravenna’s defensive coordinator for all of those seasons, and then some. He and Fairfield are both Ravenna Athletic Hall of Famers, their plaques side-by-side on the wall of the high school’s athletic wing.
Fairfield and Helsen are both retired and they’re volunteer assistants on Czerwon’s staff. They are not at every practice, but they fill critical roles: The former works with the secondary and quarterbacks, plus he’s on the headset in the press box on game days, while the latter coaches defensive linemen.
“They have so much knowledge, and I think it really does connect the past to the current,” said Czerwon, who did his student teaching at Ravenna in the early 2000s and was a member of the Bulldogs coaching staff during their most recent state title season in 2003. “A lot of kids here, they heard from their uncles and their fathers about some really good teams that Ravenna had in the ’90s and early 2000s, and those guys are the actual link.
“I talk to Dusty daily, and he just reinforces the importance of relationships you have with the kids,” Czerwon added. “He’s second to none at that, and it reinforces to me the importance of that.”
Geoff Nelson, who was a starting lineman on Ravenna’s 1994 team, coaches the offensive line. Neil Sladick, who helped the Bulldogs win Finals titles in 1996 and 1997, works with linebackers. Mark Jacobs, who starred on Ravenna’s first Finals group in 1988, helps coach defensive backs.
Canaan Groff is Ravenna’s defensive coordinator, and Nate Smith specializes in offense. Both bring experience to the table, including as head coaches. Czerwon, Groff, Sladick, and Smith all work in Ravenna school buildings, which is an advantage for coaches.
“I think that we’re bringing back a lot of accountability. I think we don’t settle,” Nelson said about Ravenna’s coaching staff. “This has been a great group. We had to break a lot of bad habits, but they’re starting to form new habits and starting to go in the right direction.”
Ravenna got a reality check to start the season in a 33-7 loss to Division 8 top-ranked Beal City, a perennial small-school power. Czerwon admitted he may have asked too much of his players right away in terms of new schemes and such.
Since then, the Bulldogs have exhibited gradual improvement, including winning a couple of one-point games, and now they’re starting to establish an identity of physical football. That was at its peak in last week’s 28-0 win at Mason County Central, which by the way is coached by Ravenna alumnus David Smith, a former Bulldogs head coach who was a member of Class C championship teams in 1994 and 1996.
Things are moving in the right direction for Ravenna.
“There hasn’t really been a lot of drama or anything like that. We love each other. That wins games,” said Rolison, a linebacker who suffered a fractured collarbone in Week 3. Chances of a return this season are up in the air, he said.
“(The coaches have all) worked together before and nobody motivates like Dusty Fairfield – there’s not a single person out there who does,” Rolison added. “Coach Randy Helsen, he knows his stuff. He knows more than I probably ever will about football.”
According to Helsen, getting to know young people at the ground level is Fairfield’s specialty: Types of music they like, their hunting spots, etc.
In terms of accountability, everybody is responsible for that.
“We get after them if they’re not getting it done,” Helsen said. “Kids that were not getting after it five, six weeks ago and kind of rolling their eyes at me when I’m coaching them on scout defense, they’re now in the starting lineup. I said, ‘You’re getting coached by a guy that coached defense here for 27 years. I’m giving you the same coaching that our all-staters and all-conference players got.’”
Fairfield’s goal in returning was to help lay building blocks for current and future success. He believes the overall health of football in Ravenna is strong considering participation numbers from high school to youth levels, especially at a time when similarly small communities across the state are canceling varsity seasons or not fielding enough players to form junior varsity squads.
“It’s been a good experience, and it’s made me realize, you know, what we did in the past really meant something, and it made me realize how hard we worked because I’m totally invested in the team right now. It is fun with the camaraderie with not just the boys but also the coaches,” Fairfield said.
“You know, it’s my last hurrah where I get to experience what I did for a living for over 30 years. I get to experience it one more time before I, you know, go off into the sunset,” he added with a chuckle.
For families such as the Kantolas and Rolisons, things are coming full circle – and they could not be more excited. Brandon Kantola is enjoying his son’s senior season while also reminiscing about the good ol’ days.
“I think he was invested back then,” said Joel Kantola, Ravenna’s starting center, “but he’s more excited for us than I think he was back then.”
Scott DeCamp has worked more than 25 years in sports media, including 21 at MLive Media Group as a reporter and editor. He is founder and owner of DeCamp Creative Solutions. Email him at [email protected] with story ideas for Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, and Oceola counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Ravenna head coach Steve Czerwon addresses the team following a 28-14 victory over Shelby on Sept. 25. (2) Ravenna assistant coaches Randy Helsen, left, and Dusty Fairfield are pictured in the Bulldogs' locker room in August. (3) Joel Kantola, left, is a senior center for the Ravenna football team, and Colton Rolison is a senior linebacker. (4) Fairfield, left, and Czerwon look at an iPad during halftime of a 28-0 victory over Mason County Central on Friday. (Photos by Scott DeCamp.)