Lawrence Completes Turnaround with Title
November 21, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GREENVILLE – Derek Gribler was a sophomore at the Lawrence school board meeting two years ago when it was decided the Tigers would try 8-player football the following fall.
Although the team had finished a combined 1-17 the previous two seasons, playing mostly bigger schools with multiple freshmen trying to match much larger seniors, there was skepticism. Some simply didn’t like the move.
Friday night, it was hard to imagine a better fit.
Counting on a variety of skill players and a speedy defense necessary to succeed in the 8-player game, Lawrence finished its second season after the switch as an MHSAA champion with a 56-12 win over Cedarville at Legacy Field.
Often, successful groups growing up anticipate success at the varsity level. But the Tigers didn’t give championships a thought during their struggles only a few seasons ago.
“Not a single second. Not in any of those practices, not in any of those games,” said Lawrence senior linebacker Jimmy Phelps, like Gribler a four-year varsity player. “Being a 14-year-old kid in a conference where you’d get 60 kids going out for a team; you’re a 14-year-old boy going against 18-year-old men for four quarters every day.
“Football always was my favorite sport, (but) there’s a time you see your rivals in conference and you’re going up against 6-(foot)-2, 200-pound kids and you’re 14-years old and 5-2, 135 pounds. It’s not really fun when those guys hit your guts.”
Moving to 8-player appears to have swung the advantage far into Lawrence’s favor.
The Tigers finished this fall 12-0 and 21-3 over their two seasons of 8-player football, becoming the first team in MHSAA history to win both 8 and 11-player football titles. Lawrence won the Class DD 11-player championship in 1997, but before 2013 hadn’t had a winning season since 2007.
Gribler, a running back before this fall, became over the last four months perhaps the most impressive standout in the MHSAA’s brief history of the 8-player format.
He followed up last week’s six touchdown passes and three touchdown runs against reigning champion Peck with three rushing and two passing scores against the Trojans. Gribler ran for 103 yards on just 12 carries and completed 11 of 14 pass attempts for 256 yards Friday, and for the season he threw for 2,599 yards and 42 touchdowns and ran for 1,704 yards and 24 scores.
With only three seasons against which to compare, Lawrence setting three MHSAA 8-Player Final offensive records might not seem as impressive. But they’re marks that could stand for a while – 23 first downs, 341 yards rushing and 597 total yards.
Lawrence coach Cody Caswell came into 8-player with a spread offense background and has built a network of 8-player coaches including contacts in Oklahoma and Idaho. He tailored the offense this year to allow Gribler to read and make decisions on the fly on nearly every play.
Gribler ran four yards for the team’s first score just 1:06 into the game, and added two more scoring runs and a 27-yard touchdown pass to senior Mike Cammire as the Tigers built a 28-6 lead by the end of the first quarter. Cammire finished with six catches for 110 yards and junior running back Hunter Coombs helped set the tone with 127 yards and two touchdowns on only six rushes.
Meanwhile, the Lawrence defense spent much of the night chasing Cedarville senior quarterback Joey Duncan and forcing him to throw on the run. Cedarville gained only 276 yards and turned the ball over three times. Its 12 points were a season low.
The Tigers finished with a school-record five shutouts under the direction of coordinator Aaron Amthor, and forced 39 turnovers while giving the ball away only five times.
“We believed we had the best defense in the state along with the best offense in the state. We didn’t go in like, ‘I wonder how this is going to go.‘ We thought we should stop them,” Caswell said. “Our motto all year was ‘fast and physical,’ and that’s what they do”
Cedarville had made the 11-player playoffs seven straight seasons before moving to 8-player in 2011. But the Trojans had fallen short of high playoff expectations the last three years, finishing all three with losses to teams they had beaten during the regular season.
Friday’s Final appearance was the program’s first, and its 11 wins this fall a team record.
Duncan threw for 125 yards and a touchdown and ran for 58 more yards. Senior running back Mike Bailey ran for 84, and senior receiver Brad Causley caught seven passes for 95 yards. Senior Blake Melvin ran for a score, and junior Mike Haske caught the other.
Duncan and Causley also played significant roles on the basketball team’s run to the Class D Semifinals in March, and that experience paid off the last four weeks.
“It definitely helped our mindset. We’re used to winning, used to tournament time, and that helped us compose ourselves in big games,” Duncan said. “This year, we knew we had something special. We had a feeling that we were not going to lose, not give up. It definitely was a good mountain to overcome, and hopefully for years to come they can keep the winning going.”
Click for full game statistics.
PHOTOS: (Top) Lawrence’s Derek Gribler drags a Cedarville defensive player into the end zone on one of his three scoring runs. (Middle) Cedarville’s Brad Causley works to get past Tigers defenders. (Below) Lawrence coach Cody Caswell talks with his team after Friday’s championship victory.
Lumen Repeat 'Club' Inducts Newest Class
November 24, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
DETROIT – The challenge came one more time over text Thursday night, from a pair of assistant coaches who had something their players desperately wanted.
Tony Panici and Tyler Aldridge were part of Jackson Lumen Christi’s repeat Division 5 champions in 2003 and 2004, and they had one question for today’s Titans: “Do you have what it takes to join the back-to-back club?”
“That really stuck with us,” Lumen Christi junior linebacker Nick Thomas said. “And I think it gave us that little edge to be able to come out and leave everything on the field, and just join that club.”
Panici and Aldridge – who also were part of the 2005 runner-up team – sent along photos of their championship rings as well. And now the program will need to mint another 80 or so more.
Indeed the Titans won their 10th championship Friday at Ford Field, for the second straight season in Division 6, completing their first repeat since Panici and Aldridge’s sophomore and junior years more than a decade ago. And Lumen Christi did it by holding off arguably the state’s most successful program of the last decade – five-time champion Ithaca – by holding on for a 40-34 win.
The Titans led by 20 midway through the fourth quarter before the Yellowjackets pulled to within six with 2:27 to play. Lumen Christi (12-1) was able to run off those final minutes but needed every last yard – securing the victory by getting two on a 4-and-1 dive by senior Kyle Minder with under a minute to play.
It was a symbolic way to end the final rally. The Yellowjackets (12-1) have won their five titles over the last eight seasons with offenses led by dynamic dual-threat quarterbacks, and made this run led by senior signal-caller Joey Bentley – who ended the fall with 2,144 yards and 31 touchdowns passing and 1,656 yards and 27 scores rushing.
Lumen Christi’s attack is far more old school, a grind-it-out style that this season headlined senior Sebastion Toland with Minder mostly blocking in front of him and behind a powerful offensive line. The Titans didn’t throw a pass during the second half Friday, aside from a two-point conversion try, mostly because they were able to follow up Ithaca’s defensive stops with long runs – Minder ripped off scoring sprints of four, 43 and 63 yards over the final two quarters, and Toland had an 80-yarder to make the lead 19 points just more than a minute into the fourth.
“The offensive line really came off the ball in the second half,” said longtime Lumen Christi coach Herb Brogan, who finished his 38th season running the program. “We felt all year long that offensive line was the strength of our team, and we’ve got some pretty good people to run behind them. I really thought they asserted themselves in the second half and took control of the line of scrimmage.”
The Titans ran for 514 yards on 67 carries, averaging 7.7 yards per attempt. The carries were the second most by one team in an MHSAA championship game.
Toland finished with 244 yards on 33 carries, and Minder had 206 on 23 attempts. Both made the MHSAA record book list for rushing yards in a Final, Toland’s total tying for seventh highest. He had 176 of those yards during the second half. Thomas also scored his team’s first touchdown on a 72-yard reverse.
“They’re a fantastic team offensively, and we knew that. Our challenge was getting off the field,” Ithaca coach Terry Hessbrook said.
“Our defense is fast, but obviously we’re not very big. They asked me at halftime on TV what (Lumen’s) adjustment was going to be. And I said I expected a lot more power running game from them in the second half, and unfortunately that’s exactly what we got.”
A 51-yard touchdown run by Bentley gave Ithaca a 13-8 lead it carried into halftime. Lumen Christi swung the score 24 points to take a 31-12 advantage into the fourth quarter, but the Yellowjackets remained dangerous. Three of Bentley’s four touchdown passes came over the final 9:36.
He finished 11 of 21 passing for 240 yards and those four scores, and ran for 89 yards and one touchdown. Senior Adam Culp caught five passes for 70 yards and two of those scores.
“I’m glad the clock ran out when it did,” said Brogan, also the fifth winningest coach in MHSAA history with a 343-83 record. “They’re really explosive.”
Senior linebacker Ethan McCormick led Ithaca with 15 tackles, while senior nose guard Nathan Bellinger had 11 and senior linebacker Zach Hessbrook had 10.
The Yellowjackets have won 118 of their last 123 games.
“All I can say is this: When you coach a team, all you ask from them is that they play as hard as they can possibly play,” Terry Hessbrook said. “My kids do that. They do that for me, for my coaching staff.
“I told those guys at halftime, Jackson Lumen Christi has never a team like Ithaca High School, because we have no quitters. These kids, I’m so proud of them for it.”
Minder and Thomas both had six tackles to pace the Titans.
The MHSAA Playoffs are sponsored by the Michigan Army National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Lumen Christi’s Sebastion Toland works to break away from a tackler during the Titans’ Division 6 Final win Friday. (Middle) From left: Cameron White, Joe Barrett, Luke Stanton and Hunter Richmond celebrate with the championship trophy.