Moment: 100-Yard TD Lifts Pennfield
September 17, 2020
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
NOTE: This week we begin a series of MHSAA Moments from Football Playoff Finals of years past. Over the coming weeks, we’ll offer video highlights including some of the longest plays and game-deciding moments from 1988 to the present.
In high school football, there are only two plays where you can score a 100-yard touchdown – both by the defense bringing the ball out of the end zone on a turnover.
For Battle Creek Pennfield in the 1991 Class CC Football Playoff Final at the Pontiac Silverdome, such a big defensive play got the Panthers out of the hole in a 14-8 victory over Negaunee.
A bad snap on a Pennfield punt resulted in a safety for a 2-0 Miners lead in the first quarter, and they had driven into the red zone after the ensuing free kick. But on a fourth-down play, the Cereal City contingent came up big.
Negaunee quarterback Ron Logan rolled left and threw to the end zone, where Pennfield linebacker Jason Livengood stepped in front of the intended receiver for the interception. Two yards deep in the end zone, Livengood found an alley and was off to the races for a 100-yard return. (High school statistics rules do not count end zone yardage.)
“I couldn’t believe it,” Livengood told the Battle Creek Enquirer after the game. “All I had to do was fake one guy and then it was open the rest of the way.”
The big play steadied the Panthers after their shaky start.
“It showed us we could do something,” running back Jim Martens told the Enquirer. “We needed a stop and we got more than that. We got six points.”
Still, the Panthers had to come up with a big drive in the third quarter – 67 yards in 17 plays taking 9:58 off the clock, with three fourth-down conversions – to take the lead to stay on Martens’ five-yard scoring run.
Negaunee mounted a drive from its own 37 to the Pennfield 18 during the final two minutes of the game. But after they completed a pass to the 11, the clock ran out on the Miners.
Moment: Montague, Kater Air it Out
October 1, 2020
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
A lot of people say in any sport that there’s a play, or a sequence of plays, that swings a game – that locks down the outcome.
You might be able to define “swing” with a defensive red zone stop and the longest pass play in MHSAA Football Finals history during the 2008 Division 6 championship game.
Montague quarterback Cody Kater found Anthony Root down the right sideline for a pitch and catch that went for 98 yards and squashed a potential comeback by Leslie in a 41-20 win for the Panthers at Ford Field.
The swing began just three plays earlier, when the Montague defense stopped Leslie on downs deep in its own territory with about four minutes to play in the first half. The Blackhawks were knocking on the door, looking to cut into a 21-6 lead when a 4th-and-goal pass fell incomplete.
The Panthers were backed up, but they didn’t back down.
“They thought they had us and, boom, we’re 98 yards the other way,” Kater said to the Detroit Free Press. “I think the ball had even gotten tipped a little bit, but Anthony made a great play.” The pair had already connected for a 46-yard scoring pass in the first quarter.
Montague continued the swing moments later with a pass interception by Jordan Degen with a minute to play that led to a TD run by A.J. LaRue, which gave the Wildcats a 35-6 halftime lead.
Kater was an efficient 4 of 6 passing for 175 yards in the game, while Root accounted for 144 of that total with his two scoring catches. The Wildcats defense forced four turnovers.
PHOTO: Montague's Cody Kater launches a pass from his team's end zone in 2008 that turned into a 98-yard reception, the longest in MHSAA Finals history.