Moment: Streak-Ender Highlights 1st Finals
December 11, 2020
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
It’s been 45 years since the first MHSAA Football Playoffs took place, a two-week, 16-team tournament with the top teams of each of four regions in all four classes finally settling gridiron championships on the playing field.
In that first year, cries of “U.P. Power” thundered through the stands at Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo and the new Perry Shorts Stadium in Mt. Pleasant as Crystal Falls Forest Park and Ishpeming claimed the 1975 titles in Classes D and C respectively. Bill Santilli ran wild for 179 yards on 37 carries and three touchdowns as the Trojans manhandled Flint Holy Rosary, 50-0, in the Class D game. But the Class C affair was one for the ages - perhaps the biggest upset in the history of the finals.
It was billed as David and Goliath. The mighty Hudson Tigers roared north to Mt. Pleasant riding a 72-game winning streak, which would stand as a national record until 1992; and is still a state record, only threatened once by a 69-game skein by Ithaca which ended in the 2014 Finals. Hudson had also laid claim to mythical state titles in Class C the three previous seasons. Ishpeming’s pedigree dated back to 1900, when it won the first of three straight - and of four in a five-year period - state titles in a championship conducted at and by the University of Michigan, primarily for the purpose of recruiting for Fritz Crisler’s Wolverines football program. The Hematites, having their best season in 15 years, had even lost a regular-season game along the way to a 9-0 Marquette squad that didn’t qualify for the playoffs.
On a cold, windy day at Central Michigan University, Ishpeming struck first and struck hard. Four minutes into the game, Tom Andriacchi blocked a Hudson punt and returned it to the Tigers' 10-yard line. Four plays later, quarterback Mark Marana kept the ball on the option and scored from two yards out. On its next possession just midway through the first period, the Hematites ripped off a 61-yard drive capped by a three-yard scoring run by Dave Farragh, and Ishpeming was up 16-0.
Hudson rallied following the ensuing kickoff with its first score, a 28-yard pass from Chris Luma to Dan Salamin, but the Hematites came right back with their third score of the opening frame, a 60-yard run by Mike Dellangelo to give Ishpeming all the points it would need.
The two teams traded scores in the second period, when Hudson then missed a golden opportunity to tighten things up just before halftime, fumbling at the Hematites' 2-yard line and with Ishpeming recovering for a touchback.
Dellangelo picked up a second TD in the third quarter, and finished the game with 156 of Ishpeming’s 336 rushing yards in the 38-22 victory.
“It wasn’t hard getting our guys up for the game,” Hematites coach Mike Mileski told Central Michigan Life after the game. “The emotion factor was a ready-made thing considering Hudson’s streak …”
Our action footage this week comes courtesy of Brian Sarvello, a member of that 1975 Ishpeming team. About 17 minutes film from that game was assembled with some of the local radio station call into a DVD that was shared with the team several years ago. We found it in a random internet search for this most recent series of MHSAA Moments, and appreciate Mr. Sarvello’s help in bringing it to you.
If you know of championship game footage from those pre-television years (1975-88) of the MHSAA Football Finals, we’d love to hear about it. Drop us a line at [email protected].
PHOTO: Ishpeming's Mark Marana works to break away from a tackler during the 1975 Class C Final. (MHSAA file photo).
Lumen Christi 'Adds to Tradition' Once Again, This Time in Record Fashion
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
November 29, 2024
DETROIT – The more things change in high school football – with the proliferation of spread offenses and sophisticated passing attacks – the more things stay the same at Jackson Lumen Christi.
The Titans won their state-record 14th title of the MHSAA playoff era Friday with an old-fashioned power running attack which didn’t look a whole lot different than what they rode to their first championship at the Pontiac Silverdome back in 1977.
Only the names have changed, and the big name for these Titans was senior running back Kadale Williams (6-foot-1, 180 pounds), who rushed 27 times for a Finals-record 314 yards and five touchdowns in a 56-18 victory over Lansing Catholic at Ford Field.
“It’s a very special moment,” said Williams, who had been committed to Central Michigan, but re-opened his recruiting after the recent retirement of head coach Jim McElwain.
“I couldn’t have done it with those guys up front. We have a special chemistry and bond and, honestly, it’s going to be sad moving on.”
Lumen Christi, which finished 13-1 with its only loss coming at Pontiac Notre Dame in Week 2, simply couldn’t be stopped Friday – as its offense (which features 10 senior starters) scored touchdowns on its first eight possessions, building up a 21-6 lead after one quarter, 42-12 by halftime and 56-18 with a running clock after three quarters.
“I thought we played great,” said 45th-year Lumen Christi coach Herb Brogan. “That was a very, very dangerous offense over there on the other side, and to hold them to 18 points is something that hasn’t been done in a while.
“On offense, we were just relentless. We blocked well, and Kadale had a great game.”
Williams registered scoring runs of 36 and six yards in the opening quarter, 76 and five yards in the second quarter and, finally, a two-yard run in the third quarter.
Williams was able to get a head of steam on many of his runs behind the offensive line of senior center Tim Smiley, senior guards Drew Sweeney and Andy Salazar, senior tackle Maverick Stergakos and junior tackle Antwon Baker. Salazar was also 8-for-8 on extra-point kicks.
Also making key blocks on Williams scoring runs were fullback Isaac Rehberg and tight end Charlie Saunders.
Lansing Catholic (10-4), which lost three games in the Capital Area Activities Conference White but found its stride in the postseason, tried to keep up with the Titans through the air.
Cougars senior quarterback Alex Fernandez (6-3, 230) was outstanding, completing 21-of-29 passes for 284 yards and two touchdowns – both to senior wideout Xavier Luea, covering six and 41 yards – while rushing 18 times for 82 yards and another score.
The difference was on the ground, where Lumen held a commanding 435-87 edge.
“I am very proud of this team, to go from 3-6 last regular season to Ford Field, which is every boy’s dream in this state,” said fourth-year Lansing Catholic coach Jim Baker, who led the Cougars to a Division 6 championship in his first season in 2021.
“We ran into a very good team and tried to throw some different things at them, but at the end of the day, we just couldn’t stop No. 1 (Williams).”
The Titans also came up with some huge individual defensive plays to keep the Cougars from drawing closer.
Senior safety Adam Fuller made a big hit on Fernandez as he scrambled toward the end zone on the final play of first half. Junior Jack Fitzpatrick also tackled a Lansing Catholic receiver short of the first down on a key fourth-down play, and junior defensive lineman Antwon Baker was regularly in position to stop Fernandez on scramble plays.
Amarion Clay led the Titans with nine tackles, while Josh DuMont and Saunders each had seven stops.
The Cougars were led defensively by Noah Jungwirth and Braden Rabideau with eight tackles and David Magaway and Fernandez with seven stops.
Brogan, who now has been the head coach for 12 of Lumen Christi’s 14 titles, picked up career win 421, leaving him trailing only John Herrington (443 at Farmington Hills Harrison) and Al Fracassa (430 at Royal Oak Shrine Catholic and Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice) in the MHSAA record book.
A closer look at his record reveals that Brogan, 75, appears to be getting better with age.
Brogan, who took over as Lumen Christi’s coach in 1980 at the age of 30, won six state championships during his first 36 years as head coach – and has won six more over the last nine years.
“It’s too much fun,” said Brogan, when asked about retirement. “As long as, God-willing, I’m healthy enough, I want to be out there.
“We have a great tradition at Lumen Christi, and I ask the kids every year: ‘Are you going to try to live off that tradition, or are you going to add to it?’ These kids certainly added something to it.”
PHOTOS (Top) Lumen Christi’s Kadale Williams (1) follows his blocker into an opening Saturday at Ford Field. (Middle) The Titans’ Josh DuMont attempts to elude a Lansing Catholic tackler. (Below) The Cougars’ Alex Fernandez (2) breaks a tackle as Cassius Griffin (23) closes in. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)