Notre Dame Prep Takes to Air, Passes 1st Finals Test to Complete Record Run
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 30, 2024
DETROIT – It’s been hard to find room to run against Frankenmuth all season, so on Saturday, Notre Dame Prep went to the air.
Quarterback Sam Stowe threw for 293 yards and four touchdowns as the Fighting Irish made the most of their first Football Finals appearance with a 42-7 victory over the Eagles in the Division 5 title game at Ford Field.
“The lights weren’t too bright for our offense,” Stowe said. “Having playmakers like Joey (Decasas) and Billy (Collins), Drew (Heimbuch) – they make me look good. I couldn’t have asked for a better offense tonight.”
The win caps off a historic season for the Irish, who won a school-record 12 games and the first Regional title in program history. To end it with a win on the season’s final day was, of course, special for everyone involved, but especially for NDP coach Pat Fox, who finished his 11th season with a Finals title win against his alma mater.
“I actually live there now, too,” Fox said with a smile. “I was the benefit of tremendous coaching, and I played for the greatest head coach in the state, Ralph Munger. He raised all of us in a specific way, and because of him I have a great life. I owe my life to that program. But, I don’t know anybody there anymore except for (Frankenmuth coach Phil Martin), and these are my guys and I was happy to win big. It wasn’t a problem, as long as my house isn’t burned down. … It was hard. It was hard. I love the program.”
Saturday’s game continued a theme for the Irish: winning big in the postseason. They outscored opponents 241-59 over five playoff games on their way to the title.
“We’ve had a great year this year. We have great young men,” Fox said. “I work with tremendous people, and I’m blessed to tell you that we’re very proud of our accomplishments because we do it the right way. We’re a developmental program. A lot of our players, like Drew and Sammy, have been with me since junior kindergarten. We have great student-athletes, and great young men. And we take the time to develop them, and they stay in our program.”
Fox singled out Stowe, who sat behind Jacob Tuttle, a first-team all-state selection a year ago. Rather than look elsewhere to get his talent onto the field, Stowe stuck it out at Notre Dame and had an unforgettable junior season, throwing for nearly 3,000 yards and 37 touchdowns.
“I got to sit behind Jacob Tuttle, one of the Notre Dame greats,” Stowe said. “And he taught me everything I know.”
That was on full display Saturday, as Stowe utilized his weapons on the outside to burn a Frankenmuth defense that has been outstanding all season.
Frankenmuth entered the game having allowed just 473 yards on the ground all season, and the Irish didn’t have a ton more luck for most of the game. But the passing game was lethal, and made all the difference.
“Honestly, I always trust our offense,” Collins said. “We definitely have the ability to make huge plays. We have some extremely fast guys, a fantastic quarterback in Sam who can get the ball down the field. We just trust our offense, we trust our offensive coordinator, coach (Jason) Whalen. We just trust our team.”
Stowe did most of his damage in the first half, including all four touchdown passes. He hit Collins for 87- and 25-yard scores, Michael Wiebelhaus for a 23-yarder, and Decasas on a 47-yard score.
Collins caught four passes for 126 yards, while Decasas had three catches for 70 yards.
Heimbuch scored the final two touchdowns for Notre Dame Prep on runs of eight and 50 yards in the second half. He finished with 63 yards rushing.
Notre Dame Prep’s defense was equally impressive, holding Frankenmuth to 245 total yards (4.2 per play) and not allowing a score until there was 8:58 to play in the game and the Irish had already built a 35-0 lead.
Luca Gasperoni led the defensive charge, finishing with 13 tackles, while Mark Galle had 11 and Wiebelhaus had 10. Heimbuch added nine tackles, including one sack and three tackles for loss.
Lleyton Hoard scored Frankenmuth’s lone touchdown on an 11-yard run early in the fourth quarter. Cash Tedford had 86 yards rushing to lead the Eagles (13-1), who were making their third Finals appearance over the past five seasons.
Brady Lipka had seven tackles, including two TFLs to lead the Frankenmuth defense.
PHOTOS (Top) Notre Dame Prep quarterback Sam Stowe (15) winds up to throw a pass Saturday as his line holds off the rush. (Middle) The Fighting Irish’s Billy Collins (4) pulls in a touchdown pass. (Below) NDP players hold up their championship trophy toward the crowd. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Whiteford Scores 1st Title with Epic Offense
November 24, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
DETROIT – Next time, no one will leave Ottawa Lake Whiteford out of the conversation.
It wasn’t like the Bobcats felt overlooked. But coming into this season’s Division 8 playoffs, it was pretty easy to pencil in four-time reigning champion Muskegon Catholic Central to win again.
Then, when the Crusaders lost to 12-time champion Mendon in the Regional Finals, the Hornets assumed the status as favorites – while on the other side of the bracket, reigning runner-up Whiteford continued building a run historic both locally and statewide.
“Everybody kinda knew Muskegon (CC) was the favorite going in, and Mendon beating them, that was a big win,” Bobcats senior lineman Lucas Tesznar said. “But we knew what we had. We knew we were talented. We just had to play our game every game, and good things would happen.”
And they experienced the best Friday – the first MHSAA football championship in school history, with a 42-21 win over previously-undefeated Saginaw Nouvel to kick off the weekend at Ford Field.
Last year’s trip to the Division 8 Final was Whiteford’s first appearance in an MHSAA title game in this sport.
The Bobcats lost to MCC 35-6, but a year later left the field having scored 737 points this fall – tied for second most in one season with Beal City’s 2013 team – to average 52.6 per game, tied with the Aggies for ninth-most all-time.
Whiteford finished 14-0, winning all of its games by at least 16 points. It’s 27-1 over the last two seasons and 37-4 over the last three.
“Four years ago if you would’ve told me we were going to be in back-to-back states, and win it my senior year, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Tesznar said. “It wasn’t just us. It was the whole community. Everybody around us just pushed us to get better, and the support was non-stop. It was just amazing.”
Whiteford put nonstop pressure on Nouvel, starting with the opening kickoff – an onside bouncer recovered by Bobcats senior quarterback Thomas Eitniear, the first successful onside kick to open an MHSAA Final since Spring Lake succeeded against Jackson Lumen Christi in the 2000 Division 5 game.
Two plays later, Eitniear ran 37 yards to put his team on the board. By the end of the first quarter, junior Logan Murphy had added two running scores to push the Bobcats’ advantage to 20-0. Eitniear ran for another four minutes into the second quarter to make the score 28-0 and give Whiteford all of the offense it would need for the day.
The Bobcats gained 484 yards, with Eitniear running 10 times for 129 and three touchdowns and throwing for 143 on 7 of 11 passing. Murphy had 126 yards rushing and three scores as well.
They succeeded behind an all-senior line anchored by the 6-foot-5, 285-pound Tesznar. He was joined up front by Jordan Book, Jacob Lewis, Alex Kohler, Jarret Atherton and tight end Matthew Taylor.
“We work every day in practice, just to get better each and every day. But I’m not surprised … our o-line has worked as hard as they can all year,” Eitniear said. “That whole offense is all based on them. All of that is all them.”
Nouvel had a tougher time stopping the Bobcats’ attacking defense, which had 11 tackles for losses including four sacks by junior Ian Slick and two by Taylor. Whiteford didn’t allow more than 22 points in a game this season, an impressive feat that got lost a little behind all of the accomplishments on offense.
Senior Tate Hausbeck threw for 175 yards and two touchdowns on 11 of 26 passing for Nouvel (13-1), with senior Ken Kujawa catching both scoring tosses. Junior Joshua Kuligowski added a score on the ground. Senior Alex Wrobel led Nouvel with 14 tackles, and Kujawa had 10.
“All the looks we had out there were pretty much what we planned for. When you’re playing against a good football team, you’ve got to make some plays, try to find a way to make plays,” Nouvel coach Mike Boyd said. “I thought at times we moved the ball extremely well. I think probably when we reflect on things, we’ll see some opportunities that got away from us. They got a lot of pressure on Tate, and if we had more from a protection standpoint we might have had some big plays out there.”
Whiteford coach Jason Mensing talked after of the support his program has received from various groups in the community since he and his staff took over six years ago – and how all of it has made a difference as the Bobcats have continued to rise.
On their way back to Detroit, they found what they needed to climb one step more and finish as the last Division 8 team standing.
“The chemistry this year was just so amazing. Everybody got along with each other, and it was just a family. I think that’s what put us over the top,” Tesznar said. “We put Whiteford on the map, and it’s amazing. I think we all wanted a little revenge on Muskegon, but this feels just as good winning the state title.”
The MHSAA Playoffs are sponsored by the Michigan Army National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Whiteford's Logan Murphy rumbles into the end zone for one of his two touchdowns Friday. (Middle) Bradyn Clark-Gilmore holds on to a catch as Nouvel's Ken Kujawa wraps him up.