Performance: Cass Tech's Rodney Hall
December 1, 2016
Rodney Hall
Detroit Cass Tech senior – Football
A year ago, Hall’s junior season ended on the Ford Field sideline, watching Cass Tech fall 41-27 to Romeo in the Division 1 Final after he suffered a lower leg injury two weeks before. But he came back this season fueled by championship motivation, and made it pay off. Hall threw for 220 yards and an MHSAA Finals record-tying five touchdown passes to lead the Technicians to a 49-20 win over Detroit Catholic Central in the Division 1 Final on Saturday and earn the Michigan National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
Hall started a pair of playoff games as a freshman before taking over the varsity fulltime in 2014 and leading Cass Tech to a 12-1 record. The Technicians were a combined 36-3 under him the last three seasons and scored a program-record 619 points (44.2 per game) this fall. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound signal-caller completed 10 of 18 passes in the Final and also ran for 58 yards on only seven carries. He finished this season 142 of 238 passing for 2,535 yards and 28 touchdowns, after a junior season when he threw for 2,232 yards and 20 touchdowns and ran for 1,053 yards and 14 scores.
After admitting Saturday to being a little timid to run at the start of the fall, and with a steel plate still in his ankle, Hall ran for a combined 253 yards and three touchdowns over his final three playoff games. He has committed to sign to play football at Northern Illinois University but said he’s unsure which course of study he’ll pursue. MLive-Detroit reported Hall carries a 3.4 grade-point average in its feature on the Technicians standout as one of 10 finalists for MLive’s High School Football Player of the Year award.
Coach Thomas Wilcher said: Let's say it like this: He lost one game his first year, two games his second year, zero games his third year. That's enough said. ... I think the most important thing about Rodney Hall is you have to look at his stats. He has phenomenal stats. He has a phenomenal win-loss record. I haven't been around anything like that before. I just look at his game – (he's) the gamer. He's always bringing back a victory. We went down to the wire several times, and it was all about him. And I just told him this week, 'Look, I don't need you to run the ball. All I want you to do is throw the ball. You should throw the ball for over 300 yards.’ That’s it. And I told him, just stick with the game plan; no running. And I just kept telling the offensive coordinator, don't let him run. Let him throw it. That's it."
Performance Point: “Just to be able to make it back to this point and play in this game, I was just excited to come play, and glad we won,” Hall said. “The offense was clicking, and guys were open. They did the rest. I just put it to them. … (At last season’s Final) I was crying. I was hurt that I couldn't be out there to help my teammates. I wanted (this year) bad. We made history at Cass because I think we’re the first team to go 14-0 and win the state championship. We just wanted to win this game because we’ve been losing ever since we came into high school. We have a lot of wins, but we’ve been coming up short for the last three years – and it’s great to come out with the championship this year.”
Learning to run again: “I came in (to this season), I was a little timid to run, actually. I didn't want to get hurt again and miss this opportunity. Coach, he's been pressing me to run all year, and when I finally do, I get positive yards.”
Star among the stars: “Quarterback is simple. You just have to keep everybody on the right track and make sure teammates don’t get down when we get behind. The last two weeks we’ve been losing, and I just remind my guys, ‘Come on, we can win this. We’re going to go back and score.’ Just remind them to keep scoring, remind the defense we’re going to keep getting stops, and just keep everybody’s heads up.”
Pass is present: “This year, I’ve been a way better passer. Because all offseason, I haven’t been able to run. I’ve just been working the pocket, making sure I’m looking at everything, making sure I’m reading the defense better. And I’ve had a better passing year this year, I believe.”
Leaving a legacy: “I just can’t believe it’s over with. I just want people to know I was a guy to go out there and give it all I’ve got. Just sell out for the team, and that’s what you should do – and you’ll end up a champion.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2016-17 school year, Second Half and the Michigan National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2016-17 honorees:
Nov. 24: Ally Cummings, Novi volleyball – Read
Nov. 17: Chloe Idoni, Fenton volleyball – Read
Nov. 10: Adelyn Ackley, Hart cross country – Read
Nov. 3: Casey Kirkbride, Mattawan soccer – Read
Oct. 27: Colton Yesney, Negaunee cross country – Read
Oct. 20: Varun Shanker, Midland Dow tennis – Read
Oct. 13: Anne Forsyth, Ann Arbor Pioneer cross country – Read
Oct. 6: Shuaib Aljabaly, Coldwater cross country – Read
Sept. 29: Taylor Seaman, Brighton swimming & diving – Read
Sept. 22: Maggie Farrell, Battle Creek Lakeview cross country – Read
Sept. 15: Franki Strefling, Buchanan volleyball – Read
Sept. 8: Noah Jacobs, Corunna cross country – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Cass Tech's Rodney Hall prepares to unload a pass during Saturday's Division 1 Final at Ford Field. (Middle) Hall hurdles a would-be Detroit Catholic Central tackler.
Loyola Learns Championship Lessons
November 29, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
DETROIT – Saturday’s celebration began with respect, senior linebacker Paul Engram said, for an opponent that had become familiar and frustrating.
Detroit Loyola hasn’t lost a regular-season game since 2010. But the Bulldogs also hadn’t solved Ishpeming in their first two MHSAA Division 7 Final matchups, falling to the Hematites to end both of the last two seasons despite obvious size and arguable speed advantages.
“We know they could beat us, and they thought they could beat us, and we had to recognize that,” Engram said. “We knew what we can do. We had to believe in ourselves and play as a team.
“Football isn’t always about just playing a game. It’s about life. We really learned a lesson about how to stick together and trust, what love and trust are really all about. Because that’s what we were missing the last couple of years.”
Loyola had all of the above Saturday morning in defeating Ishpeming 29-8 to claim its first MHSAA title.
Just as in 2012 and 2013, Ishpeming scored first. But this time, the Bulldogs responded with 29 unanswered points dominating with the physicality that has helped it build a 65-10 record under coach John Callahan since he took over the program in 2009.
“Passion, motivation. Us losing two times in a row, we just really had a goal,” said senior running back Marvin Campbell, who like Engram had played prominent roles on all three Finals teams. “We just knew we had to get this done.”
Campbell finished with 215 yards on 21 carries with all four of Loyola’s scores – on runs of 47 and eight yards in the second quarter, 66 in the third and five yards in the fourth.
The first touchdown would’ve come earlier – a two-yard scoring run was called back because of a penalty – and Ishpeming junior Thomas Finegan intercepted a Loyola pass on the next play. With junior quarterback Ozzy Corp either running or completing passes on 10 plays, the Hematites responded with a 13-play, 90-yard drive capped by his 1-yard scoring run and two-point conversion pass with 1:03 to go in the first quarter.
But Loyola (14-0) made adjustments – taking opposite tacks for each side of the field.
Callahan had traveled to watch Ishpeming twice this season, including against eventual Division 8 semifinalist Beal City when those teams met in Week 6. Callahan noticed how the Aggies tried to defend Ishpeming’s powerful run – and came back to a defense he’d used coaching Pontiac Notre Dame to a league title before moving to Loyola. The “nitro” defense took all of his players off the line and gave a look of seven linebackers able to range side to side.
Loyola finished Saturday with six tackles for losses and three sacks, with junior lineman Anthony Fitzpatrick leading with 11 tackles.
“(Nitro) gives us better vision,” Callahan said. “With what they ran, they were going one way or the other. It gave our guys the opportunity to move as quick as they were and get to the spot.”
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs did just about the opposite offensively, as the game wore on getting back to the fundamentals of its base power running game that had served so well the last four seasons.
Loyola finished with 297 yards on the ground, with senior Mideyin Wilson picking up 75 on 16 carries.
“Those guys are seniors now, all those guys we played before,” Ishpeming coach Jeff Olson said. “They’re big. They’re strong. They were better than us. There are only so many things you can do, and we tried a lot of different things, a lot of different blocking schemes. They just dominated us at times.”
Corp turned in another courageous performance without senior teammate and top back Ozzy Hakkarinen to assist – the latter was injured in last week’s Semifinal. Corp ran for 198 yards in that game, and added 111 yards passing to the team’s lone score Saturday.
Senior Dominic Suardini had 14 tackles for the Hematites (12-1), which had won 33 straight games entering Saturday – good to tie for eighth-longest winning streak in MHSAA football history and fourth longest among streaks to take place entirely during the playoff era (beginning in 1975).
“People don’t understand how hard it is to get here. When you do it three times in a row and win two, people think it gets easy,” Olson said. “We had some tough teams we had to play along the way, and you’ve got to beat those teams. And those teams are giving you everything they have. You can’t just have talent; you’ve got to have great kids, got to have competitors. We had that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Loyola celebrates its first MHSAA football championship at Ford Field. (Middle) Ishpeming quarterback Ozzy Corp prepares to throw with the Bulldogs pressuring. (Below) Loyola’s Marvin Campbell runs away from tacklers for some of his 215 rushing yards. (Click for action photos and team photos from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:
ISHPEMING PICK - The Ishpeming defense stopped a long game-opening Detroit Loyola drive when Thomas Finegan intercepted a Nicholas Lee pass. The Hematites scored on the ensuing drive.
MARVELOUS MARVIN - Marvin Campbell rushed for 215 yards and four touchdowns for Detroit Loyola in its 29-8 Division 8 victory over Ishpeming. Here's the third score on a 66-yard run.
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