QBs Shine as West Catholic Earns 3-Peat
November 28, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
DETROIT – Grand Rapids West Catholic might have won its third straight Division 5 championship Saturday night with either sophomore Gaetano Vallone or junior David Fox playing every snap at quarterback.
But it was impossible to argue the duo’s effectiveness as they worked together to keep the Falcons ahead of a River Rouge comeback attempt led by another quarterback putting up near-record numbers.
Fox, the starter when the season began, and Vallone – who took over when Fox was lost with a shoulder injury in Week 3 – combined for 288 yards rushing and 106 passing as West Catholic held on for a third straight Finals win, 40-34, despite the heroics of Panthers senior signal-caller Antoine Burgess.
“We’re both athletic, we’re both physical and I guess Coach (Dan) Rohn says we’re playmakers, so we’re playmakers,” Vallone said. “It definitely helped because we’re both gamers, and that’s what it takes. With two of us back there … it really can spread things out and get them confused.”
The Finals appearance was West Catholic's fifth straight, but Vallone was among players who had significant impacts for the first time this fall.
Fox ran for 152 yards and three touchdowns from his “scat” quarterback position, while Vallone ran for 115 yards and threw for 84 and a score despite being limited by an ankle injury sustained during last weekend’s Semifinal win over Lansing Catholic.
Fox’s third touchdown run just 16 seconds into the second half gave West Catholic (12-2) a seemingly comfortable 21-6 lead.
But that would’ve counted River Rouge out far too early.
Burgess brought the Panthers back within seven with a 63-yard touchdown pass to senior Aaron Vinson with 3:56 left in the third quarter, then responded to Vallone’s 9-yard scoring pass with a 1-yard touchdown run 1:06 into the fourth.
The teams traded scores four more times, the last a 2-yard run by Burgess with four seconds to play. An onside kick was covered by the Falcons, denying Burgess one last chance at another deep toss to tie the score.
“I just told (my teammates) not to give up yet and play hard. It wasn’t over,” Burgess said. “Like I saw yesterday, King came back and won the (Division 2) game. I told them we could do that too. I continue to fight no matter what.”
A few more key plays figured into the final score, notably a tackle for a safety by West Catholic senior Conner Nemmers with 7:15 to play, followed by a 31-yard field goal by sophomore Liam Putz that made the Falcons’ lead 12 with 4:13 left in regulation. And while it didn’t lead to a score directly, Fox’s 22-yard pass to senior Billy Kral on a fake punt helped the Falcons drain a few more seconds off the clock – and ended up setting up the safety when Fox drilled a 53-yard punt to the River Rouge 3-yard line five plays later.
For the game, Burgess threw for 354 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 70 yards and two scores – missing the MHSAA Finals record for total yardage by only two and approaching the record of 383 passing yards set by Detroit Martin Luther King’s Armani Posey in the Division 2 Final on Friday.
But Burgess and his teammates made it a memorable night for a community that had six straight sub-.500 seasons before coach Corey Parker took over in 2009. The Panthers set a record for wins this fall in making the Finals for the first time and finishing 12-2.
“I think we’ve arrived, to a certain extent, in reference to the way my kids handled things,” said Parker, who has led his teams to a combined 40-7 record over the last four seasons. “To watch them manage this process, it tells me a lot about my guys and what we’ve developed as far as a foundation.
“Most press writers thought they were going to bail us out 50-something to zip. But my guys looked at that opportunity and said hey, let’s see how good they really are.”
Burgess completed 13 of 19 passes, with Vinson grabbing four for 162 yards, sophomore Giovanni Turner catching four for 95 and a score and senior Ashawnti Howard pulling in three for 84 yards and a touchdown. Junior Aaron Hall caught West Catholic’s lone touchdown pass, and junior Sam Neville had the team’s final points on a 3-yard run with 1:27 to play.
Fox, also a safety, led the Falcons with eight tackles, and senior lineman Carl Myers had seven. Sophomore safety Reggie Pearson had 10 for River Rouge, and senior defensive end Jamal Bonner also had seven.
West Catholic defeated three top-10 teams and a fourth that earned an honorable mention in the final statewide media poll to get back to Detroit, before downing River Rouge, another honorable mention. Not bad for a team that started 1-2, lost a starting quarterback and had another on a sore ankle the last two weeks.
“We had a small senior class, and I think a lot of people doubted this group since they came in as one of our smallest classes in history. But for them to be here four years is pretty remarkable,” Rohn said. “All along we knew we had a tough early schedule. … We just said, let’s just stick to our guns. We’ve been 1-3 and 1-4 in recent years and we’ve still been able to make it back down here. So the kids buy into the scheme, continue to work hard and believe in the coaches. Because a lot of people would quit at 1-2. Not this group, not this community.”
The MHSAA Football Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) West Catholic’s David Fox (4) and Gaetano Vallone (6) celebrate a touchdown during Saturday’s Final. (Middle) River Rouge quarterback Antoine Burgess breaks away from a tackle.
Driven to Dominate, West Catholic Dethrones 2024 Champ to Reign Again
By
Scott DeCamp
Special for MHSAA.com
November 30, 2025
DETROIT – The 2024 season didn’t finish the way that Grand Rapids West Catholic’s football team had intended. The 2025 season didn’t begin the way the Falcons would’ve hoped.
At the end of the day, two defining defeats and other adversities along the way set the stage and helped the 2025 squad peak at the right time.
West Catholic proved as strong as it’s been all season, and then some, in a 42-14 victory over Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in the Division 5 Final on Sunday at Ford Field. The title was the Falcons’ first since 2022, their eighth in program history, and it marked the seventh-straight Finals appearance in which they’ve emerged victorious.
“Unbelievably proud of the way we played. It was one of those things where we knew we had that type of potential in us,” fourth-year West Catholic coach Landon Grove said.
“It’s been an up-and-down season with a lot of variables with injuries. We had a lot of injuries pile up each week, but they never flinched. The amount of adversity we faced this year – we lost captains, we lost underclassmen starters, upperclassmen starters – and it was just a next-man-up mentality.”
West Catholic (13-1) opened the season with a 32-21 loss to Grand Rapids Northview, then ripped off 13 straight victories.
The most momentous win along the way was a 21-20 overtime triumph in its District Final at archrival Grand Rapids Catholic Central, which had ended West Catholic’s 2024 season with a 21-18 defeat. GRCC also had ended West Catholic’s 2023 season in their Regional Final in another tight matchup, 30-28.
Once they returned to the Finals on Sunday, the Falcons left no doubt. They made plays all over the field, starting with senior quarterback Grady Augustyn’s 79-yard strike to junior Thomas Puksta to put their team on top, 7-0, just 4½ minutes into the contest.
West Catholic worked with short fields the rest of the first half, thanks to its stingy defense, and the Falcons stretched the lead to 28-0 midway through the second quarter on the following plays: a one-yard TD run by Augustyn (with 2:30 left in the first quarter), senior Connor Olszewski’s three-yard scoring run (10:34 left in the second), and Puksta’s 25-yard TD reception from Augustyn (5:54 left in the half).
“It feels great just to do it with this class. Our class has been working its butts off this whole year, last year,” said Augustyn, who finished 9-of-18 passing for 199 yards. “We were, like, ‘We’re not letting this happen again.’ … We kind of just made a pact, saying, ‘We’ve got to be tougher than (last year). That wasn’t West Catholic football all year, and that wasn’t West Catholic football that game (against GRCC).’
“So, coming back and then winning in overtime (against GRCC this season) showed us that, like, ‘Hey, we could do it and that’s West Catholic football. That’s how you play games.’ And then, just winning this championship, it just means a lot to our whole team. It means a lot to the big man over there (gesturing toward Grove). It just means a lot for all of us.”
Notre Dame Prep (11-3), which was attempting to repeat after winning its first Finals title a year ago, got on the board in the final minute of the first half on senior Anthony Tartaglia’s two-yard run.
However, West Catholic completely broke it open early in the third quarter on back-to-back pick-6s – the first by senior Cal Peterson covering 43 yards only 21 seconds into the period, and the second by senior Christian Patterson for 30 yards barely two minutes into the quarter.
“When we’re at our best at West Catholic, our defense is our strength,” Grove said.
West Catholic outrushed Notre Dame Prep, 190-65, as the Falcons outgained the Irish in total offense, 389-258.
West Catholic junior Collin Abram led all rushers with 154 yards on 17 carries. Falcons senior Noah Gillespie paced the defense with a game-high 10 tackles.
“Our defense put us in a great spot every time – three-and-outs, getting us at the 30, 35 (of Notre Dame Prep) every time, so it just helped us there,” Augustyn said. “And then our O-line played wonderful those quarters and we just kept rolling, kept rolling – (motioning toward Puksta) brought his big-boy pants and, ‘What would we be complaining about now?’”
Puksta had a game to remember for West Catholic, hauling in six passes for 161 yards.
For Notre Dame Prep, senior starting quarterback Sam Stowe finished 8-of-11 passing for 67 yards. He suffered a shoulder injury in the contest that made throwing the ball very painful, he said in the postgame press conference. Irish senior Drake Roa went 8-of-13 passing for 123 yards, including a 60-yard TD toss to senior Brody Sink to cap the game’s scoring with 11:51 remaining.
Sink had five receptions for 110 yards. Senior Henry Ewles and sophomore Chris Artinian led Notre Dame Prep defensively with eight stops apiece.
“You know, it’s not how you want to finish the year,” Notre Dame Prep coach Pat Fox said. “We’re very proud to come back and defend our 2024 state championship. West Catholic today, fine football team. They did some tremendous things on the offensive and defensive lines and controlled the flow of the game. All credit to them. They did a great job. I’m proud of the way our kids battled. I love those kids, and it’s hard to say goodbye to them.
“I think a lot of times, you can look at a game and you can say there were some plays that maybe didn’t go our way. At the end of the day, West Catholic won at the lines, and that was the deciding factor,” Fox added. “It wasn’t a play or two. Tonight, they were the better team and they did a great job.”
After the game, Grove expressed his pride in carrying on the strong West Catholic tradition but noted that he’s only a small part in the Falcons’ success.
West Catholic is now tied for 10th in MHSAA history with eight Finals championships, pulling even with Grand Rapids Catholic Central on the all-time list. Over their 10 Finals appearances, the Falcons have won titles in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2022, and 2025.
“I’ll say this, we live in a world where people don’t think kids are tough anymore, (but) they’ll do exactly what you ask them. These kids have epitomized what young men are capable of doing,” Grove said about his team. “That’s why this game is so great. This game is what tells them the truth every day. It told the truth today, that they’re a great football team. They get told the truth in practice, they get told the truth in the weight room. I mean, these kids answered every challenge.
“This is all them, this is all them. I couldn’t be more proud.”
PHOTOS (Top) Grand Rapids West Catholic quarterback Grady Augustyn (6) finds his receiver during Sunday’s Division 5 Final. (Middle) Collin Abram (43) attempts to get out of the grasp of a Notre Dame Prep defender. (Below) Augustyn hands off to Connor Olszewski (7).