River Rouge Ends 2019 with Stunning Finish
November 30, 2019
By Tom Kendra
Special for Second Half
DETROIT – River Rouge wasn’t intimidated by Muskegon’s national acclaim or 859 football victories, the most by any Michigan high school.
If anything, the chance to knock off the unbeaten and top-ranked Big Reds brought out the absolute best in the Panthers.
After spotting Muskegon a 7-0 lead, Rouge scored the final 30 points to claim a 30-7 victory in the Division 3 championship game Saturday night at Ford Field.
“We are known for basketball, but now we have a football title,” said 10th-year Rouge coach Corey Parker, who lauded his team for playing fearlessly on both sides of the ball. “Now we have a football title, and 20 years from now these guys are going to be talking about it.”
All the talk coming into the game centered on Muskegon senior quarterback Cameron Martinez, the two-time MLive Player of the Year who had rushed for more than 2,000 yards. But the talk afterward was about a different QB – River Rouge’s Mareyohn Hrabowski.
Hrabowski, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound junior, answered an early score by Martinez with three rushing touchdowns of his own, finishing with 15 carries for 175 yards – an average of nearly 12 yards per carry. He also completed 6-of-12 passes for 45 yards.
“I just had to follow my blocks,” said Hrabowski. “I had faith in myself and my team, and we came out on top.”
It was the first Finals appearance and championship for Rouge, which has qualified for the playoffs all 10 years under Parker. Rouge lost its opener this fall to Friday’s Division 4 champion Grand Rapids Catholic Central before reeling off 13 straight wins. The Panthers were ranked No. 5 in Division 3 entering the playoffs
The other storyline Saturday was the Rouge defense, which held a Muskegon team averaging 49 points per game to a season-low seven.
The Panthers did it with an ultra-aggressive strategy, sometimes with all 11 defensive players within three yards of the line of scrimmage just daring Martinez to throw the ball.
Instead, Muskegon kept trying to find a way to break Martinez through the initial wall and into the clear, but it never happened.
Martinez, a 5-11, 190-pound senior who has committed to Ohio State, finished with 108 rushing yards, but it took him 34 carries to get there – at 3.2 yards per carry. He also did not complete a single pass, going 0-for-5 through the air.
“We just didn’t play our game, really,” said Martinez, who faced relentless pressure every time he dropped back to throw. “We have played great for 13 weeks, and we picked a bad time to play bad.”
Hrabowski scored on runs of one and 40 yards in the second quarter, as the Panthers took a 14-7 lead into halftime.
Rouge (13-1) kept its foot on the accelerator during the second half, with Rmontaye Caldwell returning the third-quarter kickoff 36 yards to the Muskegon 35-yard line. On the next play, Hrabowski went 35 yards on a keeper and the lead was 21-7.
The score remained the same until the fourth quarter, when Rouge rounded out the scoring on a 31-yard field goal by Avery Burch and a 33-yard run by Deandre Bulley.
Bulley, a 6-2, 245-pound senior who is being heavily recruited by schools at the Division I level, came into the game needing just 80 yards to reach 2,000 for the season. He came up five yards short, with 15 carries for 75 yards, but Hrabowski more than made up the difference.
Rouge used extremely wide splits on the offensive line to open up running lanes for Hrabowski, who stunned the stingy Big Reds’ defense with his vision and deceptive speed in the open field. On two of his scoring runs he faked a jet sweep handoff and ran straight ahead behind guard Deshawn Smith and tackle Chance Moore through the left side of the line and eventually into the end zone.
The final stats bear out Rouge’s dominance.
The Panthers held a 330-180 edge in total yards, including a 45-0 edge passing. Rouge outrushed Muskegon 285-180.
Darieon Jones, a 5-8, 190-pound senior defensive back, was everywhere for Rouge, registering a game-high 14 tackles, including 10 solos. Linebacker Deshawn Walker had eight tackles, and Tyron Jones and Chastin Cross each made six stops.
River Rouge has been known around the state as a basketball school, winning 12 Class B state titles under legendary coach Lofton Greene during the 1960s and 1970s. But now the Panthers, who are part of the Michigan Metro Athletic Conference, are making a name for themselves on the gridiron.
Rouge made a statement by dominating Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 49-14 in the Regional Final, then overcame a 7-0 fourth-quarter deficit in last week’s Semifinal to knock off Chelsea 14-7.
The Panthers rode that momentum into the Final.
Muskegon, led by senior linebacker Tarran Walker and senior safety Tyreese Oakes with nine tackles apiece, added another layer of frustration to its Ford Field troubles.
The Big Reds have played in a championship game at Ford Field seven of the last eight years. But the lone victory, and the lone Finals title for 10th-year head coach Shane Fairfield, came with a 28-10 victory over Farmington Hills Harrison in 2017 for the Division 3 championship.
“That’s the way it happens,” said Fairfield, who last week became the second-winningest coach in Muskegon High School history. “We won 13 games and made 13 other teams feel this way. This is the risk you take. You could lose early or not even make the playoffs and never experience this.”
Muskegon, which had won 40 of its past 41 games entering Saturday night, is the winningest program in state history with 859 victories, a total which also ranks seventh nationally.
PHOTOS: (Top) River Rouge quarterback Mareyohn Hrabowski rolls out and finds a receiver as Muskegon’s Billy Johnson Jr. (42) and Dwight McKinney close in. (Middle) River Rouge defenders including Rmontaye Caldwell (17) surround Big Reds quarterback Cameron Martinez.
Divine Child Delivers in Defining Moments to End 40-Year Championship Wait
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 28, 2025
DETROIT – Marcello Vitti knew his teammates had his back.
After fumbling near midfield with five minutes to play and his Dearborn Divine Child team clinging to a one-point lead, Vitti’s faith was rewarded as the Falcons forced a four-and-out from the Hudsonville Unity Christian offense.
Then he paid them back.
The senior running back rushed for 20 yards and a pair of first downs on the final drive, including the game clincher, as Divine Child picked up a 23-22 victory Friday in the Division 4 Football Final at Ford Field.
“I knew that I was going to have to make plays to win this game,” said Vitti, who rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown. “I fumbled at the end, and I knew that my team’s got my back. This team isn’t good because of me. We have a lot of guys that do their jobs and maybe a little bit extra. There’s so many good guys and good players, Division I, Division II players on our team that they make me that much better.”
The title is the third in program history for the Falcons, and first since 1985.
To win it, Divine Child (13-1) had to survive a back-and-forth battle with several plays that felt as if they could be game-defining in the moment.
Vitti’s fumble felt like it could have been that, as Unity Christian took over near midfield with an offense that had been rolling through the second half.
The Crusaders (12-2) had gained 205 yards on 35 plays on their first three second-half drives, scoring a pair of touchdowns and getting inside the 5 on the other.
But after the turnover, Divine Child’s defense stiffened up, holding Unity Christian to two yards and forcing a turnover on downs.
“I do want to say, congratulations to Unity Christian,” Divine Child coach Chris Laney said. “I think they replaced 18 starters going into this year, and (coach Craig Tibbe) does a tremendous job; that scheme gives you nightmares. But, I wasn’t the one that coined it, but defense wins championships, and we had a great defense this year. Great defensive staff. The kids bought in, they really checked their egos this year at the door and played within our scheme defensively.”
Divine Child had its lead thanks to a five-yard touchdown rush by Vitti and a 2-point conversion run on which he broke multiple tackles and pushed through several defenders at the goal line with the help of his teammates.
All of that was set up by a toe-tapping catch from sophomore Rayshawn Thomas on the sideline on a pass from fellow sophomore Drew Sheridan. Initially, it was called incomplete, but was overturned on replay.
“To be honest, I thought I had my foot down,” Thomas said. “Then I saw that I had my foot down (on the big screen) and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I caught it.’”
Unity Christian answered with a 10-play, 69-yard drive capped off with a two-yard touchdown run from Jared DeVries.
The Crusaders lined up to kick an extra point to tie the game, but faked it. The pass was intercepted by Divine Child’s Adam Garcia, preserving the one-point lead.
“Silly stuff, isn’t it?” Tibbe said. “I’d like a do-over, for sure. They defended it well. I look at myself, I’m kicking myself, asking, ‘Why did you get so cute?’ Just pound the ball. They hadn’t stopped these guys. These guys had just been tearing it up, then I go and do something like that. So, yeah, I would like a do-over there.”
Tibbe’s offense was strong throughout the game, gaining 332 yards on the ground and averaging five yards per carry. That was led by Lucas Elliott, who had 115 yards, and DeVries, who had 90 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including the game’s first score. Joshua Bremer added 60 yards, and had the fumble recovery in the fourth quarter.
Quarterback Justin Febus rushed for 48 yards and a touchdown, which, following a DeVries conversion run, gave his team a 16-15 lead early in the third quarter.
“I’m super proud of how we hung,” Tibbe said. “The fact that we were right there with this team says a lot about these guys. There’s probably a couple times in this game where it didn’t look great, but they didn’t quit. They kept chugging along.”
The offensive output was needed to keep up with Divine Child’s balanced attack, led by Vitti and Sheridan. The left-handed quarterback completed 13 of his first 15 passes in the game, and finished 19-of-25 for 241 yards and a pair of first-half touchdown throws to Antonio Solares-Vitti. He did it all with his non-throwing shoulder in a brace thanks to an injury suffered in the Regional Final against Harper Woods.
“My mindset, honestly, the past two weeks was do whatever it takes to win,” Sheridan said. “Harper Woods, we didn’t really throw the ball, I got injured. Last week, I made plays when they had to be made. Marcello made plays, Ray made plays, Giancarlo (Vitti), Antonio, they’ve all been making plays for me. So, for me, it’s been about rehabbing and getting better. Today, the mindset was, it was just a next-play mentality. If we don’t have a good play, we had to make up for it the next play. And the guys made plays for me today.”
Solares-Vitti had seven catches for 88 yards, including a big 13-yarder on the final drive. Thomas had four for 64.
Marcello Vitti led the defense with 14 tackles, while Andre Davis Jr. had 12 and Giancarlo Vitti had an interception.
Unity Christian’s defense was led by DeVries’ 10 tackles, while Febus and Jack Portenga each had eight.
PHOTOS (Top) Dearborn Divine Child’s Marcello Vitti (2) breaks through the line during Friday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) Antonio Solares-Vitti stretches across the goal line for a score. (Below) Divine Child quarterback Drew Sheridan tosses a pass.