Southfield A&T, Marshall End Belleville's 2-Year Reign with 1st Finals Championship
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 27, 2023
DETROIT – Isaiah Marshall took a second Sunday night to think about the interception he’d just thrown that led to Belleville taking a late lead in the Division 1 Football Final.
But just a second.
When Marshall and his Southfield Arts & Technology teammates took the field down four points with 4 minutes, 47 seconds remaining at Ford Field, the interception wasn’t on his mind. Neither was the raucous Belleville crowd that had awoken on the home side of the stadium.
He wasn’t thinking about stopping a three-peat or snapping a 38-game Belleville win streak. He wasn’t thinking about the talk he’d heard during the week leading up to the game, that his team was on its way to getting blown out like so many of those previous 38 opponents.
All Marshall was focused on was doing his job.
“As soon as I threw the pick, I knew what I had to do differently,” Marshall said. “I just wasn’t thinking about that last play. As soon as I threw the pick, I just thought about it on the bench, then as soon as I came out, it wasn’t on my mind at all. I just knew I had to go down the field and score.”
Like he had all night, Marshall came through when the Warriors needed him most, leading his team on a 69-yard scoring drive, finishing the final 11 with his legs for the go-ahead score in Southfield A&T’s 36-32 victory against Belleville.
His defense finished the rest, as Dorian Freeman intercepted a pass during the final seconds, sealing the first Finals title for Southfield.
“It’s special,” A&T coach Aaron Marshall said. “It’s special for the community. It’s a long time coming. All week I’ve been getting calls from guys I’ve never met just congratulating the boys on making it. We had never even made it to the championship game, let alone won one. It’s real big for the community. I’m really proud.”
To do it, the Warriors needed to overcome the team that has dominated Division 1 for the past three seasons in Belleville (13-1). The Tigers had won the past two Division 1 Finals, and hadn’t dropped a game since Sept. 10, 2021.
They entered Sunday having outscored opponents this fall by an average of 49-7. They also featured the nation’s No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2025 in quarterback Bryce Underwood.
But Sunday, none of that mattered to Marshall and the Warriors (13-1). Well, except maybe the last part.
“Just a little bit,” Marshall said when asked if he was out to prove he was the state’s top quarterback. “I do think I’m the best player in the state. Me proving that tonight, and showing what I can do on the big stage shows that, I think.”
He finished the night completing 20 of 31 passes for 281 yards with two touchdowns, as well as two interceptions. He also rushed for 134 yards and the go-ahead score, as well as the two-point conversion that put his team up four.
“He came out there and played like I thought he was going to play,” said Belleville star linebacker and running back Jeremiah Beasley, who has committed to Michigan. “He’s a real tough player. Since we were little, he’s always been tough. He came out there and played with all his heart, and they came out on top.”
Underwood certainly had his moments, finishing 11 for 24 for 164 yards and a touchdown to go along with one interception. He also had five rushes for 39 yards.
And A&T was certainly cognizant of what Underwood could do, especially when he got the ball back with 47 seconds to play and a chance to take the lead. But by playing coverage, they didn’t allow the Tigers to push the ball down the field, and eventually pressure from senior defensive tackle Reggie Gardner forced the throw that Freeman intercepted to clinch the game.
“My coaches just told me to spy the quarterback, and whatever he did, I would go,” Freeman said. “Then it was just right in my zone.”
A&T led for most of the game, getting a pair of rushing touchdowns from Mathias Davis during the first half, the second score giving them a 12-7 lead.
After a 31-yard field goal from Belleville’s Brayden Lane made the score 12-10, Marshall engineered an 80-yard drive over the final three minutes of the second quarter to give his team a 10-point lead at the half. He accounted for 79 of the 80 yards with either his legs or his arm, finishing it off with a 13-yard TD pass to Tashi Braceful with 13 seconds remaining in the half. Braceful finished the night with 10 catches for 152 yards.
The Warriors nearly added to that halftime lead, as well, recovering a squib kick at the Belleville 43. Marshall hit Tyjuan Esper for a 38-yard gain on the next play, but he was tackled as the first-half clock expired.
Early in the third quarter, Marshall and the Warriors did stretch their lead when he threw a 19-yard TD pass to Xavi Bowman on a 4th-and-14. DaMario Quarles’ conversion run put them up 28-10 with 3:39 to play in the third quarter.
Of course, Belleville didn’t go away.
The Tigers responded immediately with a 45-yard TD pass from Underwood to Jalen Johnson. And after stopping Marshall on a 4th-and-2 run near midfield, they needed just three plays and 30 seconds to pull within three points of the lead as Beasley scored on a 15-yard run.
On the next A&T possession, Marquis Peoples put Belleville right back in business with an interception that he returned to the 35-yard line. Beasley again cashed in three plays later, with a 22-yard TD run that gave Belleville a 33-27 lead with 4:47 remaining.
Beasley finished the night with 106 yards and the two touchdowns on the ground.
“He’s a senior ball player; he did exactly what he was supposed to do,” Belleville coach Calvin Norman said of Beasley. “He came through in the clutch. When he ran the ball, he did his thing. I have nothing but love for the young man.”
Belleville cornerback Adrian Walker made one of the more remarkable plays of the weekend late in the first quarter, intercepting a Marshall pass deep in A&T territory.
Walker got both hands on the pass, deflecting it up and toward himself as he was spinning up the field. The ball went over his head and Walker reached behind his back to make the catch at the A&T 26.
Four plays later, Belleville was on the board with a 16-yard Colbey Reed touchdown run, and the Tigers led 7-6.
PHOTOS (Top) Southfield A&T quarterback Isaiah Marshall stretches for the game-winning touchdown during Sunday’s Division 1 Final. (Middle) The Warriors ended the night by raising their first championship trophy. (Below) Belleville’s Adrian Walker (2) makes a stunning behind-the-back interception. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
St. Patrick Immediately Sets Tone On Way to Claiming 1st Title Since 1992
By
Jason Juno
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2025
MARQUETTE — Portland St. Patrick has been no stranger to the MHSAA Finals since moving to 8-player football, but the Shamrocks had come up short of a title in three appearances since 2017.
They were back in the Division 2 championship game Saturday, and again facing a team from the Upper Peninsula, just like the other three times. But this time, St. Patrick made it clear from the opening kick it had no intention of going back below the Mackinac Bridge without the championship trophy.
The Shamrocks rode the momentum from a fast start and blanked Felch North Dickinson 53-0 at the Superior Dome.
“It means a lot,” St. Patrick senior back Brady Leonard said with the trophy in his hand. “Having a couple classes before us come here and not be able to finish the job, it was not just for our team, but it was for everyone that came and wasn’t able to finish it.”
Aiden Fandel set the tone when he took the opening kick to the Nordics’ 3-yard line. Jerryd Scheurer ran three yards on the first play from scrimmage, and Leonard ran in the conversion for an 8-0 lead just 20 seconds into the game.
“It was huge, just to flip the field position right away was a big deal,” St. Patrick coach Patrick Russman said.
The Shamrocks scored two more times during the first quarter, taking advantage of excellent field position.
St. Patrick’s Tyler Thelen blocked a punt to set up its next score. The Shamrocks took over at the North Dickinson 9, and Charlie Thelen caught a four-yard pass from Scheurer on the second play of the drive for a 14-0 lead.
The Nordics went for it on fourth-and-1 at their own 29 on the ensuing possession, but they were stuffed for no gain, giving St. Patrick the ball not far from the red zone.
Leonard ran eight yards for the touchdown and a 20-0 lead with 5:34 still left in the first quarter.
What a start.
"It was very important," Leonard said. "We knew if we came off hot, we knew that we'd be able to punch them in the mouth and we'd get off to the start that we normally have.”
The Shamrocks scored two more times in the first half, both on runs by Hudson King, who led with 120 yards on 10 carries. His 30-yarder came just seven seconds into the second quarter, and his 21-yard rush gave them a 33-0 lead that held until halftime.
The Nordics drove into St. Patrick territory twice in the period. The first stalled at the 44 when the game was still within reach at 26-0. The second got all the way to the 24, but incomplete passes on third and fourth downs gave St. Patrick the ball back with four seconds on the first-half clock.
North Dickinson just couldn’t overcome that start, or the talent level of the Shamrocks.
“We’ve been punched in the mouth before, but they’re way better,” Nordics coach Mike Christian said. “They were just so much better than us today. They’re bigger, faster, stronger. We just couldn’t get anything going.”
The second half proved to be more of the same. St. Patrick reached the end zone three more times, on short runs by Caleb Pline and two players listed as linemen, Logan Krieger and Nick Pung.
St. Patrick finished a perfect 13-0, and went unbeaten even with a tough schedule. Russman said the Shamrocks started off with tough Mid-State Activities Conference foes Merrill and Morrice. They ended the regular season with a win over eventual Division 1 runner-up Blanchard Montabella. Their playoff run included wins over Mendon, ranked No. 1 in the final media poll of the season, and last year’s Division 1 champion, Deckerville.
“We didn’t have any time to not be ready this year,” Russman said. “We’ve had a pretty good run of some very quality football teams throughout the stretch of the year. They didn’t give us any rest, so the kids did a good job of getting ready each week. Sometimes you slip, and these guys didn’t slip.”
He credited the team’s chemistry for the special season. The practices were superb all year. And they of course had some really good players.
“Our line has been working hard and they just continued to grind it out today, and our backs finished plays on the offensive end,” Russman said. “We’ve been trying to get a faster and faster defense each week, and I think they’ve really done that and accepted that challenge.”
St. Patrick’s last Finals win came when it was playing 11-player football in 1992, in Class D. North Dickinson was seeking its first championship but had to settle for its second runner-up finish (11-player, Class D, 1998).
The Nordics’ 17-game winning streak came to an end. They finished at 12-1 this year after winning their final five games last season.
North Dickinson canceled its varsity season in 2023, announcing at the time that it would play a JV schedule with only four upperclassmen on the roster. Two years later, the Nordics made it to the final game.
“My seniors would have been sophomores then,” Christian said. “I didn’t want to throw them into that right away. This is kind of what we were aiming for when we did that.”
It all worked out. Missing the playoffs last year proved to be a good motivator as well.
“They really put the extra work in,” he said. “They’re such great kids, and they worked their tails off all summer and I’m just so proud of them.”
PHOTOS (Top) Portland St. Patrick players celebrate a touchdown Saturday at Superior Dome. (Middle) North Dickinson quarterback Brady Jungwirth (15) works to pull away from a tackler. (Below) The Shamrocks’ Charlie Thelen (12) goes high to pull in a pass. (Click for more from Cara Kamps.)