Week 6 Football Playoff Listing

September 26, 2012

Here is a list of Michigan High School Athletic Association football playing schools, displaying their win-loss records and playoff averages through the fifth week of the season. Schools on this list are in enrollment order. An asterisk (*) beside a record indicates that a team has eight or fewer games scheduled. A carrot (^) beside a school’s name indicates that a team is one win away from playoff qualification.

Those schools with 11-player teams with six or more wins playing nine-game schedules, or five or more wins playing eight games or fewer, will qualify for the MHSAA Football Playoffs beginning Oct. 26-27. Schools with 5-4, 4-3 or 4-4 records may qualify if the number of potential qualifiers by win total does not reach the 256 mark. Schools with six or more wins playing nine-game schedules or five or more wins playing eight games or fewer may be subtracted from the field based on playoff average if the number of potential qualifiers exceeds the 256 mark.

Once the 256 qualifying schools are determined, they will be divided by enrollment groups into eight equal divisions of 32 schools, and then drawn into regions of eight teams each and districts of four teams each.

Those schools with 8-player teams will be ranked by playoff average at season’s end, and the top 16 programs will be drawn into regions of eight teams each for the playoff in that division, which also begins Oct. 26-27.

To review a list of all football playoff schools, individual school playoff point details and to report errors, visit the Football page of the MHSAA Website.

The announcement of the qualifiers and first-round pairings for both the 11 and 8-player playoffs will take place at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 on the Selection Sunday Show on FOX Sports Detroit. The playoff qualifiers and pairings will be posted to the MHSAA Website following the Selection Sunday Show.

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11-Player Playoff Listing

1.

Utica Eisenhower

2772

3-2

62.000

2.

Sterling Heights Stevenson

2766

4-1

75.800

3.

Clarkston ^

2721

5-0

94.400

4.

Grand Blanc

2644

3-2

57.600

5.

Macomb Dakota

2608

4-1

80.600

6.

Lake Orion ^

2565

5-0

96.000

7.

Rockford

2526

3-2

57.400

8.

Troy

2502

3-2

57.400

9.

Clinton Township Chippewa Valley

2462

4-1

77.000

10.

Dearborn Fordson

2442

4-1

83.400

11.

Holland West Ottawa

2262

4-1

71.000

12.

Northville

2220

3-2

60.400

13.

Detroit Cass Tech

2200

4-1

77.400

14.

Canton

2166

3-2

51.200

15.

Monroe ^

2154

5-0

83.200

16.

Detroit Catholic Central

2060

3-2

47.800

17.

Plymouth

2050

4-1

71.200

18.

Salem

2039

4-1

75.600

19.

Livonia Stevenson

2005

4-1

77.200

20.

Holt

1992

3-2

57.200

21.

Hartland ^

1932

5-0

91.200

22.

Warren Mott ^

1879

5-0

86.400

23.

Livonia Churchill ^

1877

5-0

100.800

24.

Walled Lake Central

1857

3-2

52.200

25.

Macomb L'Anse Creuse North

1853

3-2

58.400

26.

Saline

1849

4-1

72.400

27.

Grandville

1846

3-2

53.600

28.

Flint Carman-Ainsworth ^

1772

5-0

88.000

29.

Grand Ledge

1743

4-1

70.600

30.

Rochester

1725

4-1

72.800

31.

Traverse City West

1720

4-1

72.200

32.

White Lake Lakeland

1700

4-1

72.400

33.

Harrison Township L'Anse Creuse

1680

3-2

Preview: New 8-Player Champion Shall Reign

November 18, 2014

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

A first-time MHSAA 8-player football champion will be crowned Friday at Greenville's Legacy Field, and for the first time that champion won’t hail from Michigan’s thumb region.

This season’s title will be decided by the Upper Peninsula’s Cedarville and Lawrence, from the southwest corner of the Lower Peninsula, after thumb teams Carsonville-Port Sanilac, Deckerville and Peck claimed the first three MHSAA titles for the 8-player format.

Tickets for the 8-player Final cost $8. Can’t make the trip? Watch the game live on FoxSportsDetroit.com, with live audio streaming on MHSAANetwork.com. The game will be broadcast on delay on Fox Sports Detroit at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and again on Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. The on-demand video will be available shortly after the game’s conclusion at MHSAA.TV.

Here’s a look at the finalists:

CEDARVILLE
Record:
 11-1
Coach: Scott Barr, seventh season (62-14) 
League finish: Second in Bridge Football Alliance
Championship history: Has never appeared in an MHSAA Final.
Best wins: 57-14 and 39-0 (Regional Semifinal) over Bellaire, 28-0 over Rapid River in Regional Final, 36-20 over Deckerville in Semifinal.
Players to watch: QB/CB Joey Duncan, 6-1/170, sr., (57-100, 1,002 yards, 19 TDs passing; 959 yards, 15 TDs rushing); FB/LB/K Mike Bailey, 5-11/190, sr. (1,281 yards, 11 TDs rushing); SE/CB Brad Causley, 6-3/180, sr. (677 yards, 11 TDs receiving, 2 kickoff return TDs, 4 punt return TDs); SE/LB Mike Haske, 6-1/180, jr.; C/DE Brett Masuga, 6-5/240, sr.; OG/DE Blake Melvin, 6-0/230, sr.
Outlook: Including 11-player football, Cedarville made the playoffs 10 straight seasons before breaking through to the Semifinals during this 11th consecutive run. But Duncan and Causley in particular have plenty of crunch time experience; they were the leading scores for Cedarville in its Class D Basketball Semifinal in March. The defense has been especially impressive, considering also in context of the high-scoring 8-player game; the Trojans didn’t give up a point until the fourth game of the regular season and then not in the playoffs until last week’s Semifinal. Causley is dangerous whenever he touches the ball – in addition to his 17 combined receiving and special teams touchdowns, he’s also brought back two interceptions for scores. Melvin, a two-way all-league selection in 2013, had 19 tackles in the Semifinal. Cedarville’s lone loss came Week 6 to rival Rapid River, 20-19, and the Trojans avenged with a 28-0 win in the Regional Final.  

LAWRENCE
Record:
 12-0
Coach: Cody Caswell, fifth season (24-27) 
League finish: Does not play in a conference.
Championship history: Class D 11-player champion 1997, Class D runner-up 1990.
Best wins: 52-20 over Deckerville, 40-19 and 50-14 (Regional Final) over Battle Creek St. Philip, 50-6 over Portland St. Patrick in Regional Semifinal, 66-40 over Peck in Semifinal.
Players to watch: QB/FS/K/P Derek Gribler, 5-9/170, sr. (114-180, 2,343 yards, 41 TDs passing; 1,601 yards, 21 TDs rushing); WR/CB Mike Cammire, 6-0/185, sr. (1,179 yards, 25 TDs receiving); RB/CB Hunter Coombs, 5-10/165, jr. (663 yards, 12 TDs rushing, 7 TDs receiving); WR/CB Jacob Alburtus, 5-8/145, jr. (442 yards, 6 TDs receiving); OL/LB Jimmy Phelps, 6-0/200, sr.; C/DL Jared Frank, 5-11/225, sr.
Outlook: Lawrence’s ascension to 8-player elite has been speedy; the Tigers were 0-9 and 1-8 in 11-player in 2011 and 2012, respectively, made the switch and advanced to the Semifinals in 8-player in 2013. Only St. Philip in their first meeting and reigning champion Peck in the Semifinal came within 32 of beating Lawrence this season. Gribler’s Semifinal performance was simply incredible – six passing touchdowns and three rushing – and Cammire has been the team’s top target during both seasons of 8-player. St. Philip in that first meeting also was the only team to keep Lawrence under 50 points. And don’t forget about the defense; the Tigers have five shutouts, and only Peck scored more than 20 points against them this fall.