Did you see that?
June 4, 2012
Saturday annually is the busiest high school sports day on the MHSAA calendar.
The Spring Finals match began with Girls and Boys Track and Field and Girls Tennis Finals at sites all over both peninsulas. There were Regionals for both boys and girls lacrosse, which finish up this weekend. And, of course, there were Districts galore for softball, baseball and girls soccer.
Here's our sampling of some of the highlights:
Girls Track and Field
19 records fall: It was quite day across the seven MHSAA Girls Track and Field Finals, with 19 records broken, and two athletes – Reed City’s Sami Michell and Norway’s Dani Gagne – winning four individual events apiece. (Second Half)
Coast to coast: The Grosse Pointe South 3,200 relay was responsible for one of two all-Finals records, and ran a time of 8:48.29 that also surpassed the national record for that event (but may or may not stand as the national record, depending on what other times were run and will be submitted after this spring.) (Detroit Free Press)
Boys Track and Field
LP filled with first-time champs: Lake Orion in Division 1, Auburn Hills Avondale in Division 2 and Lansing Catholic in Division 3 won their first MHSAA team championships. Also, nine records fell across the state. (Second Half)
Quite a comeback: Marquette trailed Gladstone by 27 points at the Upper Peninsula Division 1 Final with four events to run. But the Redmen outscored Gladstone 42-0 over those events to win their third straight championship. (Marquette Mining Journal)
Girls Tennis
Southeast sweep: Detroit suburban schools claimed all four MHSAA Lower Peninsula team championships – Grosse Pointe South in Division 1, Birmingham Seaholm in Division 2, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood in Division 3 and Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart in Division 4. (Second Half)
Freshman reigns: Utica freshman Davina Nguyen beat both the first and second seeds on her way to claiming the individual championship at No. 1 singles in Division 1. Nguyen was seeded fifth. (Macomb Daily)
Boys lacrosse
Cranbrook comes out on top: Cranbrook-Kingswood, ranked No. 3 in Division 2, emerged from a Regional that also included No. 4 Haslett/Williamston and No. 5 East Grand Rapids, beating the latter 8-4 in the Final. (Bloomfield Patch)
Girls lacrosse
EGR plays to top ranking, again: Rivals East Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids Catholic Central met in one of the multiple close Regional Finals, with the top-ranked Pioneers downing No. 2 GRCC one more time, 11-9. (Grand Rapids Press)
Baseball
It’s Holt, again: The Rams claimed their second championship in a week over rival Grand Ledge – both have been ranked in Division 1 this season. Two weeks ago, Holt split with the Comets to win the Capital Area Activities Conference Blue. Standout Justin Alleman gave up two hits and struck out 18 as Holt also won Saturday to claim a District title. (Lansing State Journal)
Softball
In the end, it’s Mattawan: The season-long battle for statewide Division 1 and Kalamazoo-area supremacy was decided in part at Saturday’s District at Portage Central. Reigning MHSAA champion Mattawan emerged as the winner from a field that included top-ranked Portage Central – which was upset by Kalamazoo Loy Norrix in a semifinal. (Kalamazoo Gazette)
Soccer
AAGR moves on: Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard, No. 8 in Division 3, shut out No. 7 Jackson Lumen Christi 3-0 in the Division 3 District final at Brooklyn Columbia Central (AnnArbor.com)
Last-Second Goal Sets Off Brother Rice Celebration
By
Tim Robinson
Special for MHSAA.com
March 27, 2021
PLYMOUTH – Second chances don't come along very often in hockey, especially in the final seconds of a hard-fought state championship game.
But Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice's Alec Hamady made good on his Saturday, jamming a rebound into the net for the game-winning goal with 6.7 seconds remaining to lift the Warriors to an eventual 2-1 victory at USA Hockey Arena.
The championship was the fourth in Division 2 and fifth overall for the Warriors (15-4).
For Byron Center (17-1), it was a sudden, heart-stopping end to a memorable season.
"There's no way to describe it," Hamady said of winning Saturday after his team's 2020 championship bid was thwarted when the season ended before the Semifinals due to the coronavirus.
The winning goal came as the Warriors were swarming in front of the Byron Center goal.
"I hit (the goalie’s) blocker, and the puck slid back to me," Hamady said. "I hit it backhanded, and it slid under his blocker."
The Bulldogs then pulled goalie Carson McKenzie for an extra attacker during the final seconds, but Brother Rice shot the puck into the Byron Center end with three seconds left and began celebrating.
The first two periods were a defensive battle, led by McKenzie and Brother Rice goaltender Drake Danoo.
The spell was broken when Brother Rice's Carson Moilanen scored on a rebound with 10:56 left in the third.
But the Bulldogs responded immediately when Logan Nickolaus skated in on Danoo, then passed to Mason Breit, who tied the game just 10 seconds after Moilanen's goal.
Brother Rice coach Kenny Chaput, who won his second Finals title, said his team's response was critical.
"We could have collapsed," he said. "We told the kids it was the same game as before and to keep playing. They did a good job of that."
Byron Center was playing in its first Final after it reached the 2020 Division 1 Semifinals before the season ended early.
"We have 10 seniors who built this program from nothing," Byron Center coach Taylor Keyworth said. "I couldn't be more proud of our team. No one's had it tougher than the teams that got cut short last year at the end of the season. We go into this season thinking we had a good team, only to get cut short in November. We finally get a chance to play and our guys stayed positive and stuck with it, banded together and had a fantastic season."
After the game, several Brother Rice players, including Hamady, skated to their Byron Center counterparts.
"I used to play with those kids on the TPH Top 80 team," Hamady said. "I became really close with them. I told them they played an outstanding game, they are amazing players and not to worry. It was a battle."
PHOTOS: Brother Rice celebrates after scoring the eventual winning goal with six seconds to play in Saturday's Division 2 Final at USA Hockey Arena. (Middle) Brother Rice's Alec Hamady and Byron Center's Ryan Pratt line up for a face off. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)