Highlight Reel: Girls & Boys Lacrosse Finals

June 6, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director

The boys and girls lacrosse seasons came to a close Saturday with four MHSAA Finals. 

Below are video highlights from each from MHSAA.tv broadcasts.

Division 1 Girls: Rockford 10, Bloomfield Hills Marian 9

Fisher Knocking On The Door Bloomfield Hills Marian gets on the board first on a pretty pass to Claire Fisher who is camped out on the doorstep of the goal. Rockford would eventually prevail in this Division 1 championship game, 10-9. 

Rams Rip Off Eight Straight Rockford responded to the first Marian goal with eight in a row. Here's the last goal in the bunch, when Alex Vandermolen takes the feed straight to the net.

Mustangs Bounce Back Bloomfield Hills Marian ended the Rockford run with three goals of its own later in the half. Michaella Renaud goes up high to score.

Vandermolen All The Way Off The Draw Bloomfield Hills Marian battled back to within two goals at 9-7, then Rockford's Alex Vandermolen won the ensuing draw and took it all the way in for a goal which proved to be the game winner.

Katie Comes Up Huge We don't often show goalie saves, but here's a big one late in the game by Rockford's Katie Elwell. Elwell stoned Bloomfield Hills Marian's Caroline Forester on a restart to preserve a two-goal lead. 

Forester Bounces Back Caroline Forester got another chance on a restart a couple of minutes later to score for Marian. It would be the last goal of the game.

Watch the entire game and order DVDs by Clicking Here.

Boys Division 1: Birmingham Brother Rice 16, Detroit Catholic Central 6

Rocco Rolls Detroit Catholic Central scored first against Birmingham Brother Rice in the Division 1 title game when Rocco Mularoni wheels from the back of the net to score.

Lockwood On The Run John Lockwood scoops up a long clearing pass in front of the bench and motors to the goal for Birmingham Brother Rice. Lockwood's goal was part of a six-goal run for the Warriors in the first quarter.

Baker Ends The Run Justin Baker of Detroit Catholic Central ended an eight-goal run by Brother Rice early in the second quarter with this tally. 

Pickens In Transition Late in the first half, Brother Rice got a pair of quick goals to expand its lead. The first came in transition when Scott Pickens is left free to shoot and score.

Macko Makes It Here's the second goal for Brother Rice in the closing moments of the Division 1 Final against Detroit Catholic Central. Morgan Macko takes the pass and blasts it into the upper corner of the net.

First Third Period Goal For Rice Brother Rice works the transition game to perfection off the Catholic Central shot, working the ball downfield quickly for another Morgan Macko goal. 

Watch the entire game and order DVDs by Clicking Here

Girls Division 2: East Grand Rapids 19, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood 6

Elder Statement Liza Elder of East Grand Rapids makes it look easy for her team's first goal of the game, taking a restart pass and scoring. 

Cranbrook Ties It Up Cranbrook Kingswood ties the game with East Grand Rapids at 2-2, with Ari Vespa taking the pass and driving to the goal.

Duca's Double Lindsay Duca of East Grand Rapids scores her second goal of the game for the Pioneers late in the first half against Cranbrook Kingswood. It proved to be the game winner in East's 19-6 Division 2 title game victory. 

Scane Scores Cranbrook Kingswood gets off to a nice start in the second half, winning the opening draw with Isabella Scane scoring on a nice pass from Grace Giampetroni. 

Lexie Hits The Shot Lexie Duca circles around the goal and scores in the second half for East Grand Rapids against Cranbrook Kingswood. 

Watch the entire game and order DVDs by Clicking Here

Boys Division 2: Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood 10, Okemos 9

Sherman Ties The Game Okemos ties the game late in the first quarter at 2-2 when Bennett Sherman slices through the defense of Cranbrook Kingswood for a goal. 

Aikens Boosts The Halftime Lead Cranbrook Kingswood gets a late first half goal from Greg Aikens to take a 5-2 lead at halftime over Okemos.

Chiefs Force The Turnover - Tie The Game Okemos tied the game with 80 seconds to go after forcing a Cranbrook Kingswood turnover. In transition, Monty Frankfort gets the ball to Charlie Ciuk, who scored.

Johnny On The Spot For The Win! Like something out of the movie “Hoosiers,” Johnny Wagner of Cranbrook Kingswood runs the clock down before moving in to score the game-winning goal against Okemos with 10 seconds to go.

Last Chance For Chiefs Okemos had one last chance with 7 seconds to go, but the shot went wide and Cranbrook Kingswood held on.

Watch the entire game and order DVDs by Clicking Here.

MHSAA.tv Live Postseason Views Approach 1 Million for 2020-21

By Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor

July 14, 2021

Live postseason events streamed on MHSAA.tv during the 2020-21 school year were viewed nearly 1 million times, with 15 events drawing more than 10,000 live views apiece. 

The final championship weekend of the Spring – featuring Girls Soccer Finals and Baseball and Softball Semifinals & Finals, all across four divisions June 17-19 at Michigan State University – saw nearly 70,000 live views on MHSAA.tv despite record attendance of those events at Old College Field. 

The Division 2 Softball championship game – which ended with Owosso claiming its first Finals title in any sport, drew a weekend-high 5,677 live views on the network. The previous weekend, the Division 1 Girls Lacrosse Final won by Rockford on June 12 led the way with 4,284 live views.

The total number of live postseason views on MHSAA.tv for 2020-21 was 962,371. The most-viewed live tournament events were the Individual and Team Wrestling Finals, which with all rounds over all four divisions combined drew 244,044 live views. Among individual games broadcast solely by MHSAA.tv, the Division 3 Boys Basketball Semifinal matching Iron Mountain and Schoolcraft (15,393 live views) and the Division 1 Volleyball Semifinal featuring Novi and Lowell (13,484) ranked among the most watched.

MHSAA.tv is a partner of the NFHS Network. Postseason events streamed on MHSAA.tv included most sports’ Finals, and Semifinals and Quarterfinals for some – especially sports where multiple concluding rounds were hosted by the same tournament site.

MHSAA.tv also ranked second among NFHS Network contributing states with 18,973 live events (postseason and regular-season combined) streamed during the 2020-21 school year. That total of nearly 19,000 live postseason events was an increase from 7,710 events streamed live during 2019-20 and 3,900 during 2018-19, and placed Michigan behind only Illinois.

The School Broadcast Program is responsible for nearly all production of regular-season events. Having now concluded its 13th year, the SBP gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics. Rockford – one of the state’s largest schools with nearly 2,500 students – broadcast 242 events, drawing an SBP-high 74,437 live views and 89,604 total with on-demand replays included. Much smaller Pewamo-Westphalia, a school of 300 students, received the second-most views of SBP members in 2020-21 with 56,009 including live and on-demand. Marquette, Lake Orion, Cedar Springs, Montrose and McBain also were among top SBP providers.

In addition to bringing local events on air nationally, the School Broadcast Program gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions. NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $10.99 per month. Subscribers receive access to all live and on-demand video from across the country. School Broadcast Program participants receive a portion of every subscription sold by a school to benefit its program.

Broadcasts from the majority of Michigan schools – especially those lacking the ability to staff events for production – are streamed using a Pixellot automated camera. Michigan schools have 774 Pixellots in service, third-most in the country behind only Texas and California. Most Michigan schools have one camera at an outdoor stadium and a second at the main indoor gymnasium.

A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA Website.