See Finals Live on MHSAA.TV and Fox
November 19, 2013
It’s a huge streaming weekend for MHSAA tournaments, with more than 70 hours of live audio and video coverage of three sports on the MHSAA Network and FOX Sports Detroit.
The MHSAA.TV website will host live video of the Girls Volleyball Semifinals and Finals, and the Finals of the Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Championships, on a subscription basis. A pass can be purchased for $14.95 to watch all three days of volleyball plus the swimming, or a daily pass is available at $9.95. These events will be available for free on-demand viewing beginning Nov. 27 at MHSAA.TV.
Prep Zone: It’s the last weekend of Prep Zone coverage on the FoxSportsDetroit.com website, with free live coverage of the 8-Player Football Final and four Semifinal games in the 11-Player Football Playoffs. All of these events will be archived at MHSAA.TV.
On Friday, the championship game of the 8-Player Football Playoffs between Peck and Rapid River at Legacy Field in Greenville will take place at 7 p.m., with live streaming video on FoxSportsDetroit.com, and live audio streaming on MHSAANetwork.com. Because of conflicts with collegiate and professional games, the game will be on cable on a delayed basis. It will be shown on FOX Sports Detroit at 9 a.m. Saturday and again on Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. The on-demand video archive will be available shortly after the game’s conclusion at MHSAA.TV.
Below are Saturday's 11-player Prep Zone games. Three kick off at 1 p.m. and Ithaca/Montrose begins at 2 p.m.
- Detroit Catholic Central (10-2) vs. Detroit Cass Tech (12-0) at Troy Athens High School
- Birmingham Brother Rice (12-0) vs. Detroit Martin Luther King (10-1) at Wayne State University
- Ithaca (12-0) vs. Montrose (12-0) at Midland High School
- Muskegon Catholic Central (10-2) vs. New Lothrop (12-0) at Greenville High School
Volleyball Finals: Coverage runs Thursday through Saturday, and free audio of the games is available at MHSAANetwork.com. Here’s the complete schedule with Tuesday Quarterfinal pairings shown:
Thursday – Nov. 21
Class D Semifinals
2 p.m. – Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart/Leland winner vs. Waterford Our Lady/Marine City Cardinal Mooney winner
3:45 p.m. – Brimley/Crystal Falls Forest Park winner vs. Battle Creek St. Philip/Hillsdale Academy winner
Class A Semifinals
5:30 p.m. – Northville/Traverse City West winner vs. Haslett/East Grand Rapids winner
7:15 p.m. – Temperance Bedford/Livonia Stevenson winner vs. Romeo/Bloomfield Hills Marian winner
Friday – Nov. 22
Class C Semifinals
2 p.m. – Unionville-Sebewaing/Grand Rapids Covenant Christian winner vs. Schoolcraft/Mendon winner
3:45 p.m. – Ottawa Lake Whiteford/Auburn Hills Oakland Christian winner vs. Beal City/Calumet winner
Class B Semifinals
5:30 p.m. – Berrien Springs/Grand Rapids South Christian winner vs. Saginaw Swan Valley/Cadillac winner
7:15 p.m. – Pontiac Notre Dame Prep/North Branch winner vs. Monroe St. Mary /Wayland winner
Saturday – Nov. 23
Class D Final – 10 a.m.
Class C Final – Noon
Class A Final – 2 p.m.
Class B Final – 4 p.m.
Swimming & Diving Finals: On Saturday, MHSAA.TV will be home of live streaming video of the Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals beginning at Noon. The Division 1 Finals will take place at Oakland University; the Division 2 Finals are at Eastern Michigan University and the Holland Aquatics Center will be hosting the Division 3 event.
Last week's action: A number of football Regional Finals and a pair of volleyball Regional games were added oto MHSAA.TV by our partners with the School Broadcast Program:
- Montrose vs. Madison Heights Madison football
- St. Ignace vs. Beal City football
- Melvindale vs. St. Clair football
- Saginaw Swan Valley vs. Lansing Sexton football
- Battle Creek Pennfield vs. Grand Rapids South Christian football
- Comstock Park vs. Cadillac football
- Battle Creek Harper Creek vs. Plainwell volleyball
- Berrien Springs vs. Three Rivers volleyball
MHSAA Perspective: John Johnson spotlights the writings of a former coach and current athletic director who adjusted his perspective about officials by calling his own 30-second timeout - 30-Second Timeout
Division 5 Final: Powers Up
December 20, 2011
DETROIT – The final night of September was cold, wet and especially disappointing for Flint Powers Catholic.
Chargers coach Bob Buckel sensed that frustration as the bus rolled to to a stop after 6-0 loss and then silent ride home from Davison. Powers already was 2-3 heading into that game and needing to win out to guarantee a playoff spot. Now at 2-4, perfection the rest of the way was absolutely necessary to catch even the slimmest of shots at a postseason berth.
The last eight games became unofficial playoff games for the Chargers. And they won them all.
Unranked and the underdog, Powers downed No. 1 Lansing Catholic in record-setting fashion Saturday, 56-26 to claim the MHSAA Division 5 championship at Ford Field.
“We knew that we had to win out. Nobody shied to that competition,” Powers senior lineman Danny O’Brien said. “We really got after it.”
And especially Saturday. The 56 points tied Saginaw Nouvel’s from the Division 7 Final earlier in the day as the new MHSAA Finals record. They also were the most points Powers has ever scored, beginning with its first season in 1970.
Lansing Catholic senior quarterback Cooper Rush was named Division 5-6 Player of the Year earlier this week by The Associated Press, and his name can be found all over the MHSAA record book. He added 291 yards and three touchdowns passing, and another score rushing to his impressive three-year varsity career totals.
But Saturday it was Powers junior quarterback Garrett Pougnet who played his name into history.
Rewind 12 weeks ago. Lansing Catholic (13-1) beat Powers 37-17. Pougnet struggled, completing just 6 of 20 passes and running for 67 yards and a score.
His performance in the Final was one of the many differences in the rematch. This time, Pougnet was 12 of 15 passing for 258 yards and four touchdowns, and also ran 14 times for 159 yards and two scores. His 413 yards of total offense were second in MHSAA Finals history and just 13 off the record.
Buckel listed the other differences this time around: Heading into the teams’ Sept. 2 meeting, Powers (10-4) was coming off a big loss to Saginaw Nouvel and two players were out with concussions. Two more defensive backs were still playing on the junior varsity. And, of course, he used a few different formations in the rematch.
“I just said, when we get the ball, we’re going to be very aggressive,” Buckel said. “We had a play we put in this week called Ford Field. It didn’t work either time. But we just wanted to be aggressive because we really thought we might need to score 50 points to beat them, because nobody has slowed them down.”
Rush finished this season with 4,005 passing yards, good for second in the MHSAA record book for one season, and 48 passing touchdowns, which tops that list. This time, senior Connor Bartlett was the main recipient with 11 catches for 189 yards and two scores. Senior Matt Macksood also caught a touchdown pass, and finished this season with 95 catches (second for one season) for 1,590 yards (fifth) and 22 touchdowns (tied for second).
“We moved the ball pretty good when we had it on offense. We just didn’t have it. I think they scored just about every time they had the ball,” Lansing Catholic coach Jim Ahern said. “The big difference in the games where we came back – we came back from 21 down against Portland, which was a very good football team – was we got some defensive stops. We just didn’t get them tonight.”