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 7 Final: Blue Streak
November 29, 2011
DETROIT – Only a few drives into the MHSAA Division 7 Final, Bennett Lewis came to Saginaw Nouvel coach Mike Boyd with a request.
Give me the ball until Pewamo-Westphalia stops me.
Never happened. The senior running back ran for five touchdowns, and his Panthers scored 56 points – both to set or tie MHSAA Finals records.
And both were accomplished over just two quarters as Nouvel cruised to a 56-26 win and its third football championship.
“I can’t say enough how proud I am of my teammates, especially the offensive line. We’ve been playing together a long time and they really executed in the first half,” Lewis said. “Their defense is one of the defenses we can run our offense against really well. We just executed and made big plays. ”
This championship goes with Nouvel’s back-to-back Division 6 titles in 2006 and 2007, and the Panthers finished 13-0 to match their perfect record in 2006. Pewamo-Westphalia made its first appearance in an MHSAA Football Final and finished 13-1.
The Panthers had scored 63 and 62 points, respectively, during the first two rounds of the postseason. And as Boyd said after, he had an offense built for speedy strikes – especially at an inside venue like Ford Field.
Nouvel blew past the previous MHSAA Finals record of 42 points in one half set by both Farmington Hills Harrison in 2000 and Jackson Lumen Christi in 2001.
“Maybe our third drive, Bennett came off the field and came right up to me and said, ‘I want the football. Until they stop me, give me the football,’” Nouvel coach Mike Boyd said. “I said, ‘Absolutely.’
“Great competitors, great leaders. Just a great group.”
Lewis, the Associated Press’ Division 7-8 Player of the Year this fall, ran 15 times for 200 yards – all in the first half – to push his season rushing total to 2,077. The five touchdowns gave him 36 rushing for the fall. Senior quarterback Joseph Buchalski was 7 for 10 passing for 196 yards and three scores. He also ran five times for 50 yards – again, all in the first half.
“That’s the best team I’ve ever played. The fastest. (And) I don’t hesitate to say Bennett Lewis is the best player I’ve ever played,” P-W senior quarterback/cornerback Justin Thelen said. “We fought, and I’m proud of that. But they had us on our heels right away.”
Thelen was 10 for 21 passing for 176 yards and two touchdowns, and senior Alex Thelen ran 16 times for 77 yards and a score. It was a tough end to a courageous run by the Pirates, who suffered through the death of classmate and baseball teammate Brendon Nurenberg in a car crash earlier this month, but battled through with his memory an additional motivator.
“He was just a fun guy. The guys loved being around him. And the guys rallied around that,” P-W coach Brad Weber said. “They did it for Brendon for the most part. They knew he would have fun, so they did too.”