Steady Stream of MHSAA Finals
May 29, 2013
Spring sports championships take center stage on the MHSAA.tv website the next three Saturdays, with more 80 hours of live streaming video beginning with Saturday’s coverage of running events from the MHSAA Track & Field Finals.
Coverage begins at 10 a.m. with the morning preliminaries in the Lower Peninsula and the 3,200-meter relay final in the Upper Peninsula. The U.P. action will run continuously without a break, while the L.P. coverage takes a break after the semifinals in the 100 and 200 dashes and the high hurdles, resuming at approximately 1 p.m. with the afternoon finals. The afternoon session could begin up to 30 minutes earlier based on the finish of the morning session.
A complete schedule for both peninsulas, and lists of qualifiers, can be found on the Track & Field Pages of the MHSAA website.
The track coverage will be followed on subsequent Saturdays with the Boys & Girls Lacrosse Finals on June 8, beginning at 2 p.m.; the Baseball-Softball Finals on June 15, beginning at 9:30 a.m.; and the Girls Soccer Finals on June 15, beginning at Noon.
All of the live video streams are free and will be archived on the MHSAA.tv Website. DVD’s will also be available at MHSAA.tv.
The MHSAA Network will also stream live audio of the Lacrosse Finals on June 8, the Girls Soccer Finals on June 15, and the Baseball-Softball Finals on June 15. In addition, the Network will also stream live audio of the Semifinal games in both baseball and softball on June 14 from Bailey Park in Battle Creek. All of the live audio streams, and on-demand archives, will be available at MHSAANetwork.com.
This week's MHSAA Classics on the MHSAA.tv website are the 1994 MHSAA Girls Soccer championship games. In the Class A finale, Troy got the game-winning goal from Jenny Long with 14:30 to play, as the Colts topped Brighton, 3-2. In the Class B-C-D finale, With less than four minutes to play, Theresa Syway headed in a pass from Darcey Rasch to give Madison Heights Bishop Foley a 1-0 win over Richland Gull Lake. Click the links to watch these games.
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.”