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 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.”