High School Football Notes: The stories behind the final scores
It was a pedestrian game by his high standards.
Flat Rock senior Brian Booms carried 14 times for 92 yards and 2 touchdowns in Friday’s 42-0 Division 5 state playoff win over Milan. He added 5 tackles and a pass breakup on defense.
Most players would be thrilled with those numbers.
But Booms came in averaging 135.1 yards, 2.6 touchdowns and 8.2 tackles per game.
Even though Booms slid into more of a supporting role this time, he still made perhaps the biggest play of the game and broke another school record.
Playoff summaries: Monroe County Region football summaries for Week 1 of playoffs
Booms scored on a pair of short runs in the first quarter, but Flat Rock’s offense stalled a bit after that.
The Rams were nursing a 14-0 lead in the closing minutes of the first half. Milan missed a field goal, giving the ball back to Flat Rock on its own 20-yard line.
A bad snap resulted in a 4-yard loss, then an incomplete pass had the Rams facing a third-and-14.
Flat Rock coach Buck Reaume was ready to punt the ball away and get into the locker room at halftime to make adjustments.
Booms changed those plans.
He took the ball on a play designed to go right but found the hole plugged. He cut back and rambled 29 yards for a first down at the Flat Rock 43.
Friday's roundup: SMCC, Carlson advance to second round, Ida falls
“He reversed field and flipped the game,” Reaume said. “That was a huge play.”
On the next snap, quarterback Graham Junge found Adam Szalay running alone down the right sideline and got him the ball for a 57-yard touchdown pass.
Flat Rock led 21-0 at the half and Junge threw three more touchdown passes in the third quarter.
As the Rams tried to run out the clock in the fourth quarter, Booms picked up another school record.
Efficient offense: Airport scores quickly and often in opening-round playoff rout
He pushed his season rushing total to 1,308 yards, eclipsing the school record of 1,296 set by Casey Steffen in 2002.
Steffen played before Reaume arrived in Flat Rock, but the coach has heard many stories about the state champion wrestler who also excelled in football and baseball.
“He was a bad man,” Reaume said.
Champs flex muscle: Whiteford begins defense with overpowering win over Sand Creek
Airport breaks record
Airport broke the school record for most points in a season Friday night.
The 2023 Jets have scored 442 points this season, topping 40 points in a game seven times and passing the 50-point mark three times, including the 70 points they scored against Detroit East English in a 70-12 victory in the opening round of the Division 4 state playoffs.
Entering Friday’s contest the Jets needed just 16 points to top the previous record of 388 points. A Jack Mills defensive fumble recovery for a touchdown gave this year’s team the record.
“Most of the guys on my staff have played on football teams here that were pretty successful,” Airport coach Jim Duffy said. “As we started scoring we took a look at it to see where we were in comparison to some of those other teams.
“It’s a tribute to our kids and how hard they work and how efficient they are when we have the ball.”
The 70 points in a game also set a school record, surpassing the previous mark of 64 against Ypsilanti Lincoln during the 2006 season.
Carlson sophomores shine
Gibraltar Carlson was delighted to get Kenny McCurdy back in the lineup Friday night.
The sophomore had missed the past two games with an injury.
He returned for Friday’s playoff-opening 42-35 win against Livonia Churchill and delivered 10 tackles, 3 sacks and 2 quarterback hurries.
“He had back-to-back sacks (in the fourth quarter) on third and fourth down,” Carlson coach Jason Gendron said. “Those were huge plays.”
McCurdy is part of a very young Carlson defense.
Fellow sophomores Jayden Alen, Jacob Collins, Teegan Nagy, J.J Tarris and Izaiah Wright all are major contributors on defense.
“These sophomores have a lot of games under their belts,” Gendron said. “No matter what grade they are, when we put them on the field, we expect them to perform at a high level.”
Region kicks boot Loyola again
Detroit Loyola has now been victimized twice in playoff games by game-winning field goals in games in Monroe County
St. Mary Catholic Central beat the Bulldogs 10-7 Friday when Drew Harris kicked the game-winning field goal in the Division 7 playoffs. Harris’ boot came from 21 yards out.
In 2010, Summerfield’s Chase Blake kicked a 24-yard field goal in overtime to lift his team to a 25-22 win over Loyola in a Division 7 playoff game.
Ida has lots of returners
Ida’s season ended Friday night with a 14-3 loss to Ovid Elsie in the opening round of the Division 6 state playoffs.
That was the lowest point total for the Blue Streaks since they were shut out by Hudson on Oct. 7 of 2011.
“That was probably our worst blocking night all season,” coach Jeff Potter said.
But it looks like brighter days are ahead for the Blue Streaks, who started mainly underclassmen this season.
Ida had just two senior starters on offense and four on defense.
“We’ve got a good group coming back,” Potter said.
Left tackle Chris Galloway and left guard Lucas Moore were the only senior starters on offense.
“We were missing a really good kid (Jeremiah Hoffman) who tore his ACL in the first week of the season,” Potter said. “I thought we got better as the year went on.”
Milan ‘in the middle’
Inexperience was a problem for Milan’s football team this season.
It could be an issue again next year.
The Big Reds lose 11 seniors to graduation and were not able to get some key players for 2024 the playing time they needed this fall.
“We have a real nice junior group, unfortunately four of those dudes got injured early in the year and we never had them,” coach Jesse Hoskins said.
So, there will be questions looming over the program during the offseason.
“We’re kind of in the middle,” Hoskins said. “We return some players who are solid, but they never got game experience.”
BEST OF PLAYOFFS WEEK 1
RUSHING YARDS
Izaiah Wright, Carlson 157
Brett Moore, Airport 128
Joe Krolak, Carlson 125
William Gaskell V, Milan 115
Hunter DeBarr, Whiteford 104
PASSING YARDS
Graham Junge, Flat Rock 235
Joe Krolak, Carlson 140
William Gaskell V, Milan 89
Cooper Nye, Airport 83
Ryin Ruddy, Whiteford 67
RECEIVING YARDS
Adam Szalay, Flat Rock 120
Landon Vida, Carlson 73
Kolby Masserant, Whiteford 59
Hunter DeBarr, Whiteford 56
Jaxen Wourman, Milan 54
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: High School Football Notes: The stories behind the final scores
