High School Football Notes: The stories behind the final scores
“Be comfortable being uncomfortable.”
Airport coach Jim Duffy has made that one of the mantras for his football team. He believes that is a formula for winning on the field and in life.
“It’s not just about football. It's about growing up and becoming adults,” Duffy said. “That’s something we don’t talk enough about.”
Duffy talks to his team about this every year at his preseason parents meeting.
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“Our players are not allowed to text me during the season,” the coach said. “They have to call me. Most of the time it’s to tell me they are going to miss something or going to be late for something. I’ll never yell at them about something about like that. I’m not going to say, ‘You can’t go to grandma’s birthday party.’ But they have to tell me.
"I always get a lot of nods from the dads when I say this at our parents' meeting, but how many kids today have ever had to call the land line and have the dad answer and ask for permission to talk to his daughter? Technology today circumvents a lot of things.”
Duffy considers conquering those uncomfortable moments vital to growing up.
“Our kids are shielded these days,” he said. “We used to talk about helicopter parents. Now we have bulldozer parents who try to knock everything out of the way. You become an adult by handling adversity. If the worst thing that ever happens to you is losing a football game, you’ve lived a pretty blessed life.”
Flat Rock records fall
Flat Rock’s school record book is going to need some major revisions after this season.
Two weeks ago Brian Booms set a new school standard with five rushing touchdowns against Grosse Ile.
The marks for passing and receiving touchdowns in a game fell Friday night against Jefferson as Graham Junge threw for six TDs, including four to Rocco Breslin.
Wiped off the books were previous records of five TD tosses by Ravion Davis and three scoring receptions by Caron Clayton. Both were set during a wild 57-43 loss to Milan in 2019.
“I didn’t even realize it,” Flat Rock coach Buck Reaume said of Junge’s record. “We scored on our first drive of the second half and someone told me. I just said, ‘Wow.’”
Breslin scored his first touchdown of the season last week.
“The best thing is that this is a very unselfish group,” Reaume said. “That’s hard in today’s sports where everybody wants the numbers. Everyone on this team is happy for each other.”
Reaume says one of the unsung heroes for the Rams is junior defensive lineman Aiden Zirkle.
“He’s a big kid who had never played football before,” Reaume said. “We got him to come out last year, but he was super raw. He played on the JV team. He got bigger and stronger over the summer and might be our best defensive lineman. It’s so awesome to see.”
SMCC juggles quarterbacks
St. Mary Catholic Central rotated junior Ian Foster and sophomore Brady Hines at quarterback during Friday’s 41-23 loss to Airport. Both QBs threw a touchdown pass.
“Both bring a lot to the table and both are very good athletes,” SMCC coach Adam Kipf said. “It’s tough having one on the sideline.”
The Falcons are experimenting with using both at the same time. Hines already has gotten some time at running back, and Kipf said he wants to try Foster there as well.
New man on the mic
There is a new man on the mic for Monroe High's home football games.
Tim Toth, who has served as the public address announcer at Bill Bunkleman field for the since 2005, has retired.
Toth, a 1979 Monroe High graduate, earned a teaching degree from Michigan State and returned to his alma mater to serve as a special education teacher from 1983 until he retired from teaching in 2021.
Toth debuted as an announcer for the Monroe synchronized swim team in 1984. He began announcing for softball games in 1993 and continued there until 2019.
Toth took over football announcing duties from Wayne Rumple in 2005. He stepped aside during the 2020 pandemic-shortened season but returned for two more years after that.
Taking the mic is Russell Columbus, a Monroe High School science teacher of over 20 years who had served as Toth's spotter in the football press box since 2007.
Marauders defenders shine
Gibraltar Carlson’s offense got most of the attention in Friday night’s 55-7 win over Wyandotte Roosevelt.
It was well-deserved after the Marauders scored 41 points in the first quarter.
But Carlson also had some defensive highlights.
Sophomore linebacker Kenny McCurdy and senior safety Jackson Zachary combined to make it a long night for Wyandotte receiver Chase Cline.
“He’s a Division 1 recruit going to Central Michigan,” Carlson coach Jason Gendron said. “He got loose on us for a long touchdown right before halftime, but they bracketed him and shut him down most of the night.”
Whiteford kicker kicks in
Whiteford box score had something different in it Friday night.
Hunter DeBarr kicked three extra points, making all three of his attempts. Those were Whiteford’s first kicking extra points since the 2018 playoffs, when current assistant coach Nate Bauman made one.
“He has been kicking well in practice,” Whiteford coach Todd Thieken said. “I was thinking tonight if the situation came up I was going to let him try a field goal. He’s been making them from 40 yards out in practice.”
Instead, after the Bobcats missed their first two two-point conversion attempts, Thieken sent out DeBarr to kick an extra point. For the past 12 seasons, the Bobcats have rarely kicked on point-after attempts, choosing instead to go for two points.
This season, however, the Bobcats have struggled with the conversions.
“We have to take a look at that and figure it out,” Thieken said. “I don’t know what it is right now.”
Bauman made six extra points during the 2018 season.
Hat trick of extra points
Summerfield’s Jake Wadsworth ran for 151 yards and a pair of touchdown runs in Friday’s 35-0 over West Unity Hilltop of Ohio and also recorded a rare hat trick on extra points.
He caught a pass for a two-point conversion then ran for another. His final PAT was a kick.
Dylan Szegedi is off to a 4-0 start as head coach of the Bulldogs.
He was delighted that his defense forced nine turnovers but disappointed that his team fumbled the ball away three times.
“We played pretty sloppy,” he said. “It was a little bit of a dewy night. The ball was a little wet. We need to do a better job of getting a towel out there to dry it off.”
Kreger racks up tackles
Cole Kreger had a big game on defense for Erie Mason Friday night.
The senior racked up 13 initial hits and 7 assists for 20 total tackles. Toby Frazier was the second-leading tackler with 10 total.
Brothers Rocco and Reddick Pillarelli combined for five touchdowns for Ottawa Hills.
Last week, Rocco rushed for more than 100 yards and Reddick returned a kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown against Whiteford.
The talented brothers are the sons of former Whiteford All-State softball player Leigh Ann Hammons.
Reddick is a junior and Rocco a sophomore.
Buhl gets Vikings going
Dundee's Cooper Buhl is mainly known for his work on defense, but he got the Vikings going on offense Friday night in a win over Onsted.
All four of his carries on offense came on Dundee's first drive of the night. He gained 31 yards, including a 3-yard touchdown run.
Record in sight for kicker
Monroe kicker Camden Schmidt is one away from the Monroe High record for most field goals in a season.
The senior kicked his third field goal of the season Thursday night during a 58-0 win over Ann Arbor Skyline.
The Trojans now are 36-0 all-time in games where they score 50 or more points, 98-1 when they score 40 or more, 206-9 when they score 30 or more, and 198-0-16 when they shut out their opponent.
Ida injuries pile up
Ida was down to its third-string center Friday night in a loss to Hudson after the starter and his backup went down with injuries.
The Blue Streaks stayed afloat with strong play from Seth Breitner, Sam King and Cam Satkowski.
“It’s frustrating,” Ida coach Jeff Potter said. “We’ve had so many injuries this year, major ones.”
Fast start for Huron
Friday's game against Riverivew could not have started much better for New Boston Huron.
The Chiefs stopped the defending Huron League champions on their first drive, then quickly posted a pair of touchdowns. But the PAT after the second score was blocked.
Things went downhill from there.
Huron managed just 8 points the rest of the game while the Pirates were piling up 49.
"We started out really well, but they popped a couple of big plays, and it seems to hurt our confidence," Huron coach Tom Hoover said of his 1-3 team.
BEST OF WEEK 4
RUSHING YARDS
Jack Mills, Airport 201
Jake Wadsworth, Sum. 151
Izaiah Wright, Carlson 148
Brian Booms, Flat Rock 117
Jake Iott, Whiteford 116
PASSING YARDS
Graham Junge, Flat Rock 214
Ethan Layton, Dundee 207
Vaughn Brown, Mason 205
Joe Krolak, Carlson 127
Tre Eitniear, Whiteford 110
RECEIVING YARDS
Braiden Whitaker, Dundee 116
Toby Frazier, Mason 101
Colin Nowak, Airport 82
Rocco Breslin, Flat Rock 81
Kolby Masserant, Whiteford 79
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: High School Football Notes: The stories behind the final scores
