Senior nights celebrated with wins in Charlevoix, Boyne City and East Jordan

It’s always nice to go off as a winner in front of the home fans.

While the Boyne City, Charlevoix and East Jordan football teams all have the playoffs ahead in their respective divisions, ending the regular season, especially senior night, on a loss is never a way to set up the postseason or the memories that’ll later come.

Luckily for all three, there’s no need to worry about that, as they all walked off their home field as the victors Friday night.

Boyne City absolutely rolled to their third straight victory with a 62-6 win over visiting Tawas, Charlevoix pulled in a lopsided 51-6 win over Calumet at Kipke Field, then East Jordan earned it’s second shutout victory of the past three weeks with a 20-0 win over Elk Rapids.

Boyne City (5-4) keeps it going 

September was a tough month for the Ramblers, no doubt. Boyne went 1-4 in the month, dropping four straight against some tough foes.

October has been much more to their liking and winning by over 50 points on senior night was just the way the Ramblers (5-4) planned to exit the regular season.

Boyne City ran for 426 yards on the ground and seven touchdowns on a 13.4 average against the Braves.

Senior Tyler Lockman led the way with 115 yards and three touchdowns, while Tristan Ager added 115 yards and a score.

Ryan Spate, Joey McHugh and Drew Neer all added touchdowns on the ground, then Owen Hewitt and Chas Stanek each caught a score from Neer, who went 3 of 3 passing with 40 yards.

Defensively, McHugh also led with 10 tackles, two for a loss and Spate made five stops and recovered a fumble.

On Sunday, Boyne City discovered they made the 2023 postseason and received a Division 6 trip to Gladstone (7-2) to get things started at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 27.

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Charlevoix (8-1) rolls with the changes 

The plans for Friday night changed up this week for the Charlevoix football team, but with a talented class of 20 senior players, it probably didn’t matter who was on the other sideline, the Rayders would be ready.

That was true and then some Friday night.

“Our kids came out focused and took care of business,” Charlevoix coach Don Jess said. “Early on, we knew playing a Calumet team was going to be a challenge for us. We had a really good week of practice and our kids were really focused. It was fun.”

Charlevoix ran for 390 yards on the ground, then quarterback Brady Jess also went 4 of 6 passing for 72 yards and two scores.

Senior Landon Swanson ran for 57 yards and two scores, Hudson Vollmer had 60 total yards and a receiving score, Brady Warchol had 72 yards and a score and Logan Wadkins led the way with 129 yards and two touchdowns rushing, then added a 45-yard touchdown reception.

“That was (Wadkins’) first game back. He had been out a couple weeks,” said Jess. “That was nice to have him back and I thought the offensive line did a great job again. Defensively, I thought our linebackers had a real good night.”

Swanson led from that linebacker position with 11 tackles, one for a loss, then Joshua Schultz had nine tackles, one for a loss. Trevor Streeter also added a sack.

Charlevoix (8-1) finished No. 8 in Division 7 in playoff points, not enough to overtake Menominee. The Rayders discovered Sunday they'll be in the same district bracket as the Maroons, though will open with a rematch against Traverse City St. Francis first. A game time and day had not been set as of Sunday night.

East Jordan (8-1) grinds out finale 

As much theatrics as the Red Devils brought to the field last Friday in their thrilling title game win over Frankfort, this Friday was almost guaranteed to be a giant step back.

And, it was, though it was a little too much of a step back for the Red Devils on one side of the ball.

“Offensively, we made lot of mistakes, it wasn’t very smooth,” said EJ head coach Adam Grybauskas. “Not a great game offensively for us. I thought we played really well special teams wise, we played really well defensively. We never let them get anything going.”

That’s typically what good teams do. When one area of the field needs a boost, other areas lift the team up.

“Defensively we created four turnovers,” added Grybauskas. “Our punt game was huge too. We flipped the field a few times. Our offense was struggling, but we had some other areas that stepped up and really helped us make it through the game.”

Offensively, Korbyn Russell finished 7 of 12 passing for 100 yards and a touchdown, Logan Shooks ran for 93 yards and a score on 27 carries and Braylon Grybauskas had five receptions for 60 yards and a score, then 23 yards on the ground.

Shooks then added six tackles and an interception, Brenden Aenis had six stops and a sack, Angel Delgado had five tackles and a sack and Ryder Malpass and William Webb each had an interception.

On Sunday, the MHSAA announced the Red Devils will be opening the Division 8 postseason with a visit from Ishpeming (6-3), giving EJ a fourth straight home game at Boswell Stadium at 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 28.

Contact Sports Editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DrewKochanny, and Instagram, @drewkochanny

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Wins all around came in Week 9 for Charlevoix, Boyne City and East Jordan