Harbor Beach 35 vs. Beal City 10: Quarterback Eli Kraft had a big day for the Pirates going 8-13 for 168 yards and two touchdowns while adding one on the ground. Travis Essenmacher had two receptions for 86 yards for Harbor Beach. Ty Rollin lead the Aggies of Beal City with 76 rushing yards on the ground. Sam Schafer was 10-28 for 168 yards and two interceptions for Beal City.
Brother Rice 35 vs. Muskegon 28: Brother Rice came into this game looking for two things, an eighth championship for Coach Fracassa and back to back titles in 2011 and 2012. On the other side, the Big Reds of Muskegon wanted to win their first state title since the great Tony Annese was on the sideline. Brother Rice stuck first in this game. Going 80 yards while dominating the line of scrimmage. Shon Powell got things going for Rice with a 54 yard spurt to the Big Red 19. Three plays later Cheyne Lacanaria would find Cory Lacanaria for a 16 yard td. On Rice’s next drive, the Warriors would mix in the run and the pass this time Alex Malzone would find Joshua Flye in the end-zone for a nine yard pitch-and-catch. Showing no signs of nerves, the Big Reds would use their tricky veer offense to get them down Brother Rice 4. Javontae Langston would power in from four yards out to trail only by 7. A major turning point in the game was when Muskegon senior qb Jalen Smith was injured and left the game. He is a good decision in the Big Reds offense, especially on the option. Both defenses would stiffen until the third when Muskegon tied the game on a Deshaun Thrower one yard run. Both teams seemed to have saved their best offense for the last quarter. Brother Rice scored first in the fourth on the ground with Shon Powell, after Muskegon fumbled inside their own twenty. But five minutes later, Muskegon would once again tie the game up with slot-back Marcus Smith going in from 11 yards. 53 seconds later, Corey Lacanaria would haul in a 77 yard td reception to make it 28-21 Rice. About a minute later, Thrower would find Keondre Craig streaking down the field for a 51 yard td reception, to tie the game at 28. Now this is where the game changed. Muskegon had all the momentum with about three minutes left in the game. Thinking the game would go to OT, Muskegon kicked the ball of Brother Rice just like any normal kickoff. But instead of running the ball himself, the Warrior player lateraled the ball to Jason Alessi for a 96 yard kick return. Muskegon would get one final chance with about 50 seconds left. But Thrower’s pass intended for E’monte Briggs fell incomplete giving Rice the division two championship. Rice only ran 42 plays compared the Muskegon’s 76. Shon Powell led the Rice ground game with 97 yards rushing. Jalen Smith led Muskegon with 138. On defense, Jason Alessi had 12 total tackles for Rice while Deshaun Thrower, D’vonte Dockery and William Hunt lead Muskegon with 5.
Ithaca 37 vs. Constantine 27: Coming into this game, Ithaca assumed that Mr. Everything Travis Smith would be starting under center for the Yellowjackets, but this is football, never assume anything. As it turned out, Smith would get injured on the first drive of the game, forcing jr. Logan Hessbrook, who started at quarterback on the j.v. team last year, to come in and play qb. Hessbrook was marvelous in the game for Ithaca. Passing for 104 yards and two td and rushing for a team high 113 yards. Ben Mallo led Constantine with 207 and 1 td on the ground. This is the 3rd straight state championship for Ithaca.
Detroit Country Day 7 vs. Grand Rapids South Christian 40: Country Day had scored a total of 85 points in their last two playoff games before the D-4 championship game. A large part of the Yellowjackets’ struggles were in large part due to the South Christian run defense. The Sailors’ only gave up a total of 57 rushing net yards. With this performance in the run department for DCD, South Christian was able to concentrate on the highly touted quarterback Tyler Wiegers. Wiegers was unable to get into a consistent rhythm going 18-34 for 216 yards, with one td, and one int. The backfield combination of Chad Sterk and Derek Woltjer accumulated 236 rushing yards while Woltjer threw for 2 touchdowns in the air. Maurice Ways led the Yellowjackets in receiving with three receptions for 89 yards.
The Prep Ball Report 
Steve its been a great ! Through out the season your blogs were outstanding. Don’t rest your skills. See you and Your mentor (uncle) at some baskrtball contest. @J0#king82