In football, Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice held off Muskegon to repeat as Division 2 champs to present legendary coach Al Fracassa a fitting farewell gift if he chooses to call it a career.
The CHSL had the rare opportunity for bragging rights to half of the state’s division championships. However, Novi Detroit Catholic Central was overwhelmed in a rematch with Detroit Cass Tech for Division 1 honors, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s lost an overtime shootout with Grand Rapids Christian in Division 3, and heavily favored Detroit Loyola was upset by Ishpeming from the Upper Peninsula in Division 7.
In Division 1 boys tennis, for the second straight year, Brother Rice finished runner-up to Ann Arbor Huron.
Farmington Hills Mercy lost the Division 1 girls golf championship by 11 strokes to Plymouth, and the girls swim team’s quest for a sixth consecutive state title was spoiled by Holland West Ottawa, victorious by a mere 22.5 points over the Marlins.
Tied 14-14 after three quarters, Brother Rice and Muskegon scored five touchdowns between them in a furious fourth quarter with the Warriors coming out on top, 35-28, at the end. But the questions in the post-game news conference had little to do with the game.
The attention was focused on Fracassa’s coaching future. He’s 80 years old and has been on the sidelines as varsity football coach for 53 seasons (nine at Royal Oak Shrine, 44 at Rice) and is the 10th winningest coach in the United States and the winningest in Michigan with a record of 416-117-7 (372-98-2 at Rice that includes eight state titles).
“I’ll talk with my wife,” he replied. “I love the game. Sports mean a lot to me. I’ll make a decision pretty soon. … I still love the game. I have fun coaching.”
Tom Mach has won 329 games in 37 years as Catholic Central’s head coach. He’s guided the Shamrocks to 10 state titles, including three in a row from 2001-03. It may be a while before he (or any other Division 1 opponent, for that matter) wins another as long as a rejuvenated Cass Tech is across the scrimmage line.
The Shamrocks kept in mind last year’s embarrassing loss to the Technicians, looking forward to redemption. Before the first quarter was half over, Cass Tech led 12-0 on a long touchdown pass and a fumble recovery, one of five CC turnovers. Cass went on to win 36-21.
“A couple of early errors out there really hurt us,” said Mach after the game. “We got behind and found ourselves playing catch-up. In these kind of games, the team that makes the fewer mistakes will win, and that’s what you saw today.”
Few games in Coach George Porritt’s 24 years at St. Mary’s will stand out as much as the heartbreaking 40-37 overtime loss the Eaglets suffered seeking to repeat as Division 3 champs. The two teams matched each other touchdown for touchdown from start to torrid finish, setting in the process a single-game state tournament record of 1,033 yards in total offense. St. Mary’s share was 579 yards.
The Eaglets seemingly had the game in hand, leading 37-34 with 2:06 to play and GR Christian on its own 20-yard line. Twice, Christian escaped fourth-down-and long situations to rally for a game-tying field goal, and then the game-winning field goal in overtime.
“It was tough to stop them,” Porritt said.
Detroit Loyola had the size, speed and strength over Ishpeming, but not a bigger heart than the inspired kids from the North Country, who hung on for a dramatic 20-14 conquest.
Coach John Callahan analyzed his team: “We didn’t play well. We need to get better.”
Losing just five seniors, Loyola seems the surest bet to be back in the finals in 2013.
