2 West Michigan teams win state titles

DETROIT (WOOD) - The Mendon Hornets have won the Division 8 football title. The Lowell Red Arrows lost in the Division 2 championship game. Constatine was bested in the Division 6 game. Zeeland West beat Marine City to take home the Division 4 title.

• DIVISION 8
  • Mendon (14-0) beat Fowler (11-3) 33-0
     

-- Mendon's Tyler Harris returned a punt 84 yards for a touchdown; Hornets lead 7-0 with 9:16 left in the 1st quarter; it is the second longest punt return in finals history
-- Mendon's Tanner Cook ran 19 yards for a touchdown; Hornets lead 14-0 with 4:42 left in the 1st quarter
-- End of the 1st quarter -- Mendon leads 14-0
-- Mendon's Tyler Harris rushed 11 yards for a touchdown. Hornets lead 21-0 with 4:40 left in the 1st half
-- Halftime score -- Mendon leads 21-0
-- Mendon's Chance Nightingale rushed 9 yards for a touchdown. The extra point was missed. Hornets lead 27-0 with 8:30 left in the 3rd quarter
-- End of the 3rd quarter -- Mendon lead 27-0
-- Mendon's Tyler Harris rushes 29 yards for a touchdown. Extra point was blocked. Hornets lead 33-0 with 2:32 left in the game
-- MENDON WON 33-0

Recap from the Associated Press -- There's no question what is coming when a high school team faces Mendon. The knowledge doesn't help. Mendon -- running the same offense they've been using for four decades -- rushed for 240 yards in a 33-0 rout of Fowler in the Division 8 title game Friday at Ford Field. The Hornets (14-0) have won six titles. "We've been running the counter trey since 1989 and it is interesting to see what teams come up with to stop there," Mendon coach John Schwartz said. "Today, we had a lot of success running the fullback trap when they tried to take away what we do off-tackle with the counter trey." Tyler Harris got things started the first time Mendon touched the ball, taking a punt return 84 yards for a touchdown. "When I first caught the ball, I thought it was going to be a short return," he said. "But our linemen got a couple big blocks, and I got to the corner. Once I got around, all I saw was daylight and I was gone." Tanner Cook and Harris added touchdown runs later in the first half, with Harris kicking all three extra points to make it 21-0. "We knew it was going to be a tough game, but that punt return really took away our momentum," Fowler coach Craig Koenigsknecht said. "They got to the ball very fast, and we didn't finish blocks so we couldn't get anything going." Mendon quarterback Chase Nightengale made it 27-0 with a 9-yard run early in the third, but Harris missed the kick. Harris finished the scoring with a 29-yard run with 3:40 to play. "I can't rank our championship teams, but this is the toughest 14-team schedule we've ever played," Schwartz said. "Battling that schedule, and seeing teams that attacked us so many ways are the reason we were so well prepared for what Fowler did today." Fowler (11-3) was trying to win its first title since 1998.

===============

• DIVISION 2
  • Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice (10-4) beat Lowell (12-2) 24-14

-- Brother Rice's Devin Church rushes 7 yards for a touchdown. Warriors lead Lowell 7-0 with 5:36 left in the 1st quarter
-- End of the 2nd quarter -- Brother Rice leads 7-0
-- Lowell's Gabe Dean throws a TD pass to Luke Bigham for a TD. Red Arrows and Brother Rice tied at 7 with 7:32 left in 1st half
-- Brother Rice's Devin Church rushes 54 yards for a TD. The Warriors lead 14-7 with :50 left in the 1st half
-- Halftime score -- Brother Rice leads 14-7
-- Jason Alessi makes a field goal for Brother Rice. The Warriors lead Lowell 17-7 with 7:24 left in the 3rd quarter at Ford Field.
-- End of the 3rd quarter -- Brother Rice leads 17-7
-- Brother Rice's Church scored a TD to bump the lead to 24-7
-- Lowell's Dean passed to Bigham for a TD. Brother Rice leads 24-14 with 2 minutes left
-- BROTHER RICE WINS 24-14

Recap from the Associated Press -- After sneaking into the playoffs with a 5-4 record, no one thought Birmingham Brother Rice would be playing at Ford Field, much less winning a state title. Devin Church fooled everyone. Church rushed for almost 1,000 yards in the Warriors' five playoff games, finishing it off with 250 yards and three touchdowns as Brother Rice beat Lowell 24-14 for its Division 2 state title Friday at Ford Field. "This is what everyone dreams about -- walking away with the ring," the senior said. "It's hard to believe that I ran for over 900 yards in these five games, but my line just kept opening holes." The Warriors (10-4) thought a three-game losing streak late in the season might have cost them everything. "We weren't even sure we were going to make the playoffs," said Brother Rice coach Al Fracassa. "These kids taught me a lesson, even after all these years, because they wouldn't give up." Church made it 7-0 with a 7-yard run in the first quarter, but Lowell (12-2) tied it when Gabe Dean hit Luke Bigham for an 18-yard score on fourth down. Church then

faked a reverse before going around left end for a 54-yard score with 50 seconds left in the half. Jason Alessi's 26-yard field goal increased the Warriors lead to 17-7 midway through the third quarter, and Eddie Kidd's interception of Dean's pass set up Church's third touchdown -- a 15-yard run with 5:55 left in the game. "That young man is pretty darn impressive," Lowell coach Noel Dean said. "He cuts so sharply that you are always off-balance when you are trying to tackle him."Dean hit Bigham for a 9-yard pass for the final score, but the Red Arrows couldn't recover an onside kick. "I was still worried, because we scored 27 points in the first half against Martin Luther King last week, and then we never scored another point," Fracassa said. "They made it 27-26 and almost beat us, and I knew Gabe Dean could do the same thing."

===============
 

• DIVISION 6
  • Ithaca (13-0) beat Constantine (11-2) 42-14

-- Ben Mallo of Constantine rushes 56 yards for a touchdown and Nick Dimos makes the extra point. Constantine leads Ithaca 14-7.
-- With only four carries in the 1st quarter, Mallo already had 126 rushing yards for an average 31.5 yards per carry.
-- Score was tied up 14-14 going into 2nd quarter.
-- Ithaca defense stopped Constantine QB Andres Montoya fumbled and recovered the ball with about 6 minutes left in the 2nd quarter.
-- Montoya fumbled again after being pushed back by the Ithaca offense. The fumble was recovered by Constantine's Jeff Steiner, but Steiner couldn't make the run for a 1st down. Ithaca took over on downs with 6:07 left in the 3rd quarter.
-- Ithaca's Travis Smith rushed for 21 yards for a touchdown with 5:34 in the 3rd quarter. Ithaca leads 21-14.
-- Ithaca's Garrett Miniard scored again with 15 seconds left in the 3rd quarter to push Ithaca to a 28-14 lead.
-- Despite his 1st-quarter success, Mallo has  been held to 180 yards in 14 carries as of the beginning of the 4th quarter. His average is 12.9 yards a carry.
-- Mallo fumbled (forced by Ithaca's Wayland Dilts). The ball was recovered by Ithaca's Lucas Slater, who ran 62 yards for a touchdown. Ithaca leads 35-14 with 9:57 left in the 4th quarter.
-- ITHACA WINS 42-14.

Recap from the Associated Press -- Travis Smith had a lot of pressure on his sophomore shoulders this season. He handled it perfectly. All Smith had to do was replace quarterback Alex Niznak, who had rushed for five touchdowns and completed 22 passes in Ithaca's 2010 Division 6 championship-game win over Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central. Smith finished off Ithaca's second straight 14-0 season Friday by passing for 299 yards and a touchdown while running for two more as the Yellowjackets pulled away to beat Constantine 42-14 in the Division 6 title game at Ford Field. "Coach just told me to go out there this year and do what I could do," said Smith, who is now 28-0 in his high-school career. "I have so much talent around me and so many great players that all I have to do is get everyone involved. I guess it worked out OK." The Yellowjackets (14-0) won their second straight Division 6 title, while Constantine (11-3) was trying to match its 2004 title. The Falcons, playing without injured quarterback Tommy Reed, didn't try a pass until the final moments of the game. "This team never gave up, but you could see our heads drop a little when we lost Tommy last week," said Constantine coach Shawn Griffith. "We played an awfully good team today, and we were just a few plays short." Both defenses struggled badly in the first quarter, which ended 14-14. Ben Mallo ran for 150 yards and two touchdowns in the quarter out of the Constantine Wing-T, while Smith threw for 115 yards and a touchdown out of the Ithaca spread. "That offense takes a while to get used to -- we were looking for the ball and their fullback was past us and gone by the time we realized what was happening," Ithaca coach Terry Hessbrook said. "We didn't make many adjustments -- we just had to be more physical at the point of attack." Things quieted down in the second quarter, but Smith's passing and running took over the game in the third. He ran for a 26-yard score -- his second rushing touchdown of the game -- and then drove the Yellowjackets on an 86-yard drive that ended with Garrett Miniard's 3-yard run. That gave Ithaca a 28-14 lead, and the Yellowjackets clinched the game on Lucas Slater's 62-yard fumble return. David Brown's touchdown with 4:17 left made it 42-14.

===============

• DIVISION 4
  • Zeeland West (13-0) beat Marine City (13-0), 45-7

-- Marine City scored with 10:06 left inthe 1st quarter, followed shortly by a goal from Zeeland West's Kyle Quandt. Kyle Kujawa of Zeeland West then rushed for the two-point conversion. Zeeland West led 8-7 with 9:52 left in the 1st quarter.
-- In just two plays that wracked up 58 yards, Kyle Kujawa scored again for Zeeland West and Clay Coatney completed another two-point conversion, bring the score to