Interception, long touchdown run turn the tide for Ida in opener

IDA – Don’t trust the final score.

Officially, Ida got its season started with a 48-6 romp over Grosse Ile Friday night.

But Blue Streak coach Jeff Potter was not thrilled with the way his team played.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Potter said.

The coach said his team got off to a slow start.

“We didn’t come out play,” he said. “Our defense didn’t play too well in the first quarter.”

Cast your vote: Who is the Monroe County Region's best high school football team?

Ida took an early lead when Gavin Albring ran 10 yards for the first touchdown of the night, but Grosse Ile answered with a TD of its own. Then, after Wyatt Dirmaat scored on a 20-yard run, the Red Devils were driving again.

Two big plays later, the rout was on.

First, Trent Pfeiffer intercepted a pass to rip the momentum away from Grosse Ile.

Then, Owen Snyder broke loose for a 51-yard touchdown run.

It was all Ida from there.

Albring scampered 15 yards for his second TD of the night. Dean Thomas scored from 18 and 50 yards out and Justin Crozier finished it off with a 2-yard plunge into the end zone.

Dirkmaat went 6-for-6 on PATs.

Jacob Towne had an interception on Grosse Ile’s first drive of the second half. Brady Bydlowski led the defense with 11 tackles, and Albring had seven.

Ida will host Whiteford Friday.

Jackson 32, Monroe 27

MONROE – Monroe fought back from a 26-15 deficit with the second touchdown of the night by sophomore Julian Espinoza-Saucedo and a 37-yard TD pass from Collin Steele to Brendan Bacon.

The Trojans got the ball back and drove to the Jackson 24, but a fumble in the final seconds ended their hopes.

“I am very proud,” Monroe coach Kyle Reed said. “The kids battled hard for sure. There was no question in their minds that we had a chance to win the game when we got the ball back with 48 seconds to play. It just didn’t go our way.”

Steele finished 8-of-10 for 150 yards and also led Monroe with 53 rushing yards. He also threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Harvell.

Espinoza-Saucedo had three receptions for 71 yards.

Monroe hosts Ann Arbor Huron for its Military Appreciation game Friday.

Canton 31, Bedford 28

TEMPERANCE – Bedford fell into a 28-0 hole then saw a frantic comeback attempt fall short.

Canton won the game on a second-half field goal.

“If we had played like we were supposed to play, we would have won the game,” Bedford coach John Phillips said.

Braylon Gilsdorf scored two touchdowns and Drew Logsdon threw a scoring pass to Jacob Spoonmore and ran for a TD.

Ypsilanti Lincoln 10, Milan 7

MILAN – Milan was an inch away from scoring on an impressive second-half drive, but fumbled the ball way and suffered a frustrating loss.

The Big Reds chewed nine minutes off the clock with the drive that produced a first down on the Lincoln 5-yard line, but the ball and the game slipped away on the next play.

“We fumbled going into the end zone on the one-inch line,” Milan coach Jesse Hoskins said. “The officials huddled and decided to call it a touchback.”

Milan was able to get the ball back after that disappointment and moved into the red zone, but two sacks ended the game.

The only points for the Big Reds came on their first drive of the game.

Logan Vaughn recovered a fumble to thwart Lincoln’s opening possession, then Milan drove to score on a 5-yard run by Shawn Ballard. Caleb Klein added the PAT.

The Big Reds travel to Jefferson for its Huron League opener Friday.

Hanover-Horton 54, Jefferson 0

NEWPORT – Jefferson won two of last four to end last season but never found any traction in its opener for 2024.

Quarterback Luke Beaudrie was available for just five plays. He aggravated an injury suffered in the Bears’ scrimmage game.

That torpedoed the offense.

“When your No. 1 player goes down, it deflates your sails, but someone else has to step up,” Jefferson coach Rob Beaudrie said. “You’ve still got to be able to block, I don’t care who your running back or quarterback is.

“I am sick of people saying how young we are. It’s still the game of football. We were bigger than Hanover-Horton.”

The Bears open Huron League play Friday by hosting Milan.

THURSDAY'S GAMES

Flat Rock 42, Dundee 6

FLAT ROCK – Flat Rock’s football season ended last fall with a loss in the Division 5 state semifinals.

The Rams made it clear Friday night that they plan on more big games in 2024 with a decisive 42-6 romp over a good Dundee team.

Ben Scully ran 14 yards for a touchdown and also scored on a 26-yard interception return. Graham Junge had a 12-yard TD run and threw 40 yards for a score to Braylen Crump.

Jacob Hagan and Blake Recore also rushed for touchdowns, and Mitchell Smith kicked six PATS.

Junge finished 10 of 18 passing for 183 yards, and Scully was the top rusher with 17 carries for 103 yards.

Logan Coplen led the defense with five tackles with Crump, Evan Szalay and Hagan adding four apiece. Caleb Rollins intercepted two passes, and Scully and Coplen each picked off one.

“Defensively, they did some things in the first quarter,” Flat Rock coach Buck Reaume said. “They stopped us on a fourth down. Our D played really well.”

Joey Brink scored Dundee’s touchdown on a screen pass from Ryan Zanger.

Cam Fairchild and JC Amrhein also played well for the Vikings.

“They are a really good team,” Dundee coach Steve Ayre said. “We made too many mistakes to stay close to a state semifinalist.”

Gibraltar Carlson 45, Airport 7

CARLETON – Gibraltar Carlson spoiled the debut of new Airport coach Derek Anderson.

Anderson, who was the defensive coordinator last year, stepped up when Jim Duffy resigned after leading the Jets to Huron League and district titles.

“Very proud of the dominating performance our team delivered tonight,” Carlson coach Jason Gendron said. “We excelled in all three phases of the game.

“I was particularly impressed with our young offensive line, who were physical at the point of attack.”

Izaiah Wright ran for 154 yards on 25 carries, including TD carries of 35, 5 and 3 yards. Quarterback Joe Krolak scored on runs of 6 and 12 yards. Trent Ison scored the final TD for the Marauders.

Junior Dean Manthei booted a 29-yard field goal and six PATs.

Kenny McCurdy and Cam Kalbfleisch led the defense with seven tackles each, and Hayden Higgins added six. Kalbfleisch had four takes for loss and Higgins three.

The Airport defense had trouble with Carlson.

“Carlson has some solid kids, and Izaiah Wright is a great running back,” Anderson said. “He’s got great vision.”

Zak VanBuskirk scored for Airport in the fourth quarter on a 12-yard pass from Dylan Byrd.

SMCC 22, Clinton 14

CLINTON – St. Mary Catholic Central bolted out to a 22-0 lead then saw most of that lead disappear in the fourth quarter.

"Our kids played hard, we've just got to finish games," sSMCC Coach Adam Kipf said. "Our kids lost our edge; I'll just say that. We lost our edge, we've got to get over that, but I'm proud of the kids, proud of the effort..."

More: Victory Days at Navarre Field

Drew Harris led SMCC with two touchdowns and 121 yards on 13 rushes. Ian Foster and Max Flint connected on a 41-yard pass for the Falcons' third and final score of the night.

Clinton ended SMCC's 6-5 season last year with a 22-14 win in a Division 7 district championship game.

Whiteford 35, Blissfield 6

OTTAWA LAKE – Whiteford built a 28-0 halftime lead and cruised to a 35-6 season-opening win over Blissfield.

Tre Eitniear threw for three touchdowns and ran for two scores and had more than 100 yards rushing and passing for Whiteford. He also kicked three extra points and ran for a two-point conversion.

Whiteford’s defense shut down the Royals in the first half, holding them to negative rushing yards.

Drew Ruddy, Brek Ruddy and Connor Beasley scored the other Whiteford touchdowns.

Whiteford had 444 yards of total offense and held Blissfield to 118 yards.

Trent Eitniear led the Bobcat defense with nine tackles, and Jake Scott had an interception.

Summerfield 22, Waterford Our Lady 0

PETERSBURG – Summerfield got its season started with a bang.

Trace Secor connected with Tyler Defoe for a 71-yard touchdown on the first play of the game, and the Bulldogs cruised to victory in their season opener.

“It was a pick play,” Summerfield coach Dylan Szegedi said of the quick score. “We practiced it, and it worked. That’s all I can say.”

Summerfield added a second touchdown in the opening quarter on a 6-yard run by Mitchell Gomulinski.

The final score for the home team came on a 60-yard TD run by Hayden Noland in the second quarter. Noland added a two-point conversion run after Hayden Cribbs had kicked the first two.

The defense did the rest as Gomulinsk and Brendan Myshock logged 11 tackles each and Jude Flowers rang up three sacks.

Erie Mason 28, Flint New Standard 6

ERIE – A Mason squad down multiple starters due to injury still managed to cruise to its sixth straight season-opening win.

"It's always a good thing to get rolling with that first win," Mason coach Steve Bowers said. "We kind of called on a lot of guys to step up in just the last week of practice, to start on varsity. We pulled some junior varsity guys in who maybe were not thinking they'd play a whole lot this first game, and we called on them to do quite a bit."

Logan Goodin led the Eagles with three touchdowns and 172 yards on 19 carries, and he also ran for a two-point conversion. Aiden Cannon scored a 2-yard touchdown and finished with 57 yards on nine touches while also catching a 16-yard pass from quarterback Michael Narew (3-for-9 for 58 yards).

Phoenix Stefko finished with two catches for 42 yards.

Livonia Churchill 35, New Boston Huron 28

NEW BOSTON – Churchill spoiled Huron’s opener for the second straight season.

It was a frustrating night for Huron.

“We had the lead four different times,” coach Tom Hoover said. “We just had breakdowns.”

Cash Moczydlowsky threw touchdown passes to Austin O'Dell (29 yards) and Jakob Furkas (22 yards). O'Dell also ran 2 yards for a score. The final TD came on a 79-yard pass from Ryan Anderson to Hunter Mihal.

The Chiefs kick off Huron League play at St. Mary Catholic Central Friday.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Interception, long touchdown run turn the tide for Ida in opener