Prep football season opens with wins for six Region teams

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.

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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 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," said SMCC Coach Adam Kipf. "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..."

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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 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 2-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 their sixth straight season-opening win.

"It's always a good thing to get rolling with that first win," said Mason coach Steve Bowers. "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 2-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: Prep football season opens with wins for six Region teams