John Raffel
Sports Scene
It was an historic game for the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
The first season of 8-man football has come and gone, with Carsonville-Port Sanilac emerging as the MHSAA’s first state champion following the 16-team playoffs.
CPS defeated the home favorite, Rapid River of the Upper Peninsula 59-20 in the Superior Dome at Marquette.
CPS fired out to a 27-6 lead in the first quarter, with Hayden Adams catching a 43-yard scoring pass from Trevor Adams. Hayden Adams also ran in for scores on 10- and 1-yard runs. After Jacob Bergland scampered for a 2-yard run for Rapid River, Dan Rickett put CPS up with a 20-yard run.
Berglund had two touchdown pass receptions of 70 and 61 yards from Jake Pearson in the second quarter. But between those two scores, CPS’ Ryan Davis had a 2-yard run and Rickett a 38-yard pass reception from Hayden Adams to make it 39-20 at halftime.
Carsonville-Port Sanillac put it away with three scores. Trevor Adams caught passes of 49 and 45 yards from Hayden Adams, and Dan Rickett snagged a 13-yard strike from Hayden Adams, who passed for 324 yards.
“Going into the game, on tape, they looked fast,” Rapid River coach Steve Ostrenga said. “If a team looks fast on tape, they’ll be fast in that zone. I wasn’t sure if we had the speed to match up to them. I thought we could stay with them in the passing game, man to man. We struggled a little bit with that. In eight-man football, you break one tackle, it’s a long game. That’s what I’ve learned. You have to take good angles and make good tackles.
“This being our first-year in 8-man football, their speed in that dome definitely helped them. We didn’t adjust well to it. The game was pretty fast. I give them a lot of credit. They’re a very formidable football team.”
Rapid River wound up at 11-2. The game attendance was 1,433 fans.
“We didn’t know what to expect when we first started,” Ostrenga said. “There’s still a lot to learn from our end of it. We’re still trying to learn everything of 8-man football. I was happy with it. We would have liked to have kept the score closer [in the title game]. They had big plays and we didn’t handle it well. Hindsight, if next year we’re in the same situation, I would hope to do a better job. It was a blessing and honor to get to that point.
“Even though the field is 40 yards wide, there’s still three less guys on the field both sides. That makes a big difference. The more speed you have, the better you’re going to be.”
Ostrenga enjoyed the environment.
“It was excellent. It was new for me, never being in that situation before,” he said. “You play to get into the last game of the year. The state did a great job. I can’t say enough of the people in the U.P.. They were behind us and supporting us. It was a great, great, atmosphere. We were treated very well. I wouldn’t change a thing. It would be nice to keep it there. Whoever makes it will probably see the same thing.”
Ostrenga said his school may have still been able to have 11-man football but probably not a junior varsity team.
“8-man allows us to have football,” he said. “When the state did an 8-man survey, they did it right. They did it slowly enough that you could jump on board. They were very smart about it.
“We’ve had good years at 11-man football, but now we’re down to 125 [students].”
Carsonville-Port Sanilac was coached by Timothy Brabant.
“Defensively, we had some problems in the first half executing our game plan,” Brabant said. “In the second half, we held them scoreless. I was pleased with how we played both sides of the ball and with the offense the whole game.”
CPS finished the year 12-1.
Last season, CPS went undefeated in non-MHSAA sanctioned football, and all its athletes returned this year.
“Our goal was to win the state championship, and we accepted nothing less than that,” Brabant said. “Our guys worked their butts off to do it.”
Brabant said his school had a full 8-man schedule in 2009.
The top two teams at the end of week 8 based on computer points played each other in week 9 for the 2010 title. The MHSAA didn’t have enough teams to fully sponsor the sport but allowed existing 8-man teams to participate informally.
“We and Bellaire were undefeated at 8-0 and we squared off in week nine,” Brabant said. “They wouldn’t let us go past nine weeks.”
It was a happy playoff ride for CPS, which had enough points to host the first three rounds of the playoffs and save enough money to take the trip to Marquette.
“It was fun going to the Superior Dome,” Brabant said. “I’m glad the MHSAA decided to do all that work [to organize 8-man football]. I was on the committee last year that had to do all that work. It was a lot of work last year.”
While some observers consider a trip to the U.P. for a state title game to be too long, “when you think about it, the U.P. team has to come all the way down here for the 11-man championships. I think it’s good for the U.P. to get a chance to showcase their skills up there,” Brabant said.
Brabant expects more teams to join the 8-man football field.
“My first year here when I was the JV coach, we had eight 8-man schools. Last year we had 16. This year we had into the 20s,” Brabant said. “I think it’s going to explode. We’ve already had four teams in our league that are going to commit. You’re going to see it explode. Schools are going to need 8-man football as a viable option to keep their programs going.”
“The biggest adjustment is on defense. You have to be able to open-field tackle and cover people one-on-one. You have to win your one-on-one matchups.”