John Raffel
Sports Scene
Midland is ranked No. 5 in the state by the coaches’ association among Division 2 high school hockey teams.
Trenton is ranked No. 1 in Division 2, followed by Brother Rice, Marquette and Traverse City Central.
Also ranked in Division 2 are De La Salle Collegiate sixth, Port Huron Northern seventh, Woodhaven eighth, Traverse City Centra ninth and Escanaba 10th.
Midland is the defending Saginaw Valley League champion.
BIG RAPIDS
Tim Blashill’s Big Rapids Cardinals have started out 4-11.
“It’s not bad,” said Blashill. “We lost two games up at Gaylord versus Grosse Ile and Dearborn Divine Child but played well. The process is coming. We’re getting better but haven’t quite seen the results yet.”
Leading scorers have included Derrick Defever up front along with sophomore Mitchell Hawes, who is leading the team in goals.
Blashill is hoping to see his team gain leads as much as possible.
“We’ve been playing from behind a lot so far this year,” Blashill said. “One goal is getting leads. Maybe we could play better team defense. That’s coming too.”
BAY CITY WOLVES
Mike Kayner likes the direction his Bay City Wolves have been taking in recent weeks.
The consolidated team consists of athletes from Bay City Central and Bay City Western and has started out 12-2
Senior forwards Brett Leppek and Garret Pashak are playing well for the Wolves.
Cameron Nowak is another senior forward who is playing well along with goalie Carter Adams.
“Some of our upperclassmen, including sophomores and juniors, have been able to step in and contribute right away,” Kayner said. “We’re still looking to develop as a team. We graduated 12 seniors, and hopefully we can develop some depth as the season progresses. We’ll be better off down the road.”
In an impressive show for Bay City on Jan. 20, the Wolves beat the Bay City Area Thunder 6-4. Aaron Soave had a goal and three assists for the winners. Adams had 18 saves.
The Bay City Thunder has started out 7-8. Reid Alexander, Aaron Martin, Lakin Radeka and Zac Skinner have been among the leading scorers for the Thunder.
FREELAND
Freeland-Carrollton has started out 0-7-0.
“We’re kind of a young team, and it’s a rebuilding year,” said coach Dave Phillips.
Freshman Jarett Riffle is among the leading scorers for the team.
“He’s a utility player,” Phillips noted. “He can play offense or defense.”
Sophomore Austin Popour is one of the team’s alternate captains and one of the scorers. There’s also a strong defensive pairing with senior Tyler Reid and Nate Phillips.
“They’ve been providing physical defense and offense whenever they can,” Coach Phillips said.
MIDLAND DOW
Midland Dow has started out the hockey season at 4-3. The team’s goalie has been Derek Stryker. Leading scorers have included Rico Angell, Conrad Lather, Matt Lee, Michael Leslie David Milholland and Zach Paisley.
ROCKFORD
Rockford was 4-4 at the holiday break under coach Ed VanPorfliet.
“We’re playing good defensive hockey,” he said. “We’re struggling to score at times. We’re trying to find some consistent scoring.”
Leading the Rams in scoring are seniors Ben Glass and Justin Ullrey and junior Nate Hill.
“We’re a young team,” VanPorfliet said. “We only have three seniors on our team. There’s some growing pangs. We have a freshman on the team, six sophomores, and a bunch of juniors. We’re improving. We’re making progress. Come playoff time, we want to be ready to go for a long playoff run. Right now, we’re playing a good game or two, then we’re having a struggle.
“We’re playing good defensive hockey as a team. It’s a matter of popping in goals from there.”
Rockford has been using two goalies, juniors Todd Millar and Jake Rekucki.
SAGINAW HERITAGE
Heritage has started out 4-9 but netted a 3-1 win over the Bay City Wolves. Tim Cornford, Steven Jacobs and David Perez have been among the leading scorers for Heritage. Kevin Creesey, the Heritage goalie, had 27 saves in an impressive win over the Wolves.
WAYLAND
Tom Elliot is coaching a Wayland team that is 3-5 and a member of the O-K Conference’s Tier 3.
“We’re a little bit on the short side this year,” Elliot said. “We’re pretty young. We have a lot of sophomores this year. We’re hoping to build on next year.”
Taylor Klotz is leading the team in scoring along with Cody Olson.