John Raffel
Sports Scene
It was like old times for the Beal City football team.
After a 6-3 record during the regular season, which was a win or two less than typical, the Aggies won their first two playoff games and posed a threat to advance to the state finals.
Beal City used the Hail Mary pass to beat Sacred Heart Academy 28-27 in the season opener. Stone Beckwith caught it to lead the Aggies past the defending state champions 28-27.
After losing 26-18 to Clare, losses to Lake City and McBain put the Aggies out of the Highland Conference race and one loss away from automatically qualifying for the state playoffs.
But Beal City bounced back with wins over Marion and Pine River and then posted playoff wins on the road over Johannesburg-Lewiston and Frankfort, 43-20 and 35-6.
On the road again, this time at Fowler, good times ended for Beal City in a 34-18 playoff loss. Fowler wound up in the Division 8 state finals. Beal City’s final record was 8-4.
“I think it was quite successful,” coach Lou Rau said. “Whenever you make it to the third round of the playoffs, obviously some things are going right and the kids are doing some things right. Things came together when we entered the playoffs. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get past the Fowler game. They’re a great team. I’m pretty sure, they’ll play Mendon in the state finals.”
That’s indeed the way the matchups turned out.
As Rau looks back on the season, “the biggest thing is that we were so inconsistent during the regular season and finally came together towards the end, winning out to make the playoffs and then making it to the regionals. That’s the highlight.”
“Sam Schafer did a great job at quarterback,” Rau said. “Our ability to come up with the big play was a surprise, you might say, or beneficial.
“Looking ahead, you can’t replace some of the great ones,” Rau said. “We have some great ones coming up. Ty Rollin was only a sophomore this year. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards as a sophomore, Our quarterback is back. We have some very good talent coming up from the JVs next year.”
Beckwith will be hard to replace.
“Offensively, I felt I had a really nice year,” Beckwith said. “I ran the ball pretty well and caught a couple of passes. Defensively, I wanted to be better all-around. We struggled, but we got better. I had a new position on defense so I had to get used to that.”
This season, Beckwith saw action at middle linebacker. He played defensive end in the past.
“It took awhile to get used to,” he said. “But other than that, I thought I had a pretty good year.”