It was all about their first drive, and when the Beal City Aggies didn’t score, it was about much more.
The Aggies lost 35-10 to the Harbor Beach Pirates, a team that flat out had a better overall performance November 23 at Ford Field. The Pirates earned their first Division 8 state title.
The Aggies were hoping for their first title since 2010.
Ty Rollin had 76 yards rushing, while Sam Schafer completed 10 of 28 passes for 168 yards but had two passes intercepted, was sacked twice, and was harassed by the Pirate defense all day.
“Obviously, it’s a game that didn’t go quite the way we had hoped,” said Beal City’s 13th year coach Lou Rau. “These two young men [Rollin and Schafer] played their hearts out. I can’t but help feel that I failed them in some way with a few things. We’ve had a fantastic season. Thirteen wins in a season is pretty admirable. You can’t ask for a better group of guys.”
But the discussion after the game centered on how different things might have turned out had Beal City scored on its first drive.
Ty Rollin intercepted an Eli Kraft pass attempt to the Harbor Beach 24 and the Aggies drove to the 4-yard-line. But Rollin was stopped just shy of the goal line.
“That’s one of the things I feel horrible about,” Rau said. “After I called it, I thought it might be the wrong call. It’s one of those thing I guess you just live and learn. We had our opportunities to get momentum back but just didn’t accomplish it.
“I thought we scored, but it probably wasn’t the right call. [Instead] I would have called an off tackle, same guy, but off tackle. We did it in the second half successfully. I just wish we had done it earlier.”
Later in the quarter, Kraft passed 54 yards to Aaron Ginther for a touchdown, and it was basically all Pirates after that.
Kraft threw a 69-yard scoring pass to Essenmacher later in the first quarter. Beal City had a scoring drive early in the second and was forced to settle for a 30-yard field goal by Paul Anders. Touchdown runs by Kraft and Austin Seltz gave the Pirates a commanding 28-3 halftime lead.
“We came out flat,” Rau said. “We started out pretty well. Then the wind got taken out of our sails when we didn’t have that score. Harbor Beach made great plays and kept us out.”
“We are a football town,” said Harbor Beach coach Troy Schelke. “We have great tradition at Harbor Beach. Beal City has great tradition.”
Rollin had an 11-yard run to end a 73-yard drive to open the second half, making it 28-10 and giving Aggies fans hope. But that would be the final Beal City score of the day.
Schafer acknowledged that he was hounded by Harbor Beach’s defense all day. “They were sending some inside and outside backers,” he said. “They weren’t showing blitz, so it was hard for our linemen to pick it up. I made some mistakes.”
Derek Paff’s 1-yard run in the fourth sealed the deal for Harbor Beach.
“We have smart football players,” Schelke said. “Sometimes, they call the play themselves.”
Both teams ended the season at 13-1, but Beal City’s loss came at the wrong time.
Kraft passed for 168 yards and ran for 70.
“He was obviously a fantastic quarterback,” Rau said. “We knew we’d have to corral him. We were right there but couldn’t get at it. They made some great plays. We didn’t have an answer for it.”
In total offensive yards, Harbor Beach had a 357-291 advantage. But the winners also had a 376-180 advantage in punt- and kickoff-return yardage.
“They were probably more physical than I expected,” Rau said. “Not that that should matter. We have to play to whatever standard necessary to win. They were fired up. The momentum changed when we didn’t get that score in the beginning. It stoked them up and set us back.”
“That was huge,” Schelke said. “We held them to a field goal on a long drive and that was huge, too.”