Preview: Contenders Converge on Athens
June 5, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Three teams playing in Saturday’s MHSAA Boys Lacrosse Finals at Troy Athens are familiar with the setting – they played on the same field for the same prize only a year ago.
Birmingham Brother Rice has won all 10 Division 1 titles in MHSAA history, and Detroit Catholic Central was runner-up in 2014. Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood is seeking its second Division 2 title in three seasons after finishing runner-up last spring – and faces an opponent, Okemos, that will enjoy competing on the season’s final day for the first time.
The Division 1 Final begins at 2 p.m., followed by the Division 2 Final at 4:30. Click for more information including all results from this season's tournament. Both finals also will be streamed live on MHSAA.TV, viewable with subscription, and broadcast on MHSAANetwork.com.
Here's a brief look at the four teams vying for titles (player statistics do not include Semifinals):
Division 1
BIRMINGHAM BROTHER RICE
Record/rank: 18-4, No. 1 at end of regular-season
League finish: First in Detroit Catholic High School League A
Coach: Ajay Chawla, second season (37-8)
Championship history: 10 MHSAA championships (most recent 2014).
Best wins: 14-7 over No. 9 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern in the Semifinal, 14-3 (Regional Final) and 17-3 over No. 6 Birmingham United, 7-4 and 15-8 over No. 7 Detroit U-D Jesuit, 11-4 and 14-10 over No. 2 Detroit Country Day, 14-6 over No. 3 Detroit Catholic Central.
Players to watch: Ross Reason, jr. G (6.90 goals-against average); Brendon Kennedy, sr. A (29 goals, 12 assists); Morgan Macko, jr. A/M (56 goals, 46 assists); John Lockwood, sr. A (54 goals, 47 assists); Riley North, jr. A (31 goals, 11 assists).
Outlook: The Warriors have continued to dominate Michigan boys lacrosse, going undefeated in-state with the only losses. They fell to one of Indiana’s top teams (Culver Military Academy) three times and a Canadian power (Toronto Hill Academy) while also beating one of Ohio’s best in Upper Arlington and Indiana’s top-ranked team, Carmel. All seven all-staters from last season are gone, but more of the best from 2014 have continued to carry the program – Lockwood and Macko were among the team’s top scorers last season and combined for nine of the team’s 23 goals in last spring’s championship game win over DCC.
DETROIT CATHOLIC CENTRAL
Record/rank: 14-5, No. 3 at end of regular season
League finish: Second in Detroit Catholic High School League A
Coach: Dave Wilson, 10th season (131-62)
Championship history: Division 1 runner-up 2014, 2010, 2007 and 2006.
Best wins: 14-13 over No. 2 Detroit Country Day in the Semifinal, 14-13 over No. 4 Brighton, 13-6 (Regional Final), and 7-4 over No. 7 Detroit U-D Jesuit, 20-9 over No. 9 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, 19-12 over No. 5 Troy, 11-8 over No. 10 Ann Arbor Skyline.
Players to watch: Zach Crawford, sr. A; Andrew Caris, jr. LSM; Alex Jarzembowski, jr. M; Rocco Mularoni, jr. A (Statistics not submitted.)
Outlook: DCC is back in the Final for the second straight season after edging Country Day, last season’s Division 2 champion, in the Semifinal. This team has a bit of a different look – there are only eight seniors, and only four start. In addition to wins listed above, the Shamrocks also were 3-1 against Division 2 teams that finished the regular season ranked among the top four, losing only to top-ranked Forest Hills Central (9-7 in DCC’s first game this season). They’re on a roll with eight straight wins – including six over ranked opponents – since falling to Brother Rice 14-6 in their only meeting this season.
Division 2
BLOOMFIELD HILLS CRANBROOK KINGSWOOD
Record/rank: 13-9, No. 4 at end of regular season
League finish: Fourth in Detroit Catholic High School League A
Coach: Mat Wilson, fourth season (55-31)
Championship history: Division 2 champion 2013 and 2006, runner-up in 2014 and 2007.
Best wins: 8-7 (OT) over No. 1 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central in the Semifinal, 11-5 over No. 6 Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, 13-12 over Division 1 No. 2 Detroit Country Day.
Players to watch: Johnny Wagner, sr. M; Bennett Faliski, sr. M; Peter Augier, sr. M; Michael Langdon, sr. D; Jack Blumberg, sr. D. (Statistics not submitted.).
Outlook: Cranbrook Kingswood is back in the Final for the third straight season and despite graduating a pair of standout offensive players after finishing runner-up last spring. Wagner is finishing a career that already has him entered in the MHSAA records listings three times, and he with the other four players mentioned above all earned all-state honors in 2014. The Cranes started 2-7 but faced both Division 1 finalists and top teams from Ohio; they are 11-2 since and have given up only 16 goals total over four tournament games.
OKEMOS
Record/rank: 17-2, No. 2 at end of regular season
League finish: First in Capital Area Activities Conference
Coach: Shawn Grady, 13th season (156-77)
Championship history: Has not played in an MHSAA Final.
Best wins: 14-10 (Semifinal) and 12-9 over No. 3 East Grand Rapids, 12-10 over Division 1 No. 4 Brighton.
Players to watch: Blake Grewal Turner, sr. A (60 goals, 21 assists); Cole Jamieson, sr. M (27 goals, 18 assists); Bennett Sherman, jr. A (56 goals, 31 assists); Cameron Stelljes, sr. G (5.20 goals-against average); Sam Horton, sr. D.
Outlook: The Chieftains have been building toward this first-time Finals appearance, improving their win total four straight seasons and with a group that went 15-2 in 2014 with five all-staters that are back this spring. Okemos’ only losses this season were to two of the best in Division 1 – by two goals to No. 9 Forest Hills Northern in the opener and then by only one goal to No. 3 Detroit Catholic Central in the regular-season finale. Those were two of only four opponents who scored more than seven goals on the Chieftains this season.
PHOTO: Okemos' Blake Grewal Turner works to get past a DeWitt defender during a victory this season. (Photo courtesy of Alan Holben Photography.)
Seniors Lead Forest Hills Central Back to #1
June 8, 2019
By Jeff Bleiler
Special for Second Half
HOWELL – The Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central boys lacrosse seniors played in the Division 2 championship game all four years of their high school careers.
Safe to say, Saturday’s capper was tops.
Senior Tate Hallock scored five goals and assisted on four others, and fellow senior Luke Majick added five goals and three assists as the Rangers overwhelmed a young Ada Forest Hills Eastern squad 20-4 on Saturday at Parker Field in Howell.
The championship was the fourth in program history, joining one in 2016 when this year’s seniors were freshmen. The past two years, the Rangers fell short to East Grand Rapids – by two goals two years ago and by one in double overtime last year.
“It feels amazing,” Hallock said. “Obviously, sophomore and junior year we didn’t get it, and freshman year we got it but I wasn’t able to play. So just taking it all in, and it’s amazing that I finally played, got some goals and was able to contribute.”
The Rangers finished the year 22-1, their lone loss to Division 1 champion Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice. The Hawks went 16-7 in their first season under coach Zack Grusell, who served as an offensive coordinator for Central in 2015.
“It’s amazing,” Central coach Andy Shira said. “These guys, especially this group of seniors, I’ve been coaching since they were 11 years old. So to see them go out this way is truly special. It’s sad to see it end, but it’s ending in the best way possible for them.”
In six MHSAA Tournament games, Central held each opponent to five goals or fewer and never scored fewer than 17 goals.
“Our senior class has been here four years,” Hallock said. “Eastern is a great team, they’re young, they’ll be here the next couple years too against us probably. But yeah, we’ve been a powerhouse with our senior class.”
After a first quarter that saw both teams kind of feel each other out – despite being familiar with one another after a 17-4 Central victory over Eastern in April – the Rangers opened the scoring gates in the second quarter and never looked back. Sophomore Carson Deines and Hallock both scored in the opening quarter to give Central a 2-0 lead that grew to seven by the 4:28 mark of the second quarter. Majick scored goals 13 seconds apart in the second, and his third of the quarter put Central ahead 7-0.
Sam Bowen and Kaden Dietrich – two of eight sophomores in the Eastern starting lineup – put the Hawks on the board in the second quarter, which ended with Central going ahead 9-2 on a Hallock goal with 19 seconds to play.
Central outscored Eastern 11-2 in the second half, with a running clock for much of the fourth quarter. Senior Evan Matej finished with four goals and an assist, Deines had three goals and two assists, junior Jackson Clay had two goals and two assists and junior Hayden Sarjeant scored a goal for the Rangers.
The 16-goal margin of victory was the widest in a Division 2 Finals game, with the previous high being eight.
It didn’t help matters that Eastern was without sophomore John Morgan, who had a 120-point season end when he broke his foot in a Semifinal victory over East Grand Rapids. But Grusell wasn’t about to use that as an excuse.
“It’s been an awesome season,” he said. “We’re a young team, and it’s been phenomenal to see these guys get to where they are. We scheduled some of the toughest teams in the state of Michigan this year, and they kind of got punched in the mouth earlier this year and had to do a bit of growing up.
“I can’t give a big enough shout-out to seniors Patterson Alward, Brandon Pham, Isaac Wittlinger and all of our seniors, really. They built this program and got us here. We certainly plan on getting another shot at it, so we’ll try to get back here. It’s been one fun run.”
Bowen finished with two goals for Eastern, and sophomore Kevin Sprague scored the Hawks’ other goal.
Click for the full scoring summary.
PHOTOS: (Top) Forest Hills Central’s Jackson Clay (1) makes a move in front of Forest Hills Eastern’s goal during Saturday’s Division 2 Final. (Middle) Forest Hills Eastern’s David Charron (7) gets physical in the midfield.