Preview: 1st-Time Finalists, D3 Rematch Among Saturday Storylines
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
November 5, 2021
Three teams will make their first MHSAA Boys Soccer Finals appearances Saturday, and we’re guaranteed a first-time champion in Division 4. Three more finalists are seeking to win their first Finals title in a decade or longer.
And then there’s the Division 3 Final, where the two contenders couldn’t be more familiar with each other. Grosse Ile has won two straight championships, both times defeating Grand Rapids South Christian, and they’ll meet for a third-straight title-deciding match Saturday at Comstock Park.
Here’s a look at Saturday’s full schedule:
NOVI
Division 1: New Baltimore Anchor Bay (22-1-1) vs Okemos (19-0-4), noon
Division 4: Clarkston Everest Collegiate (18-2-4) vs Wyoming Potter's House (23-3-1), 3 p.m.
COMSTOCK PARK
Division 2: Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice (10-6-4) vs Grand Rapids Christian (15-7-2), noon
Division 3: Grosse Ile (21-1-1) vs Grand Rapids South Christian (21-0-3), 3 p.m.
All of Saturday’s Finals will be broadcast live and viewable with subscription on MHSAA.tv, with audio available on MHSAANetwork.com. See below for glances at all eight finalists, and come back to Second Half later Saturday for coverage of all four championship games. (The Michigan Power Rating noted below is derived from a team's success and strength of schedule and was used to seed Districts at the start of the postseason. The MPRs listed were where teams ranked at the start of District play. Rankings were by the Michigan High School Soccer Coaches Association in its final weekly poll.)
DIVISION 1
NEW BALTIMORE ANCHOR BAY
Record/rank: 22-1-1, No. 3
Michigan Power Rating: No. 9
Coach: Nate Williams, 10th season (108-63-19)
League finish: First in Macomb Area Conference Red
Championship history: Has never played in an MHSAA Final.
Players to watch: Evan Linsley, sr. GK (0.97 goals-against average, 6 shutouts); Jake Ursitti, sr. F (21 goals, 8 assists); Carson Hodgson, sr. M (13 goals, 29 assists); Tanner Hodgson, sr. M (21 goals, 17 assists).
Outlook: Bringing Anchor Bay to its first MHSAA Final in this sport is a crowning achievement for a group of 16 seniors, including nine who start. But they have a chance to accomplish an even greater feat. The Tars earned it in part by handing top-ranked Troy its only loss in last week’s Regional Final, and Anchor Bay’s only defeat this fall came against No. 15 Macomb Dakota – a loss then avenged in the District Final. Tanner Hodgson made the all-state first team and Carson Hodgson and Linsley made the second team in 2020 when the team reached the Regional Finals and lost in a shootout.
OKEMOS
Record/rank: 19-0-4, No. 4
Michigan Power Rating: No. 4
Coach: Brian Guggemos, 20th season (290-83-43)
League finish: First in Capital Area Activities Conference Blue
Championship history: Division 1 champion 2004, Class B-C champion 1984.
Players to watch: Sawyer Van Antwerp, jr. GK (0.46 goals-against average, 10.5 shutouts); Ben Hussey, sr. M (4 goals, 5 assists); Jack Guggemos, sr. F (45 goals, 14 assists); Owen Brewer, sr. F (19 goals, 19 assists).
Outlook: Okemos won its first Regional title since 2004 after claiming a third-straight District trophy and a league championship ahead of No. 11 East Lansing and Division 2 No. 12 DeWitt. Okemos defeated the Trojans, No. 8 East Kentwood and No. 5 Northville on the way to the championship match. The ties came early against East Lansing and Rochester Hills Stoney Creek and then at the end of September against Division 2 finalist Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice and Troy. Eight seniors start. Jack Guggemos set the school record for goals this fall after making the all-state first team last season, and Hussey earned an all-state honorable mention a year ago.
DIVISION 2
BLOOMFIELD HILLS BROTHER RICE
Record/rank: 10-6-4, unranked
Michigan Power Rating: No. 32
Coach: Danny Price, third season (19-27-5)
League finish: Fourth in Detroit Catholic League Central
Championship history: Two MHSAA titles (most recent 2009), three runner-up finishes.
Players to watch: Giuliano Denipoti, sr. F (12 goals), Enzo Bordogna, jr. D (3 goals, 15 assists), Josh Copeland, jr. M (4 goals, 5 assists), Henry Allen, jr. GK (1.55 goals-against average).
Outlook: Brother Rice has found its stride under Price this season, and especially over the last three weeks after coming into the playoffs on an 0-3-1 trip – although that draw was against Division 1 finalist Okemos. The Warriors also had shown their potential with regular-season wins over Detroit Catholic Central and Detroit Country Day, and a 3-1 District Final victory over No. 5 Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood made a big wave in the bracket. Rice defeated No. 12 DeWitt in a shootout Wednesday to advance to this weekend. The future should be bright as well with only two seniors among 11 players who have scored for the team this fall.
GRAND RAPIDS CHRISTIAN
Record/rank: 16-7-2, No. 13
Michigan Power Rating: No. 20
Coach: Aric Dershem, second season (28-10-2)
League finish: Second in Ottawa-Kent Conference White
Championship history: Division 2 champion 1998 and 2001.
Players to watch: Nicholas Cassiday, sr. M (36 goals, 10 assists); Benjamin Kuiper, sr. F (16 goals, 5 assists); Hans Pruis, sr. F (10 goals, 9 assists); Xander Scofield, jr. GK (1.94 goals-against average, 6 shutouts).
Outlook: Grand Rapids Christian won its first Regional title since that last Division 2 championship run, despite entering the postseason off a 1-4-1 two-week span. The Eagles have outscored their six tournament opponents by a combined 27-4, upsetting top-ranked and reigning champion Richland Gull Lake 2-1 in the Semifinal and also defeating No. 8 Petoskey, No. 9 Spring Lake and No. 14 East Grand Rapids along the way. Cassiday made the all-state Dream Team last season, while senior defender Eli Leegwater and junior midfielder Jonathan Clarkin also are back in the lineup after earning all-state honorable mentions in 2020.
DIVISION 3
GRAND RAPIDS SOUTH CHRISTIAN
Record/rank: 21-0-3, No. 5
Michigan Power Rating: No. 2
Coach: Joel Vande Kopple, first season (21-0-3)
League finish: First in O-K Gold
Championship history: Three MHSAA titles (most recent 2015), four runner-up finishes.
Players to watch: Levi DeRuiter, sr. M (7 goals, 18 assists); Diego Tiscareno, sr. M (13 goals, 3 assists); Sam Medendorp, jr. F (12 goals, 6 assists); Jordan Gabrielse, sr. F (12 goals, 5 assists).
Outlook: South Christian returns for its third-straight try for the Division 3 title after graduating five players who earned all-state recognition in 2020. The Sailors did return DeRuiter, who earned an honorable mention a year ago, and Vande Kopple took over the program with more than 200 career wins and having led Lansing Christian to the 2013 Division 4 championship. The Sailors have defeated No. 1 Holland Christian, No. 4 Elk Rapids and No. 12 Grand Rapids Catholic Central during their tournament run and total have won 16 straight matches.
GROSSE ILE
Record/rank: 21-1-1, No. 2
Michigan Power Rating: No. 5
Coach: Jon Evans, sixth season (136-7-10)
League finish: First in Huron League
Championship history: Division 3 champions 2002, 2019 and 2020; runner-up 2018.
Players to watch: Hayden Watson, jr. GK (13 shutouts), Joe Molnar, jr. M (24 goals, 8 assists), Anthony Shaheen, sr. F (21 goals, 6 assists), Jon Duke, sr. M (16 goals, 9 assists); Cannon Kawadri, jr. M (12 goals, 6 assists).
Outlook: Grosse Ile is making its fourth-straight trip to the championship match with a lot of important players from last season’s run again leading the way. Duke, Kawadri and Watson all made the all-state first team in 2020, while sophomore defender Ali Khaled (2 goals/19 assists) and senior defender Clayton Lafayette (4 goals/14 assists) made the third team and senior defender Ty Garza (8 goals/8 assists) earned an honorable mention. The only loss this fall came in the regular-season finale to Division 1 Brownstown Woodhaven, and the Red Devils rebounded to outscore their five playoff opponents by a combined 23-5.
DIVISION 4
CLARKSTON EVEREST COLLEGIATE
Record/rank: 17-2-4, No. 5
Michigan Power Rating: No. 11
Coach: John Haezebrouck, 11th season (94-86-21)
League finish: First in Detroit Catholic League Intersectional #2
Championship history: Has never played in an MHSAA Final.
Players to watch: Lucas Cross, sr. F/M (29 goals, 29 assists); Mark Cross, fr. F (24 goals, 7 assists); Luke Walker jr. M/D (6 goals, 17 assists); Tom Williams, jr. GK (1.03 goals-against average, 7 shutouts).
Outlook: Haezebrouck has built Everest from a program finishing under .500 five of his first six seasons to one that is coming off its third-straight Regional title. The Mountaineers got past league rival and No. 4-ranked Royal Oak Shrine Catholic in the District Final before winning Regional matches against No. 11 Lansing Christian and No. 10 Bad Axe. The only losses came to Shrine in their first of three meetings Sept. 2 and 1-0 to Division 3 No. 10 Pontiac Notre Dame Prep. Lucas Cross made the all-state first team in 2020 and Walker made the second. Sophomore forward Tito Fortuny had added nine more goals heading into this week.
WYOMING POTTER’S HOUSE
Record/rank: 23-3-1, No. 6
Michigan Power Rating: No. 8
Coach: Mike Colago, third season (46-12-3)
League finish: First in Alliance League
Championship history: Has never played in an MHSAA Final.
Players to watch: Jonathan Stout, sr. F (26 goals, 9 assists); Seth Hoeksema, sr. GK (0.76 goals-against average, 11 shutouts); Jok Nhial, sr. F (9 goals, 6 assists); Yosia Mukanda, sr. M (24 goals, 5 assists).
Outlook: Potter’s House has reached the season’s final week for the first time after navigating a tournament path that included No. 2 Grandville Calvin Christian and saw the Pumas win three one-goal games and their District opener in a shootout. Stout made the all-state first team last season and Hoeksema and Nhial earned honorable mentions, and they lead a starting lineup featuring six seniors total. Junior midfielder Jacob Caballero (3 goals/8 assists) also had reached double-digit points entering the week, and senior forward Daniel Fesahaye (5 goals/4 assists) and junior midfielder Rukundo Masengesho (3 goals/5 assists) were closing in.
PHOTO Grosse Ile's Jon Duke (4), here controlling possession during last season's Division 3 Final, returns Saturday hoping to help his team to a three-peat.
Soccer, Hoops Next to Seed Using MPR
August 6, 2019
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
As the topic of seeding for MHSAA Tournaments continues to swirl in the air of numerous committee meetings on an annual basis, one of the primary concerns continues to focus on the simple question: “How?”
The MHSAA for years has been working behind the scenes on potential formulas which could best be used as a standardized tool to assist in measuring strengths of teams in a given sport.
This spring, the MHSAA introduced the Michigan Power Rating in the sport of Boys Lacrosse. The Representative Council approved limited seeding beginning in 2019-20 for girls and boys soccer and girls and boys basketball, and MPR will be the metric to determine which two teams must be seeded on opposite sides of District brackets in those sports.
“The boys lacrosse tournament has been seeded since it was added as an MHSAA-sponsored sport in 2005. The seeding is done by committee based on several criteria, one of which was statewide power rankings generated by a third-party website. In the Fall of 2018, that website ceased operation – it was the perfect opportunity for the MHSAA to develop its own data-driven, purely objective ratings system and incorporate that data into the seeding criteria,” said Cole Malatinsky, administrative assistant for the sport.
“The benefits of the new MPR system have been already mentioned – it is MHSAA controlled, simple, objective, and transparent, and it can be used by other MHSAA sports in the future.”
MPR is a computer rating formula similar to the popular RPI rating. MPR provides a way to measure a team’s strength relative to other teams, based on games played against other MHSAA tournament teams, largely on the strength of their opponents’ schedules. MPR is purely objective using only the game results listed on MHSAA.com – there is no subjective human element.
What is the basic MPR formula?
MPR is calculated using wins, losses and ties for games played between teams entered into the MHSAA tournament. The final MPR number is 25% of the team's winning percentage, plus 50% of its opponent's winning percentage, plus 25% of its opponent's opponent's winning percentage.
MPR = (.25 x W%) + (.50 x OW%) + (.25 x OOW%)
The MPR formula can be applied easily to other MHSAA team sports.
What game data is included in the formula? What game data is not?
MPR looks only at results between opponents entered into the MHSAA postseason tournament. Wins, losses and ties in multi-team shortened game tournaments (lacrosse, soccer) also count. Forfeits also are counted as wins and losses.
MPR does not use the specific scores of a game or the margin of victory in a game. The location of a game is not included in the MPR formula, and the formula weighs results at the beginning of the season the same as results at the end of the season. Scrimmages are not included.
Why use the MPR formula?
Different rating systems have been used in the past or have been recommended to the MHSAA. We wanted to have a rating system where the data was controlled and stored in house and could be used for any sport featuring head-to-head competitions.
With its own rating system the MHSAA also can control the different components of the formula, thus keeping the tenets of scholastic competition at the forefront (like not including margin of victory in the formula). Finally, by listing all scores and team schedules online, as well as showing the MPR calculator on each team schedule page, the ratings are transparent and can be replicated easily.
CALCULATING MPR
What are the detailed components of the MPR formula?
You need three numbers to calculate your MPR: winning percentage (W%), opponent’s winning percentage (OW%) and opponent’s opponent’s winning percentage (OOW%).
How do you calculate winning percentage (W%)?
Divide the number of wins by the number of total games played. A tie is worth half a win. For MPR purposes, find the winning percentage against all teams that will play in the MHSAA tournament (MPR W%). Games played against out-of-state teams, varsity “B” teams, junior varsity teams, non-school club teams, and any other non-MHSAA tournament participants should not be included when calculating winning percentage. W% should be an easy number to calculate.
How do you calculate opponent’s winning percentage (OW%)?
Average the winning percentages of a team's opponents. When calculating the winning percentage of a specific opponent, use the opponents "Adjusted Winning Percentage" (ADJ W%). Adjusted winning percentage eliminates all games the team played against that opponent (as well as its games against non-MHSAA opponents).
For instance, if the team beat an opponent with an overall record of 4-1, use a record of 4-0 (1.000) for that opponent. If the team lost to an opponent, use a record of 3-1 (.750). Find the ADJ W% for all opponents, and then take the average. If a team plays an opponent team twice, that opponent’s ADJ W% will be counted twice.
OW% is not calculated via the combined record of the opponents; instead take the average of all opponent’s winning percentages.
How do you calculate opponent’s opponent’s winning percentage (OOW%)?
Use the same process described above, except calculated for the opponents of a team's opponents. This number is much harder to manually calculate, so the OW% for every team is listed on the MPR page of the MHSAA website.
Again, simply take the average of all opponent’s OW%.
How often is MPR calculated?
MPR is calculated about every five minutes. Enter a score and a minutes later the team MPR and the MPR of all the team's opponents will update.
How much will my MPR change throughout the season?
You will see wild MPR swings in the beginning of the season, but after about 10 games played your MPR will start to level out. At 20 games played you will see very little movement with each additional game played.
My score is missing. How can it be added?
This is a crowd-sourced system. Any registered user of MHSAA.com can add a missing score. ADs, coaches, parents, students and fans all can login and enter a score for any game.
What are some common errors when calculating MPR?
When calculating your team’s winning percentage, only include games against MHSAA-tournament teams. When calculating your opponent’s winning percentage, don’t include the games they played against you. When calculating ties, count the game as a half-win and half-loss.
What happens if a game is cancelled?
Because the MPR system works off of averages, it will not make a difference in the final MPR if a game cannot be rescheduled. It would not penalize, nor benefit, any team involved in that scenario.
USING THE WEBSITE
Where can I find game scores?
A list of statewide scores for all sports can be found in the MHSAA Score Center. To find a schedule for any team click on “Schools & Schedules” in the top navigation bar, search for the school, then once on the school page click the sport. You can also see a list of all schools (with links to schedules), on the statewide MPR list.
“We continue to have great success in score reporting for varsity boys lacrosse contests. While we state that schedule submission and score reporting to MHSAA.com are required, athletic directors and coaches understand that in order for MPR data to be accurate, we need consistent and accurate score reporting,” said Malatinsky. “MHSAA.com is now the primary site for high school boys lacrosse schedules, results and ratings in the state.”
How should I use the statewide list of teams and MPR?
Linked to the boys soccer page (and eventually to be added for both basketball pages and girls soccer) is a statewide listing of all Michigan Power Ratings (MPR) for teams entered into the MHSAA postseason tournament for that sport. Linked on the MPR page is an explanation of the District draw formula, describing when and how teams will be placed on the bracket.
The MPR data updates every five minutes. Click on the column headings to sort the data. You also can use the drop-down menu to show teams in one Division, or type a District number in the box to filter teams for that District (Region for boys lacrosse).
You also can click on any school name to go to its schedule page.
How do I read the school schedule page?
The schedule at the top of the page shows the date and opponent for all scheduled games, and results for games already played. If results are missing, click “Submit Score” to add a game score.
Below the game schedule is the MPR Calculator. The calculator is split into three sections. The first section shows the three MPR component scores for the team, as well as the team’s current MPR score. The second section shows the MPR information for the team’s opponents – specifically, for the opponents the team already has played (actually, for games where scores have been submitted). Only these games are included in the MPR calculation.
The third section highlights future opponents. The MPR data for future opponents are not used in the MPR calculation for the team.
PHOTO: East Kentwood and Ann Arbor Skyline play for last season’s Division 1 boys soccer championship.