Hudson Rides Dominating Defense to Lock Down Division 8 Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 26, 2021
DETROIT – For a team not used to giving up points – or yards, for that matter – it would have been easy Friday for Hudson to make some big changes at halftime to slow down a Beal City offense that had found success through the passing game.
But the Tigers – who entered the MHSAA Division 8 Final having allowed 107.7 yards and less than a touchdown per game through the Semifinals – didn’t stray from the gameplan.
“Honestly, (the adjustment was) just keep playing,” Hudson coach Dan Rogers said. “They did a great job, their line, we couldn’t get pressure on the quarterback. He could get out on the edge and we struggled getting to him. That made us cover a lot longer than we want to, so we were trying to get to the quarterback a little bit more, keep the receivers in front of us and make plays on the football.”
It worked, as Hudson smothered Beal City in the second half, allowing just 17 yards over the final 24 minutes of its 14-7 victory at Ford Field to claim its second Finals title.
“I can’t even describe it yet; it hasn’t really hit me yet,” said Hudson senior running back and safety Bronson Marry, who had a crucial late-game interception. “I’m just waiting to walk out of the locker room and find our families. It’s going to (hit like) a brick wall.”
While Hudson (14-0) never led by more than one score, Beal City never threatened to overcome it, spending the entirety of the second half offensively on its own side of the field. The Aggies’ five second-half possessions went for 4, -6, 13, 1 and 5 yards, and totaled 5 minutes and 29 seconds.
A fumble, an interception and downs ended the last three drives, with Nick Kopin breaking up the final Beal City pass attempt with 1:51 to play, sealing the game. It was a fitting end to Kopin’s big day, as he also had forced a fumble earlier in the fourth quarter and rushed for 131 yards and both of Hudson’s touchdowns.
“It’s amazing,” Kopin said. “Obviously, I’m going to credit all my runs to our offensive line and our play-calling by coach (Jeremy) Beal. It set up really good cutbacks, and they were blocking real well. Defensively, credit to (Coach Rogers), he’s very strict on us reading our keys and doing our jobs. I think all of us, including myself, just did that, and the game turned out in our favor.”
Kopin’s second score, a 2-yard run, came with 6:58 to play and put the Tigers up 14-7. The two-point pass was no good, however, keeping Beal City within a touchdown. The Aggies received a further boost with the return of quarterback Hunter Miles, who had been injured midway through the third quarter, but Hudson’s defense didn’t allow for a storybook comeback.
“Hunter Miles is Hunter Miles; he’s a warrior,” Beal City coach Brad Gross said. “That’s Hunter Miles. Ankle, ribs, everything else (was hurt). We have a lot of guys dinged up. Cade Block’s had a (injured) shoulder that he’s been playing with for three weeks. Wade Wilson has a broken hand that he played the whole game with. We’re just banged up. We have a bunch of warriors. That’s why we’re here.”
Miles had more success in the first half, mostly on the strength of a pair of big pass plays to Carter Fussman. The first was a 53-yard touchdown pass late in the first quarter. Miles rolled to his right before finding Fussman open near the 10-yard line.
The second was a 56-yard throw and catch on the penultimate play of the first half, which came immediately after Hudson had taken an 8-7 lead on a 2-yard run from Kopin and a two-point conversion pass from Anthony Arredondo to Ambrose Horwath. The big pass play ended with Fussman being hauled down by Horwath at the Hudson 7-yard line with four seconds left in the half.
That tackle wound up being enormous, as an incomplete pass on the next play ended the half with Hudson still in the lead.
“It probably made the conversation at halftime better,” Rogers said. “It was a huge tackle. That’s what we talk about: You just have to keep playing. They’re going to make plays, things are going to happen, and it would have been just as easy to hang your head and he runs into the end zone. Our kids don’t do that, and Ambrose, he made a play, and that’s what we had to have.”
Hudson’s offense had success on the ground, rushing for 282 yards, but strong red zone defense from the Aggies kept them in the game. All five of Hudson’s second half drives – excluding the final one, which consisted of three kneel downs – ended at least within the Beal City 35, but just one led to a score.
“You have to give credit to Beal City, too,” Rogers said. “When we got down there, they stiffened up defensively and took all the inside runs away. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to score and it kept the game close.”
Payton Rogers added 62 yards on the ground for Hudson, while Horwath hauled in the lone completed pass for the Tigers, a 17-yard catch from Easten Strodtman that converted a 3rd-and-long on the Tigers’ fourth-quarter touchdown drive. Kopin led the Hudson defense with six tackles, while Strodtman and Ethan Harris each recorded a sack.
Fussman led the Beal City (12-2) offense with two catches for 109 yards, while Miles finished with 128 yards through the air – all in the first half. Josh Wilson recorded 13 tackles to lead the Beal City defense, while Miles had eight.
PHOTOS (Top) Hudson’s Easten Strodtman brings down Beal City quarterback Jack Fussman during Friday’s Division 8 Final. (Middle) The Tigers’ Ambrose Horwath (10) tries to get a hand on the ball with the Aggies’ Carter Fussman (2) and Jack Fussman defending. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Another 1st-Time Opportunity Awaits as Hart Continues Memorable Playoff Run
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
November 1, 2023
HART – When Hart High School constructed a new trophy case last year, football coach Joe Tanis was given the job of organizing it.
Talk about adding insult to injury.
Tanis found a home for all 67 of the trophies in the new display case – including District, Regional and state championship trophies from every sport under the sun, from cross country to wrestling to bowling. Every sport, that is, except for football.
“We have a chance to do something very special this Friday night,” Tanis, in his third year as Hart’s head coach, told his huddled team at the end of Monday’s practice. “We have a chance to add the first football trophy to that trophy case.”
Hart (9-1), which qualified for the football playoffs for the first time in school history and became the final Muskegon-area school to earn a playoff berth, then picked up its first playoff win Friday, 44-22, over Kent City in a Division 6 District Semifinal in front of 2,000 fans at Hart.
“Winning a playoff game felt amazing,” said senior quarterback and safety Connor Edwards. “It was so cool to look out at the crowd and see it packed all the way to the concession stand. I’ve never seen that before.”
The Pirates will now play for a coveted District championship trophy this Friday night at Reed City.
“I grew up watching Hart football and never have we ever had a good football team,” said senior cornerback and running back Austin Martinez. “The coolest part is that our grade, since we were little kids playing Bucs football, said we were going to turn it around and now we’re doing it.
“Our team is just a bunch of aggressive guys that don’t back down from anyone.”
Hart’s football woes go back decades, and many in the town of 2,126 located about 30 miles north of Muskegon were starting to wonder if their Pirates would ever win on the gridiron. In fact, one must understand the depths of despair the Hart football program has endured to appreciate the current level of euphoria.
Before Tanis’s arrived in 2021, the Pirates had won a total of 12 football games over the previous 10 years, with their last winning season coming with a 5-4 mark in 1997.
Tanis’ tenure started off in typical Hart fashion at 2-5, but his team won its final two games in 2021, leading into a 6-3 season last fall and 9-1 this year.
“We have celebrated on 17 of our last 21 Friday nights,” Tanis said.
Hart’s football turnaround is the final piece of the puzzle to complete the school’s amazing sports renaissance.
Hart won five consecutive Finals titles in girls cross country from 2017 to 2021, the boys cross country team won the school’s first boys team championship last fall, girls track has captured back-to-back Finals titles, competitive cheer took fourth in Division 4 last spring, girls basketball made it to the 2023 Division 3 Semifinals and boys basketball finished 20-0 last regular season – winning the school’s first boys basketball conference title in 60 years.
Football started its turnaround with the arrival of Tanis and defensive coordinator Jacob Tumele in 2021 – a coaching duo which has worked tirelessly recruiting, getting kids in the weight room and, as Tanis readily admits, getting a big boost with the realignment of the West Michigan Conference.
The WMC broke into two divisions in 2021, with a larger-school Lakes division featuring powers Oakridge, Whitehall and Montague, and Hart settling into a much more favorable schedule in the smaller-school Rivers division. The Pirates took second in the Rivers this fall, with their only loss coming at the hands of unbeaten North Muskegon.
Tanis also preached an “all-in” mentality, starting with himself.
Tanis, a Grandville native whose last head coaching job before Hart stretched seven years at Muskegon Orchard View, bought a house on Pirate’s Way leading into the town’s academic campus.
“One of the conditions of this job was that I had to move into town,” explained the 41-year-old Tanis. “Well, to get to my driveway, you first have to pull into the school driveway, so I can’t get any closer. And we absolutely love it.”
All five members of the Tanis family could easily walk to school each day. Joe is the dean of students at the high school, wife Jilanna works in the district’s central business office located in the early elementary building, his two youngest kids are in the elementary school and his oldest child is at the middle school.
“There is a Tanis in all four of the buildings,” Tanis said with a smile.
On the field, Tanis dug back into football’s past to find Hart’s new offense – the single wing, which features a direct center snap to one of the three backs, a quarterback who blocks more than he throws and an unbalanced line to create mismatches at the point of attack.
Hart, which starts seven seniors on both sides of the ball, is averaging 49 points per game during its current five-game winning streak.
Senior Joseluis Andaverde (known to all his teammates as “Beast Mode”) is the most dangerous offensive weapon with 185 carries for 1,537 yards and 19 TDs. His primary blocker is Edwards, the quarterback, who has rushed for 756 yards and 12 touchdowns while completing 11-of-35 passes for 267 yards, five TDs and one interception.
Five of the Pirates’ six starters on the offensive line are seniors, with the exception of standout sophomore Hollis Rockwell at center – which is a critically important position in the single-wing offense.
Tanis feels the unique offense really benefits his team in the playoffs, when teams have only one week to prepare for it.
That being said, Tanis knows his undersized and inexperienced playoff team will be the underdog this week at Reed City, a perennial playoff team which came within one point of advancing to Ford Field last season, losing 13-12 to Negaunee in a Division 6 Semifinal.
“The major appeal of taking this job was having the opportunity to do things that have never been done here before,” said Tanis. “We have done some of those things, and hopefully there are more to come.
“You have to change the way the kids think, and we’ve done that. Now these kids think of themselves as winners.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Senior tailback Joseluis Andaverde runs the ball in a game against White Cloud on Aug. 31. (Middle) Hart coach Joe Tanis, in his third year, has led the Pirates to a 9-1 record thus far and the school's first-ever playoff victory on Oct. 27 against Kent City. (Below) Hart's senior football players and their coaches take a final walk off the field after defeating Ravenna, 44-0, on Oct. 20 in the final regular-season home game. (Photos by Harriet Kidder.)