Pickford Prepping for Next Chance to Shine
October 10, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Pickford football team has relished the opportunity to learn the last two seasons.
The Panthers’ 2016 run ended in the 8-Player Semifinals with a loss to eventual repeat champion Powers North Central. Last season, Pickford didn’t lose a game until the 8-Player Division 2 Semifinals – when it fell to eventual champion Crystal Falls Forest Park by a mere two points.
“There was a point in (last year’s) game where if we could’ve gotten the ball back, we had a chance to win that game,” Pickford coach Josh Rader said. “We know sometime during the season, it’s going to be on the line, and we’re doing our best to prepare for that moment. We put ourselves in different situations in practice. We practice those specific moments … that (are) going to propel you to the next level.”
All signs point to the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for September being well on its way.
After finishing 11-1 a year ago, Pickford is off to a 7-0 start this fall. A 38-20 Week 3 win over Forest Park was the only game where Pickford didn’t score at least 52 points. And the defense has given up 69 points total.
Pickford’s program is the reason the MHSAA introduced 8-player football playoffs in 2011. The school, located on the eastern end of the Upper Peninsula about 25 miles south of Sault Ste. Marie, has roughly 130 students. The varsity has 14 players – with only two seniors and just one sophomore.
Three juniors were on varsity for all of last season, and two more played several games with the top team. “The last few years we’ve had a good group of guys; they work together, they trust each other and they’re just playing good football because of that,” Rader said. “They build on each other.”
Five players have run for at least three touchdowns this season, with junior running back Stephen LaMothe finding the end zone a team-high 10 times to go with 539 yards on the ground – at 10.2 per carry. Junior Matthew Bush has run for a team-high 613 yards – at 9.6 yards per attempt.
But making this Pickford team even more dangerous is junior quarterback Jimmy Storey, a threat both on the ground and through the air. He also averages 10 yards per carry, with 414 yards and 10 touchdowns rushing. He’s completed 63 percent of his pass attempts for 1,043 yards and 23 scores – without an interception. Junior Nicholas Edington is his leading receiver with 18 catches for 469 yards and 11 touchdowns.
And then there’s the defense. Pickford has seven interceptions and seven fumble recoveries – an average of two takeaways per game. Junior Isaiah May has a team-high 61 tackles, and junior Sam Burton has eight sacks. Bush is the team’s second-leading tackler.
How do the Panthers’ pull this off with just 14 players? They stress daily improvements in practice and bringing physicality against opponents. A few defensive stops followed by quick scores, and Pickford is rolling.
Rader joined the staff in 2003 as defensive coordinator and took over as head coach a year later. The Panthers made the 11-player playoffs in eight of 12 seasons with him on staff or leading it, and are 34-7 in 8-player since making the switch in 2015.
But they’re hoping for more this fall. Pickford is prepping for that next step after building up the schedule with seven 2017 playoff teams. After so much success, the Panthers are getting everyone’s best shot, all the saved-up trick plays – and Rader likes that as well. All of it helps his team prepare for next month.
And the community is excited to support another run. Pickford’s best-known sports legend is a boys track & field program that won 27 straight Upper Peninsula Finals from 1952-78. The football program has made four MHSAA Semifinals total over the years and is eyeing a possible championship game trip to Northern Michigan University’s Superior Dome.
“We tried to step that (schedule) up to prepare for those playoff moments and those tough type of games,” Rader said. “(It’s) ‘Let's play this as a playoff game’ – so when we are in the playoffs, hopefully we’ll be battle tested.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2018-19
August: Northville girls golf – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Pickford quarterback Jimmy Storey breaks free during his team’s Week 6 win over Stephenson. (Middle) Panthers senior Mitchell Miller leads the team onto the field this season. (Photos courtesy of the Pickford football program.)
Big Plays, Crucial Stops Drive Lansing Catholic to Latest Finals Fame
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 26, 2021
DETROIT – The Lansing Catholic defense spent the postseason nearing its peak performance.
In Friday’s MHSAA Division 6 Football Final, the Cougars reached it.
They forced five turnovers and shut down a powerful Warren Michigan Collegiate run game on their way to a 16-6 victory at Ford Field.
“Our defense is just something special. It’s a true brotherhood,” Lansing Catholic senior linebacker Mason Knippen said. “We just really started clicking as the playoffs started. Going into the season, we wanted to be a physical defense. We preached that through camp, and I think we really stepped that up as we progressed through the playoffs. We really were physical with the run and everything.”
The title was the third for Lansing Catholic (13-1), and second in three years, as it won Division 5 in 2019.
“It’s awful special, but credit (former coach) Jim Ahern for bringing in this system, and credit these guys – these guys are all like my sons,” said first-year Lansing Catholic coach Jim Baker, whose son Joey was the team's starting quarterback. “I’ve coached them since basically kindergarten, and they’re all my sons. It’s just that (Joey) happened to be the quarterback, but I love all these guys to death. It’s special just to be the head coach of these unbelievable men.”
To win title No. 3, Lansing Catholic needed to hold off a suddenly explosive Michigan Collegiate passing game in the fourth quarter, and it did so with big plays of its own. Four of the final five Michigan Collegiate drives ended with a turnover, as Brandon Lewis, Dan Shipman and Knippen each had an interception, and Jack Jacobs forced and recovered a fumble. Knippen’s interception sealed the victory with 1:36 remaining in the game.
Lansing Catholic gave up only 40 points, or eight per game, during its playoff run.
Neither team could get much going for much of the first half, and for Lansing Catholic that meant some great field position going to waste. Lansing Catholic started four of its first five drives in Collegiate territory, but didn’t get on the board until Jonah Richards hit a 20-yard field goal with 4:58 to play in the second quarter.
“I’m so proud of (the defense). They played so hard,” Michigan Collegiate coach John Guth said. “They were out there a long time. We were trying to give certain individuals some breathers, but they were just really grinding it out. They knew what they had in front of them, they knew how explosive they were, but, man, they played so good. They kept us in the game.”
The offense started clicking for Lansing Catholic on its next possession, as it drove 72 yards on eight plays in just 1:18 to take a 9-0 halftime lead, scoring on a 10-yard pass from Joey Baker to Owen Biergans.
Michigan Collegiate (11-3) had a much tougher time of it, recording two first downs and 53 yards of offense in the first half despite holding a slight edge in time of possession.
Lansing Catholic extended its lead to 16-0 late in the third quarter on a one-yard touchdown run from Baker, and it was the defense that had a big hand in that one, as well. The drive started on the Michigan Collegiate 27-yard line after an interception and return by Shipman.
Based on the tenor of the game up until then, 16 points seemed like enough, but the Michigan Collegiate offense found some life on the ensuing drive thanks to some big plays in the pass game. That included a 37-yard touchdown pass from Deion Black to Trevon Redding in which Redding caught the ball between a pair of Lansing Catholic defenders, and lunged into the end zone with one on his back. The two-point attempt failed, leaving it a two-score game at 16-6, but the 80-yard drive more than doubled the Michigan Collegiate total yardage up to that point.
Black finished with 220 yards on 10 of 26 passing. Redding led the receivers with four catches for 97 yards. Alfonso Gray III had a pair of interceptions for the Michigan Collegiate defense, while Black, Elijah Bush and Teshawn Thomas each had nine tackles.
Biergans led the Lansing Catholic defense with 11, while Knippen had eight. Baker finished with 181 yards on 17 of 39 passing. Senior Alex Watters caught six passes for 78 yards, and Biergans caught seven for 69.
PHOTOS (Top) Lansing Catholic celebrates its second championship in three seasons Friday at Ford Field. (Middle) The Cougars’ Brandon Lewis (24) cuts upfield as Michigan Collegiate’s Alfonso Gray III (3) gets in position to make contact. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)