Playoff Experience Paying Off as Menominee Pursues Return Trip to Ford Field
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
November 14, 2024
MENOMINEE – Survive and advance.
The Menominee Maroons did just that Saturday as they escaped with a 35-32 overtime football triumph over the Traverse City St. Francis Gladiators in a Division 7 District Final.
Menominee sealed the verdict on junior quarterback Tanner Theuerkauf’s seven-yard scoring pass to junior Dawson Bardowski, helping the Maroons (10-1) move a step closer to what they hope will be a return visit to the Finals later this month.
They host North Muskegon (10-1) in Saturday’s Regional Final at noon (CST) – and defeated North Muskegon 32-21 in a Semifinal last season to book their trip to Detroit. Menominee eventually finished last fall as Division 7 runner-up, dropping a 34-30 decision to Jackson Lumen Christi at Ford Field.
But the Maroons have stormed back, thus far improving on their performance from 2023. Their only loss this time has been 13-12 to Division 5 Kingsford in Week 8, and even after St. Francis scored 32 points, Menominee is still giving up only 9.8 per game – and scoring 45.5 per contest, making for an average margin of victory about six points more than this time a year ago.
On Saturday, Menominee trailed 14-0 after St. Francis’ first two possessions but took a 21-17 lead into halftime thanks to a 35-yard interception return by junior defensive back Landen Daigneau with 17 seconds left before the break.
“I’m very proud and excited,” Menominee coach Chad Brandt said after the St. Francis win. “They had a very good football team. Going down by 14 points is not recommended. Our guys missed some assignments, and they got a jump on us.
“I’m proud of our guys for being resilient. That’s a great football team we beat and I just love the way the guys battled until the final play. The kids will never forget playing in this game, and the fans will not forget being at this game. Their fortitude and will to win were the keys.”
The Maroons led late before St. Francis forced overtime with a touchdown with 22 seconds left in regulation. The Gladiators then scored first in overtime on a 21-yard field goal, before Bardowski hauled in the game-winner.
“Holding them to three in the overtime was huge,” Theuerkauf said. “That opened things up for us.
“The effort we gave today was unbelievable. That has been our strength all year. We had our backs against the wall, but knew we couldn’t give up. Our defense did a great job. Lot of our guys have been in big games. We knew what we had to do.”
Theuerkauf gained valuable experience last season as the top receiver for older brother Trevor Theuerkauf, now playing at Northern Michigan. Tanner also was a starting defensive back last fall, as was Bardowski.
Senior offensive lineman Lucas Thoune also was part of the starting lineup last season at Ford Field. His Saturday included snagging his first varsity reception – a 13-yarder off a deflection during the second quarter that helped set up a scoring run two plays later.
“That was a heads-up play,” he said. “You just do what’s got to be done. It’s exciting. We’re here for each other.
“I think last year’s run helped us out. I’m willing to be a play-maker for Menominee 10 times out of 10. I’ll never stop being the player I can be. I’m going to do everything I can while I can. I love this team. I love this sport. I don’t know what I’d do without Menominee football.”
The Maroons finished with 318 yards in total offense against the Gladiators. Theuerkauf hit 6-of-14 passes for 76 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Sophomore Dylan Beal, who filled in after Theuerkauf was shaken up on a play in the third quarter, completed both of his passes for 56. Bardowski caught four for 79 yards and a TD, and junior running back Clayton Miller gained 87 on 16 carries.
John Vrancic has covered high school sports in the Upper Peninsula since joining the Escanaba Daily Press staff in 1985. He is known most prominently across the peninsula for his extensive coverage of cross country and track & field that frequently appears in newspapers from the Wisconsin border to Lake Huron. He received the James Trethewey Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 from the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
PHOTOS (Top) Menominee junior Landen Daigneau returns an interception for a touchdown during Saturday’s District championship game against Traverse City St Francis. (Middle) Menominee junior Tanner Theuerkauf celebrates a touchdown against the Gladiators. (Photos by Mitch Vosburg/Escanaba Daily Press.)
'Refuse to Lose' Divine Child Set Tone for Teams to Come with 1st Class B Title
By
Brad Emons
Special for MHSAA.com
November 15, 2024
There was no more conjecture, no newspaper or Associated Press polls to determine the state football champions.
The champion was no longer decided on paper, but out on the field as the MHSAA launched its first playoff tournament in 1975.
Only 16 total teams over four classes were invited to the dance.
And a school with an already a rich football heritage in Dearborn Divine Child proved it on the field with a 21-0 win over Saginaw MacArthur in the Class B title game before 4,000 fans at Central Michigan University’s Perry Shorts Stadium in Mount Pleasant.
In the Semifinals, MacArthur had outlasted Flint Ainsworth, 44-38, as senior halfback Mark Neiderquill rushed for 285 yards and four touchdowns, while Divine Child ousted Sturgis, 20-3.
In the frigid championship final on Nov. 22, the Falcons’ defense held MacArthur’s high-octane offense to seven first downs and 74 yards rushing. They caused three turnovers, with two fumble recoveries and an interception leading to all three of their TDs.
“I thought we could move the ball, but MacArthur was tough,” DC coach Bob LaPointe told the Detroit Free Press.
In the second quarter, Pat Doyle returned an interception 28 yards for a TD, and Mike Surmacz added the PAT for a 7-0 Divine Child advantage.
“That first interception really got us rolling,” LaPointe said. “Doyle can run the 40 in 4.9 and speed is what made that touchdown. But he got good blocking, too.”
Two minutes later, Mike Wiacek gave DC another scoring opportunity when he recovered a MacArthur fumble at the Generals’ 24. Nine plays later, senior quarterback Dan Faletti swept right end and scored on a three-yard bootleg for a 14-0 lead.
“The big thing is that they had a good running back that we had to make sure we kept under control,” said Faletti, who went on to play at Eastern Michigan University before a neck injury prematurely ended his career as a sophomore. “We pretty much got the lead, and Bob was conservative. I just remember scoring that touchdown, and my picture made the paper the next day.”
Neither team could move the ball in the third quarter. There were no first downs.
All-stater Mike Svihra then picked up a fumbled lateral in the fourth quarter and ran 10 yards for the game’s final TD.
“It was not a lot of offense; it was a bitter, cold day,” said Faletti, who went on to work for the Department of Defense for 20 years and Ford Motor Co. before recently retiring. “Bob LaPointe ran a conservative offense. We did ball-control, we didn’t put tons of points on the board ... we didn’t fumble the ball. We didn’t throw interceptions.”
The game, ironically, was played on AstroTurf, not on real grass.
“Everyone makes a bit deal of it, but there really isn’t that much difference,” LaPointe added afterwards. “The only thing I regretted about this game was that I could dress only 44 of my 56 players under the rules. It was tough (to) tell the other 12 they couldn’t suit up.”
An 18-12 loss to Madison Heights Bishop Foley during the final regular-season game, spoiling what would have been an undefeated season in 1974, had left the Falcons distraught – but even more galvanized as they made preparations for the 1975 campaign.
The Falcons also changed their offense in 1975, switching to a triple-option attack that LaPointe got from Notre Dame. The offense proved to be good enough for a 9-0 regular season and an MHSAA playoff berth.
“We were an underdog the whole thing, the whole time, we were the underdog in every big game we played in, but we didn’t allow people to beat us,” said Wes Wishart, who coached the linebackers and offensive line that season before taking over the head coaching reins for the Falcons from 1978-95. “We refused to lose, and that was the motto. From ’74 on those group of kids said, ‘We refuse to lose.’ You use that phrase as a coach all the time, but this group of kids lived it. They were the ones that invented it. When things got tight, ‘refuse, refuse, refuse.’ We’re not backing off from anybody. Great group of young men, great players.”
During the regular season, DC earned victories over highly-touted Flint Powers Catholic (20-14), previously unbeaten Southgate Aquinas (26-12) and Allen Park Cabrini (12-8).
That set up a Catholic League Prep Bowl showdown in the final game of the regular season against highly-touted 8-0 Birmingham Brother Rice, which was ranked No. 1 in the final regular-season AP Class A poll.
Although the Falcons were a decided underdog, the AA division champs upended Rice, 7-0, before a packed crowd at Eastern Michigan University’s Rynearson Stadium to snap the Warriors’ 22-game winning streak thanks to Jim Kempinski’s fumble return for a seven-yard touchdown as he snagged the ball in mid-air and never broke stride while crossing into the end zone.
“We played our butts off,” Faletti said. “It was a dog-eat-dog game.”
It was DC’s 11th Catholic League title, but more importantly put the Falcons into the first MHSAA Playoffs against Sturgis in a Semifinal match at C.W. Post Field in Battle Creek.
“I remember everything was brand new; nobody knew what they were doing,” said Wishart, who guided the Falcons to the 1985 Class A crown as their head coach. “Coach LaPointe on Monday had to get the school to get our hotel rooms in Battle Creek.”
Steve Toepper booted a 27-yard field goal for Sturgis to open the scoring, but DC responded with 20 unanswered points.
In the final quarter, DC’s Rick Rogowski scored on a seven-yard run with 9:23 left (after Steve Savini recovered a fumble caused by Joe Wiercioch) followed by a 10-yard TD run by Faletti with only six minutes to go (after Svihra recovered a fumble).
That sent the Falcons into the Final at CMU, where their defense suffocated MacArthur (9-2).
“We kind of ran a special outside zone. We had to quickly change (how) we would defend that. We shut them down,” said Wishart, who spent 50 years in CYO and high school coaching before retiring to live in New York. “There was no doubt, we were more physical than they were. We were blue collar kids. Typical Divine Child kids, hard-working, never give up.
“We believed desperately in defending Divine Child at all costs because we were a smaller school, so we had an attitude that still lingers there today that we all cultivated. We were going to be a physical squad.”
Meanwhile, what made the Falcons special and unique that title season was their “one for all and all for one” attitude.
“Everybody was the same,” Faletti said. “When we went between the lines, we were all equal. As captain, I got to be command as quarterback in the huddle. But off the field we were all equal. We played like 22 seniors. We were ready for this game.”
PHOTOS (Top) Dearborn Divine Child coaches and players receive the Class B championship trophy after winning the inaugural title game in 1975. (Middle) Falcons quarterback Dan Faletti throws a pass during the Final. (Below) Divine Child players and coaches raise their Prep Bowl trophy in celebration. (Championship game photos courtesy of Dearborn Divine Child yearbook. Prep Bowl photo provided by Dan Faletti.)