Sparked by Offense Switch, Summerfield Sets Record-Breaking Scoring Pace

By Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com

October 29, 2024

Dylan Szegedi might only be in his second season as a head varsity football coach, but he knows when to pull the plug on an offensive scheme. 

Southeast & BorderA change from the veer to a version of the gun-T has been the catalyst behind Petersburg-Summerfield’s 8-1 season, the best at the Monroe County school in more than a decade. 

“I really love the veer. I’ve seen it work very well,” Szegedi said. “It just didn’t work for us. We always say we were trying to put a round peg through a square hole. It just didn’t jell with our guys, and we were smart enough to realize it.”

The Bulldogs went 5-4 last season but missed the playoffs for the second straight. With several second- and third-year starting seniors back, Szegedi decided to change offenses despite having spent nearly all his years coaching the veer. He and his coaching staff started researching offenses and landed on one that is the mastermind of a coach in Alabama that puts a lot of YouTube videos together and travels around the country talking about his offensive concepts.

“This offense is perfect for our guys,” Szegedi said. “It’s a good mix of running and passing. It’s a good mix of spread but still some downhill-style run concepts. It fits our athletes to a T. It is a spread-T concept, wing-T running concepts with a spread flair to it. It was exactly what we needed.”

Heading into Friday’s home Division 8 playoff game against Manchester – the first hosted by Summerfield since 2015 – the Bulldogs are one point shy of the school record for points scored in a season. Since a 20-14 win over Ottawa Lake Whiteford in Week 5, Summerfield  has scored 48, 62, 70 and 58 points in victories. The 70 points against Vanlue, Ohio, was a single-game school record.

Bulldogs quarterback Trace Secor considers his options from the pocket.“It’s come together seamlessly. The proof is in the pudding. We have done great, and hopefully we will continue to do so,” Szegedi said.

The new offense suits quarterback Trace Secor much better. 

“I like this one,” Secor said. “It fits our style of play and the players we have. It complements us.”

Secor has passed for 1,248 yards and 21 touchdowns.

Senior receiver Tyler Dafoe has 743 yards and 12 touchdowns receiving. Bruising tight end Brenden Myshock has six touchdown receptions, and big-play Eli VanHuysen has caught 18 passes for 391 yards and another six touchdowns.

Senior running back Mitchell Gomulinski has had a tremendous season as well. Through nine games, he has rushed for 1,398 yards, averaging more than nine per carry. He has scored 17 touchdowns.

“Mitchell is he is our emotional leader,” Szegedi said. “He keeps everybody going and is the guy the other people look for to set the example. He’s worked very hard. I’m just proud of what he was able to do.”

The Summerfield defense has been rock-solid too. Since halftime of the Whiteford game, the Bulldogs have allowed just two touchdowns over 18 quarters. Gomulinski has 80 tackles. Dafoe and Gabe Ostrosky have five interceptions apiece.

The biggest win came against Whiteford, which played in MHSAA Finals in 2022 and 2023. It propelled the Bulldogs to the Tri-County Conference championship.

“When we beat Whiteford, that really changed the attitude of a lot of our guys,” Szegedi said. “Not that they didn’t believe before, but after that victory, I think we just started believing even more. It gave them affirmation that if we could beat them, we could hang with anybody. It gave them the belief that, ‘Hey, maybe we are pretty good.’”

The community has rallied behind the team. At a watch party Sunday when the MHSAA released the playoff pairings, about 150 parents, students and other community members met in the high school cafeteria.

Summerfield coach Dylan Szegedi headshot.“There is talk about how they are going to decorate the town and decorate the stadium,” Szegedi said. “Last Friday the stadium was packed. That’s the way it should be.”

The Oregon, Ohio, native graduated from Toledo St. Francis in 2011 where he played football and was on the Knights swim team. He then continued at Wayne State University and was a two-time Division II national champion diver, earning All-America honors eight times. He was the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Diver of the Year multiple times and was inducted into the Wayne State Athletic Hall of Fame.

After college he came home and decided he wanted to get into coaching football. He called his former freshman coach at St. Francis, Geoff Skibinski, and joined the coaching staff.

Since then, he and Skibinski have coached at multiple stops together. When Szegedi was hired at Summerfield in 2023, his first call was to Skibinski, who runs the Summerfield offense.

“He and I work well together,” Szegedi said. “We have a good trust in one another.”

Summerfield’s 8-1 record is the best for the school since 2010, which was also the last time the Bulldogs won a conference championship.

Szegedi is glad to see the success the 11 seniors are enjoying.

“These are guys who have played a ton of varsity football,” he said. “It’s fun to see all of the time they spent in the summer running and all of the extra lifting pay off. They are guys who deserve it. They’ve worked very hard and deserve the success they are now experiencing.”

Doug DonnellyDoug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Petersburg Summerfield’s Mitchell Gomulinski (23) prepares to take on a defender from Erie Mason this season. (Middle) Bulldogs quarterback Trace Secor considers his options from the pocket. (Below) Summerfield coach Dylan Szegedi. (Action photos by Kendra Dafoe; Szegedi photo by Doug Donnelly.)

Memories Don't Fade for 1st MHSAA Class A Champion Franklin

By Brad Emons
Special for MHSAA.com

November 8, 2024

Even after 50 years, Tim Hollandsworth recalls Livonia Franklin’s run to the first MHSAA Class A football playoff championship like it was yesterday.

Before 5,506 fans at Western Michigan University’s Waldo Stadium, the unranked Patriots capped a season for the ages by upending heavily favored Traverse City for the 1975 title, 21-7.

“It was a once in a lifetime event, and I guess it just brings back great feelings winning that game obviously,” said Hollandsworth, who went on to become an all-Mid-American Conference linebacker at Central Michigan. “What I remember most was carrying that trophy around on the field. Myself, Jim Casey and the whole team ... we paraded it out Stanley Cup-style in front of our fans, and everybody was going crazy. Just a happy time.”

The championship game was played on a frigid Nov. 22 afternoon in Kalamazoo, just 12 years following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

“When I think about that game, the first thing that comes to mind is that it was a cold, cloudy day before the game,” Hollandsworth said. “And as the game started, the sun came out; it was really bright. It turned out to be a bright, sunny day, and we didn’t feel the cold at all. The adrenalin was pumping.”

No. 2-ranked Traverse City, coached by Jim Ooley, entered with a high-powered offense averaging 34 points per game. The Trojans featured the running back tandem of Rick Waters (1,300 yards) and Bruce McLachlan, along with tight end Mark Brammer, a two-time All-American at Michigan State who later played five seasons for the Buffalo Bills in the NFL.

Franklin took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter when Dennis Smith, the holder on a 30-yard field goal attempt by Sam Williams, couldn’t secure the snap from center but alertly got up and tossed a 17-yard TD pass to Rick Lee.

The Patriots then went up 14-0 in the second quarter on a 3-yard TD run by Casey, who went on to play four seasons at Ball State as a defensive back.

Traverse City cut the deficit to 14-7 before halftime on a 2-yard TD run by McLachlan, but the Patriots put it away in the final quarter on a 9-yard TD run by Casey, who finished the game with a hard-earned 105 yards on 24 carries.

Hollandsworth, who also starred in the backfield with Casey, severely twisted his ankle in the first half and was limited to playing only defense for the remainder of the game. Fortunately for Franklin, Tom Smith took his place and helped continue the offensive surge.

Franklin coach Armand Vigna, right, shares an embrace with lineman Rick Kruger in the moments after their team’s championship victory.“It was just the fact that everybody was just stepping up when they had to have them,” Casey said. “I think it kind of exemplified everything we did throughout the year to get there. That’s what was so cool about the whole deal.”

Meanwhile, Waters – who later became Hollandsworth’s friend and teammate at CMU – led the Trojans’ rushing attack with 85 yards rushing on 19 carries.

Franklin’s defense played a pivotal role in the win with four interceptions – one each by Hollandsworth, Chuck Hench, Jerry Pollard and Casey (his 10th of the season).

Williams, the Patriots’ star tight end and middle linebacker and the son of former Detroit Lions “Fearsome Foursome” defensive end Sam Williams Sr., also batted down a key fourth-down pass in the end zone to thwart a Traverse City scoring threat.

“It’s funny about the whole game ... you forget about the details, it’s crazy,” Casey said. “It was everybody coming together. There may have been some mistakes along the way. That just happens during the game and we hung in there, did what it took to score enough points to win.”

The game was played on artificial turf, not real grass, which was also a first for both teams.

“I think it had been raining the day before ... anyhow, the field was soaked,” Casey said. “And all it takes is to fall on a field that is soaked on an Astroturf field and everything, and all your clothes are soaked. I remember in the first half – I couldn’t wait for halftime to go inside and warm up.”

During the practice week prior to the title game, the Patriots were able to get acclimated when athletic director and assistant coach George Lovich made a deal to practice on the University of Michigan’s artificial surface.

“We had to get new shoes because nobody had played on artificial turf in high school back then,” Casey said. “They had a bunch of used shoes from the (U-M) team. They threw them in a big old box and they let us practice one night on their Astroturf. We went in and got our shoes and we were ready to play – excited about that. It was just different compared to regular grass. It felt super-fast.”

With only four spots per Class up for grabs in the inaugural MHSAA playoffs, five unbeaten Class A teams did not make the postseason including Warren Fitzgerald and Mount Clemens Chippewa Valley from Region 1, Trenton in Region 3, and Grand Rapids Union and Marquette from Region 4.

On the final Saturday of the regular season at Eastern Michigan’s Rynearson Stadium, No. 1-ranked Birmingham Brother Rice (Region 2) was upset in the Catholic League championship, 7-0, by Dearborn Divine Child, which went on to claim the Class B title.

That allowed the 8-1 Patriots, who had lost to rival Livonia Stevenson 13-9 in Week 2, to sneak into the playoffs just ahead of the previously-unbeaten Warriors.

“We were all in the stands watching that game,” Hollandsworth said. “And our coach, Armand Vigna, had all our points figured out right to the point where he said if Brother Rice were to lose, we were in. So, we’re sitting in the stands and Detroit Southwestern is off to our right a little bit higher in the stands. When Divine Child won that game, we were just going crazy and you could see Southwestern wondering who we were and what was going on.”

During the build-up to the Class A Semifinal game against Franklin, Southwestern coach Joe Hoskins was quoted in the Detroit newspapers as saying, “Livonia who?”

Southwestern was led by all-state QB Mike Marshall (MSU), along with junior tackle Luis Sharpe (UCLA), an eventual first-round NFL pick who played 13 seasons with the St. Louis, Phoenix and Arizona Cardinals.

And in that Semifinal at Pontiac’s Wisner Stadium before 5,000 fans, Franklin upended the No. 3-ranked Prospectors, 12-9, as Casey ran for 145 yards on 27 carries. Hollandsworth added a 1-yard TD to cap a nine-play, 72-yard drive and give his team the lead 9-7 at the half.

Southwestern got an 18-yard TD pass from Marshall to Andrew Williams and scored on a two-point safety when the Patriots fumbled the kickoff to start the second half.

Williams, however, booted a pair of field goals, including the game-winning 28-yarder to break a 9-9 deadlock for the Patriots after they were aided by a pass interference call followed by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which took the ball to the Southwestern 18.

In protest, Hoskins took his team off the field and had to be coaxed by MHSAA officials to bring his players back to finish the game.

“I think we were excited about the playoffs because we were undefeated the year before, so were looking forward to getting into the playoffs,” Hollandsworth said. “It was deflating when we lost; it was low-scoring, tough battle versus Stevenson. All the Livonia games (vs. Churchill and Bentley) were tough battles. It was the first game that Sam Williams was out. He got hurt in the (Dearborn) Fordson game before that (the opener) and Sam was not only our tight end, and starting middle linebacker, but he was also our punter and kicker. I think we passed up some field goals in that Stevenson game because we were so unsure of our kicking game.”

PHOTOS (Top) Livonia Franklin’s Jim Casey (45) plows ahead during the 1975 Class A Final as Traverse City tacklers converge. (Middle) Franklin coach Armand Vigna, right, shares an embrace with lineman Rick Kruger in the moments after their team’s championship victory. (Photos courtesy of Hometown Life, which includes the former Livonia Observer).