Country Day Caps 22-Win Streak on Top
March 10, 2018
Second Half reports
PLYMOUTH — Carter Elrod’s contributions in the final seconds of the MHSAA Division 3 championship hockey game won’t show up in the box score.
What will show up in the records from here on out is that Detroit Country Day is the 2017-18 Division 3 champion because Elrod sacrificed his body for the cause.
The senior forward blocked two shots in the final seconds, including a prime opportunity just before the buzzer, to preserve Country Day’s 2-1 victory over Livonia Churchill on Saturday at USA Hockey Arena.
It’s a dirty, often dangerous job, which Elrod does unflinchingly.
“Earlier in the season, I broke my hand blocking a shot,” Elrod said. “It’s a thing Coach stresses every day that we have to do to win games. Every time we go out there, we don’t think, we just go out there and block the shot.”
If shots get to the net, Country Day has one of the best goaltenders in the state to clean up the mess. Junior Sam Evola stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced, but appreciated not having to face a 32nd shot when Churchill’s Conor Burnette had a glorious chance in the high slot in the final seconds.
“A lot of it is guys like him blocking shots out of nowhere,” said Evola, who had a 1.00 goals-against average and .953 save percentage during the regular season. “I think they might have scored if he hadn’t blocked that one shot; I didn’t see it.”
Churchill was trying to become the second team this weekend to force overtime after trailing 2-0. Traverse City West did it against Saginaw Heritage in the Division 1 Semifinals, only to lose, 3-2.
Seth Kucharczyk’s goal with 7:53 left in the game got the Chargers within a goal. They kept pressing with their goaltender pulled at the end, but couldn’t get a puck past Evola — or Elrod.
“This guy could definitely have more points, but he does so much,” Country Day coach Frank Novock said. “People who know hockey know how important he is out there, blocking shots, winning face-offs, penalty killing, getting pucks. In the first period, he was probably our only forward going, how hard he was working. It kind of caught on a little bit. Night in and night out, his work ethic and determination were amazing.”
After losing in the Quarterfinals the last two seasons, Country Day won its first MHSAA hockey championship since 1981 by holding six postseason opponents to a combined five goals.
It was the longest stretch between championships among past MHSAA title winners, eclipsing the 22 years between Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett’s 1990 and 2012 titles.
The Yellowjackets (28-2-1) won their last 22 games after losing 3-0 to Liggett on Dec. 16. Upset with his team’s effort that night, Novock had a no-pucks practice two days later.
“We weren’t very good,” he said. “I put 51 minutes on the clock and said, ‘You guys owe me another game, because we didn’t play one Saturday.’ That was the last game we lost all season. The guys didn’t complain; they took their medicine. It was three 17-minute periods they owed me. They just went through it like they did these last 22, so I consider that a win, also.”
The championship game nearly went two full periods without a goal, as Churchill’s Chris Sergison stopped the first 14 shots he faced to do his part in keeping the game scoreless.
Country Day got the break it needed when Mickey VanAntwerp took a pass from Jacob Thomas, split the defense at the blue line and went in on a breakaway. He scored, then crashed into the net, with 38.1 seconds left in the second period.
Tim Stebbins deflected a shot by defenseman Jacob Thomas past Sergison on the power play with 10:53 left in the game to give Country Day a 2-0 lead.
Churchill cut that in half, but couldn’t get the equalizer.
It was the first Finals appearance for the Chargers, who lost in the Quarterfinals after each of their previous six Regional championships.
“The overall experience has really been incredible,” Churchill coach Jason Reynolds said. “The atmosphere has certainly been electric. This is something we’ve been looking forward to. We had an opportunity to kind of embrace it and get our bearings about us (Friday) when we played the game. We were successful there. It was important for us not just to get here, but to get to Saturday.”
Churchill (16-12-3) was 11-11-3 during the regular season, but plays in the tough Kensington Lakes Activities Association. The KLAA had teams in all three championship games, with Brighton playing in Division 1 and Hartland in Division 2.
“I cannot deny how strong our KLAA schedule is year in and year out,” Reynolds said. “A lot of guys are focused on our .500 record, but that .500 record has also been against state-ranked teams over the course of the year. Even if we weren’t coming out guns blazing in November and December, the strength of our schedule has allowed us to build and develop and get better, so hopefully when we’re healthy by playoff time, we’re able to go on a run.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Country Day seniors Carter Elrod (left) and Tim Stebbins celebrate the team’s first MHSAA title since 1981. (Middle) Country Day junior Mickey VanAntwerp (25) slides a shot into the net Saturday.
Performance: Bay Reps' Jake Stevenson
February 15, 2019
Jake Stevenson
Traverse City St. Francis senior – Hockey
Stevenson had three goals including two straight during the third period to send Saturday’s game against Petoskey to overtime, as his Traverse City Bay Reps co-op team went on to win 5-4 and clinch the Northern Michigan Hockey League championship. Stevenson, in his fourth season in the program, is the team’s leading scorer and has scored five goals over his last three games in earning the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
The Bay Reps are made up of players from Stevenson’s St. Francis High School as well as Bear Lake, Elk Rapids, Kalkaska and Kingsley. They’ve won nine of their last 10 games to move to 17-5 and earn the No. 11 ranking in Division 1. The hat trick was Stevenson’s second this season, and after Thursday’s win over Manistee he has 22 goals and 20 assists in 22 games this winter. Petoskey led Saturday’s game 2-0 before Stevenson scored his first goal, and he added his second on a power play and his third from just outside the circle.
Stevenson is playing this season for his third high school head coach; his dad Mark was the coach Jake’s freshman year, followed by Ryan Fedorinchik the last two and now former assistant – and NHL defenseman – Mike Matteucci. Jake Stevenson also played soccer at St. Francis and golf earlier in high school, and he’s hoping to continue playing hockey at the junior level and then collegiately after graduating this spring. He carries a 3.0 GPA and eventually would like to study drone piloting.
Coach Mike Matteucci said: “This will be Jake's fourth year playing high school hockey, and each year his game has improved. Jake has always wanted to move on to the next level after high school, so the last couple of years he has really taken ownership in his game. As a coach, it is a pleasure to come to the rink every day and have players like Jake who are coachable and who make others around them better. This year more than others, Jake has embraced the ‘team’ game, which as increased our statistical output as well as helped us win more games. What separates Jake from others is his tenacity. He is a very competitive person who is hard to play against. He is definitely an impact player on our team!”
Performance Point: “It's senior year and you don't want to go down without a fight. All the boys started the pick it up in the third period, and we all brought it together,” Stevenson said of his team’s comeback against Petoskey. “We just weren’t connecting our passes. Everyone was getting too nervous with the puck, not really calm. We weren't really playing our game. I think just being one of the leaders on the team, you need to show that even when we're down, it’s no excuse to stop playing. Someone had to step up and take control a little bit.”
Together as a team: “It's fun just knowing there's all these guys (from Bay Reps’ schools) out there, and being able to play with them and meet them and become new friends. I think when we're at the rink we make the most of it, every time we're there from the second we walk in to the second we leave. Usually no one just leaves right after practice – we kinda hang out for a little bit and talk, and catch up and mess around see how everyone's day is going. We hang out every now and then in the summer times. We do some summer hockey together. ... We try to stay close.”
Valuable input: “We've brought in Mike Matteucci as our head coach and Kyle Jean, Mikey Wittersheim and of course Coach (Eric) Videan. I think all the coaching staff has helped a lot, helped bring everyone together. They've taken different looks at kids and helping them out. Coach Jean has helped me out tremendously on offense, just helping me realize when to shoot the puck, when to make the pass, how to make the plays. Coach Matteucci has been helping me a lot in the defensive zone, and so has Coach Videan. And Mikey's our goalie coach, and he's been helping me out with tips on where to shoot.”
Dad knows: “It was great having him as a coach because he played in the high-level juniors and he knows a lot about the game, and he’s coached a lot of kids so that helped a lot. Every now and then he still gives me advice from what he sees and tries to help me out still.”
Game on: “Everybody in my family has played hockey, even my mom did; she played on a girls club team when she was younger. (I have) three sisters and three brothers … I'm the second youngest. We used to build a rink in our back yard, and so we'd all go out there and play, and we got a little competitive because obviously we all want to be the best from the family. But it's fun. I'd say I'm the best, but ... my brother thinks he is. I don't know about that.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2018-19 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard recognizes a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Past 2018-19 honorees
February 7: Molly Davis, Midland Dow basketball - Read
January 31: Chris DeRocher, Alpena basketball - Read
January 24: Imari Blond, Flint Kearsley bowling - Read
January 17: William Dunn, Quincy basketball - Read
November 29: Dequan Finn, Detroit Martin Luther King football - Read
November 22: Paige Briggs, Lake Orion volleyball - Read
November 15: Hunter Nowak, Morrice football - Read
November 8: Jon Dougherty, Detroit Country Day soccer - Read
November 1: Jordan Stump, Camden-Frontier volleyball - Read
October 25: Danielle Staskowski, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep golf - Read
October 18: Adam Bruce, Gladstone cross country - Read
October 11: Ericka VanderLende, Rockford cross country - Read
October 4: Kobe Clark, Schoolcraft football - Read
September 27: Jonathan Kliewer, Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern soccer - Read
September 20: Kiera Lasky, Bronson volleyball - Read
September 13: Judy Rector, Hanover-Horton cross country - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) The Bay Reps' Jake Stevenson (5) battles for the puck during a November game against Big Rapids. (Middle) Stevenson brings the puck forward against Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central. (Photos courtesy of the Traverse City Bay Reps hockey program.)