Grandville’s Jalen Raniga defends against Novie Detroit Catholic Central’s Cameron Ryan during CC’s 28-14 win in the Division 1 regional final at Catholic Central Saturday.
Novi Detroit Catholic Central took its brand of smashmouth football to a different level in the semifinals, and the Shamrocks might be bringing it to Ford Field.
With only a 3-0 lead over Romeo, CC lost sophomore quarterback Austin Brown to what appeared to be a broken leg in the second quarter, and coach Tom Mach knew what to do.
When halfback Nick Capatina was held out of a few practices last week for precautionary purposes, Mach began experimenting, lining up Matt Young, 6 feet 1, 220 pounds, and Isaac Darkangelo, 6-1, 230, alongside starting fullback Cameron Ryan, 6-0, 220.
All three are fullbacks.
“At this time of year, there’s a lot of guys that are getting injured, so you have to compensate for some of the things that are happening,” Mach said. “We were trying to get a mixture of things that you can do if this and that happens.”
►Related: Michigan high school football state finals schedule
This and that happened when Brown was injured, and suddenly the Shamrocks were playing with three fullbacks in a full-house backfield behind sophomore backup quarterback Marco Genrich.
“We went to our power offense,” Mach said. “We knew we had our sophomore backup quarterback in, and we didn’t want to put too much stress on him because he hadn’t had too many reps during the week. So, we wanted to keep it simple.”
That meant CC’s offense was smashmouth right, smashmouth left and smashmouth up the middle, leading to a 17-0 victory and a date with No. 1 Detroit Cash Tech in Saturday’s 1 p.m. Division 1 championship game.
In 41 years as CC’s coach, Mach has relied on a power running game, which has helped the No. 2 Shamrocks win 10 state championships.
Brown’s throwing ability and elusiveness diversified CC’s offense this season, but that went out the window when he was injured. Yet, having three fullbacks seems a bit extreme, even for Mach.
“Well, I can’t say I don’t love it,” Mach said, laughing. “But at the same time, it’s not as effective as when our quarterback was in there. He’s very effective and causes all kinds of problems. He’s the guy who has helped get us where we are.”
Mach always has been one to play to his defense, and that will be vitally important against Cass Tech and its amazing group of skill position players, led by Donovan Peoples-Jones, Donovan Johnson and Jaylen Kelly-Powell.
One key for CC is to play keep-away from the Cass offense.
“We know what they’re going to give us, and that’s a lot of speed.” Mach said. “We want to give them the ball the least amount of time that we can give it to them.”
‘Just get one stop’
Walled Lake Western led Lowell, 31-14, at halftime, 37-14, in the third quarter, but Lowell is Lowell.
After the Red Arrows responded with three straight touchdowns to cut their deficit to three points in the fourth quarter, Western desperately need a stop.
“We finally got a stop on the last drive,” coach Mike Zdebski said. “That’s what we kept telling the kids — just get one stop.”
Western got its stop, but the game was far from over. It still had to gain enough yards to keep the ball and run out the clock. That is where wide receiver/defensive back Cody White came in.
Because of the blustery weather, quarterback John Tracy had difficulty getting the ball to White.
“It was so tough to throw,” Zdebski said. “You’d try to get a bead on it, and you couldn’t get a gauge on where the ball was going to go because all of a sudden a gust would come up, and the timing you thought you had was gone.”
So Zdebski moved White to quarterback, a position he played extremely well early in the season when Tracy was injured. Earlier in the game White scored on runs of 61 and 24 yards and threw a 41-yard touchdown pass.
Late in the fourth quarter, White ran for two first downs — the second coming on a fourth-and-8 from the Lowell 30 — to put a lid on the 37-34 victory and earn the No. 1 Warriors a spot in Friday’s 1 p.m. Division 2 final against defending champ and No. 2 Detroit King.
“It’s pretty darn good to have Cody on our team,” Zdebski said. “He makes plays all the time when we need them. He’s a big-time kid.”
Western won state titles in 1996 and ’99, and Zdebski thoroughly will enjoy the week leading up to the finals.
“At first we were there in 1996, 1999 and back to the semis in 2001,” he said. “We were thinking: ‘Hey, this is easy.’ Not so much. You appreciate it a little bit more.”
Contact Mick McCabe: 313-223-4744 or mmccabe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1.
Super 8
Mick McCabe lists the team most likely to win the state championship in each division:
Division 1: Detroit Cass Tech (13-0)
The buzz: Both of Cass’ state title wins have come against Catholic Central.
Division 2: Walled Lake Western (12-1)
The buzz: The Warriors have the talent to dethrone defending champ.
Division 3: Muskegon (12-1)
The buzz: The Big Reds have the team that can prevent a St. Mary’s three-peat.
Division 4: Birmingham Detroit Country Day (13-0)
The buzz: A win over No. 1 River Rouge makes Country Day the team to beat.
Division 5: Grand Rapids West Catholic (11-2)
The buss: West Catholic is shooting for its fourth straight title.
Division 6: Jackson Lumen Christi (11-2)
The buzz: Welcome back to the finals, Titans. We’ve missed you.
Division 7: Detroit Loyola (11-2)
The buzz: If the Bulldogs can contain Jared Smith, they will win title No. 2.
Division 8: Muskegon Catholic (13-0)
The buzz: If Whiteford doesn’t hold the ball for all 48 minutes, MCC gets its fourth straight title.