High School Football Notes: Ida gets a kick out of rare field goal

The field goal that junior Max Buschmann kicked Friday night was Ida’s first since Blue Streak alum Jared Locke booted two during the 2008 season.

“I know it’s the first one we’ve kicked in my tenure,” said sixth-year coach Jeff Potter.

Potter said the 30-yarder was well within Buschmann’s range.

“I think we do have a good kicker," the coach said. “We just haven’t had the right opportunity. … I think he’s good from 35 yards, maybe a little more.”

Ida’s players were excited about the kick, perhaps a little too excited.

“At halftime, one of the kids was talking about the field goal and how great it was,” Potter said. “They said we needed to kick more. I said, ‘I don’t want to rain on your parade, but we want touchdowns, not field goals. He can kick extra points after touchdowns.’”

The field goal did help the Blue Streaks earn their first win of the season.

“The win felt really good,” Potter said. “They kids were excited. It’s been a long time coming. The kids have worked hard and had a great attitude the last five weeks."

BEST OF WEEK 5

RUSHING YARDS

Trey Brueggemann, Bedford 166

Hunter DeBarr, Whiteford 158

Malachi Pribyl, Jefferson 138

Brian Booms, Flat Rock 107

Dean Thomas, Ida 101

PASSING YARDS

Graham Junge, Flat Rock 240

Vaughn Brown, Mason 196

Gavin Moczydlowsky, Huron 190

Drew Bolster, Dundee 139

Brady Bovenkerk, Milan 137

RECEIVING YARDS

Aaron Salazar, Flat Rock 131

Rocco Breslin, Flat Rock 119

Rory Callahan, Huron 105

Trent Herrera, Mason 100

Micah Smith, Huron 75

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New Boston Huron coach Tom Hoover wasn’t surprised to see his team play so well in a 48-6 win over previously undefeated Airport.

He was a little surprised to see them to do it under the circumstances.

“We’ve got kids out with pneumonia. We’ve got kids out with influenza. We’ve got kids out with COVID,” Hoover said. “We got kids who got hurt hitting dummies and kids who got hurt in gym class. It’s been one adversity after another.”

But the Huron players put all of that behind them Friday night.

“We got off to a good start and the kids started believing,” Hoover said. “I think it’s just timing. It took a while to gel. They had a new O and a new D and a new coaching staff. They just had to get acclimated.

“I knew they could do it if we cleaned things up. They can do a heck of a lot more than what we had been doing. … It was a fun night. It made all the headaches worthwhile seeing the smiles on their faces.”

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Bedford needed a fourth-quarter touchdown on a trick play and a safety to pull out a 36-28 win over Ypsilanti Lincoln Friday night.

It was a tougher to reach 3-2 than the Mules expected.

“They (Lincoln) had a few more horses than we thought,” Bedford coach John Phillips said. “Their kids played a tough game. They didn’t want to go down.”

The Mules refused to go down.

“I am proud of the kids, but we have some work to do,” Phillips said.

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New Gibraltar Carlson coach Jason Gendron is a proud Jefferson graduate.

During his high school days, the Bears thrived with a dominant running game. Gendron vowed to bring some of that to Carlson.

That certainly showed Friday as the Marauders moved to 5-0 by dominating Wyandotte Roosevelt 51-7.

Carlson ran for 356 yards and spread the wealth.

“We had eight kids carry the ball,” Gendron said. “I am really proud of that. It was nice to see a lot of kids get in there.”

No matter who had the ball, tight end Ben Przytula, tackles Matt Hall and Adam Zurawski, guards Evan Bredow and Xavier Hayes and center Melvohn Martin were clearing holes.

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Ann Arbor Huron kicker Adam Samaha will play for the University of Michigan next season.

He certainly looked like a Division 1 recruit Friday night against Monroe, booting field goals of 49, 41, 20 and 13 yards to go along with four conversion kicks. He was a perfect 8-of-8 for the night.

The 49-yard field goal cleared the crossbar with ease.

“He’s got plenty of leg,” Monroe coach Dave Mifsud said.

The Monroe coach also was impressed with Samaha’s kickoffs. Seven of them were deep into the end zone and could not be returned. He left one on the 1-yard line and another came down around the 10 as the kicker clearly was experimenting with trying to get more height.

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Dundee senior Drew Bolster is playing football for the first time since he was a freshman.

Injuries concerns kept him on the sideline over the last couple years, but he competed for the quarterback job during training camp and preseason practices.

Ryan Zanger ultimately took the job and helped Dundee get off to a 4-0 start heading into this past week's game against Brooklyn Columbia Central.

But coach Steve Ayre always expected to use multiple quarterbacks during the season. The Vikings did just that Friday.

Bolster took over at quarterback in the first half with the Vikings offense sputtering through the first three drives and Zanger nursing an injury. Ayre hoped a change of pace might spark the offense.

"He (Boslter) is a different style of quarterback than Ryan," Ayre said. "It's not like a Cade McNamara-JJ McCarthy situation that Michigan has, but we're able to do some different things on offense with him."

Bolster played most of the game and played well, finishing 13-of-18 passing for 139 yards. Ethan Layton (9 catches for 55 yards), Caden Bellaire (6-54), and Braiden Whiaker (3-42) all played well with Bolster guiding the offense.

Zanger came back on the field late in the fourth quarter and directed the game-winning drive. Brayden Ratliff kicked a 38-yard field goal − his third of the game − with 8 seconds remaining to give the Vikings a 9-7 win.

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It had been a while since Flat Rock beat Milan. 

It had been even longer since the Rams defeated the Big Reds at home. 

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve never, as a staff, beaten them,” said Rams coach Buck Reaume. “We’ve got a lot of respect for that program.” 

The 3-2 Rams jumped out to a 28-7 lead Friday in their first win over the Big Reds since 2011.

Milan fell to 1-4.

“Our kids have great character,” said Milan coach Jesse Hoskins. “We must continue to work to get in the win column.” 

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You expect to see Summerfield’s Brandon Thompson in the rushing and receiving leaders each week, but in Friday’s loss to Whiteford, the Bulldog led the team in passing yards, too. 

Summerfield coach Alex Lipka said that was a designed play as he tries to find creative things to do with his speedy senior. 

“I want to give Thompson an opportunity to contribute without putting his body on the line so many times,” Lipka said. “That’s all that kid does.” 

Thompson ended up leading Summerfield in rushing with 44 yards and passing with 61 yards. He also caught two balls for 26 yards and a touchdown on a nice 25-yard pass from Bryce Kalb. 

“Even though we lost, we took a lot of good steps forward,” Lipka said. “We’ll get right. We are a really young team. Every week you can tell there is learning going on. You just have to get better and put it all together. It’s going to pay dividends in a year or two. We have five sophomore starters. If they get reps, when they are seniors, look out. We’ll be alright.”

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Airport lost its first game of the season Friday night. The Jets dropped to 4-1 overall after getting buried 48-6 by New Boston Huron.

The Jets gave up seven turnovers − an interception and six fumbles. They recovered a couple more of their own fumbles too.

"So, it could've been even worse," coach Jim Duffy said. "When things don't go your way and it starts to get lopsided, we started pressing a little bit. And it's almost like we made more mistakes by trying not to make mistakes."

Duffy wants his team to learn from the loss.

But he also hopes they can quickly move past it.

"I told them after the game that we could not let this define our season," he said. "We're going to have a lot of tough games from here on out, from teams that will play physical football and play us tough. We can't afford to dwell on it for long. We have to get back to work and try to get better this week."

Airport hosts Jefferson (1-4) on Friday.

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Whiteford might be undefeated and ranked No. 1 in several polls and statewide rankings, but first-year head coach Todd Thieken knows his Bobcats have a lot of areas they can improve upon. 

One of those is in the passing game. 

Shea Ruddy is a fourth year starting quarterback for the Bobcats but has a new crop of receivers that he is still getting used to and a banged up offensive line that is missing a couple starters. 

The Bobcats went to the air on a couple second half drives to work on some passing routes, blocking techniques and, Thieken said, to get things on film that the coaches can use as teaching examples for Ruddy and the receivers. 

“I want to see it and see things on film that we can coach Shea on and our receivers on,” Thieken said. “With the type of team we have, we can line up and run the ball, we know that. But there are going to be times we have to throw it.” 

Ruddy finished the game with 8 completions for 107 yards. He is Whiteford’s all-time career passing leader and needs two touchdown passes to set that Bobcat career record as well.

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Erie Mason spent extra practice time on special teams this week.

That work paid off in a big way in the Eagles' 20-14 win over Sand Creek.

Mason senior Thomas Hutson blocked a punt in the second quarter that ricocheted into the end zone and was snagged by junior Toby Frazier for a touchdown and a 12-0 halftime lead.

"We work on special teams every day in practice," coach Steve Bowers said. "We work on punt blocks and punt returns. We put extra time into it this week. ... In that situation where they were backed up to the goal line, we brought some more pressure hoping somebody would get through.

"Tommy put his hand in the air, got a piece of it, and it flew backward. It looked like it was close to flying out the back of the end zone, but Toby got his hand on it right before. It was definitely an exciting play."

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There are only two remaining original members of the Tri-County Conference still playing 11-man football - Summerfield and Adrian Madison.

Those two teams will square off Saturday in Madison as the league celebrates 50 years of being a conference. Each of the current league schools are inviting back former players, coaches, administrators and others who made contributions to the program and league over the years to be recognized.

Darrel Polter is one of those who will be there. The Summerfield football assistant has been part of the league for pretty much every one of the 50 years. He was the Summerfield varsity baseball coach for nearly 40 years.

"All of the schools are compatible, they are close by, and it became a very competitive league," Polter said. "Every year there were always good teams. You have to play hard. It's always fun to play Tri-County Conference games."