Michigan high school football finals: Jackson Lumen Christi rallies to win Division 7

Brad Emons
Special to Detroit Free Press

Appeared left for dead due to costly turnovers and numerous penalties, Jackson Lumen Christi pulled a Lazarus-type act to notch its 12th state football championship in school history.

The Titans rallied from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to score 15 unanswered points to stun Traverse City St. Francis, 15-12, in the Division 7 final at Ford Field on Saturday.

With gritty senior quarterback Joe Lathers at the controls engineering a six-play, 49-yard drive, Lumen Christi (11-3) took the lead for keeps, 13-12, thanks to Derrick Walker’s 2-yard run with only 7:05 remaining. Lathers then ran in for the two-pointer to make it a three-point cushion.

Alex Pastoriza followed by coming up with a key interception at his own 37 with 6:21 to play and the Titans converted to a critical fourth-and-1 by Walker and were able to bleed out the clock on a pair of first down runs by Walker and another by Devian Walker to clinch the victory.

Jackson Lumen Christi's Cooper Cumberworth holds the 2022 MHSAA Division 7 high school football trophy as he and his teammates sing their school fight song after defeating Traverse City St. Francis, 15-12, in the state finals at Ford Field in Detroit on Nov 26, 2022.

Lathers, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior, was confident things could turn around after such a poor start.

“It was adversity, we faced so much this year, all the adversity we started out with,” he said. “The first half was very frustrating. I knew we had to come out and kill these guys the second half and win the line of scrimmage. That’s our biggest thing, and we actually came out and did it. I was a little frustrated, but at the same time I knew we could come back and I didn’t have any doubt about our team, any doubt else over there, the coaches, everybody.”

Lumen Christi, which lost its first three games to start the season, finished with 11 straight victories and gave 43-year coach Herb Brogan his 10th title. St. Francis had beaten Lumen Christi in a shootout in the second game of the regular season, 42-35.

“I’m proud to win it the way we did, it made it all the sweeter,” Brogan said. “To start the way we did — 0-3 and losing to them in the second ballgame, obviously seeing where they came where they had been at 0-3 — falling behind the way we did the first half and coming back and playing the second half the way they did — it’s what makes coaching fun. When you’ve got kids like this who give you everything that they have ... it’s fantastic is all I can say.”

Trailing 12-0, Lumen Christi finally got on track as Lathers scored on an 18-yard keeper on fourth-and-3 with 11:20 remaining in the game.

It was all St. Francis (13-1) in the opening half as the Gladiators caused three turnovers and held a 200-64 margin in total yardage. Lumen Christi was minus-8 yards rushing on 11 attempts in the first half.

But the script flipped in the second half as the Titans ran for 159 yards on the ground with Lathers finishing with 115 on 21 carries. He also hit 9 of 15 passes for 99 yards. The Titans also held St. Francis to a mere 29 yards of total offense over the final two quarters.

Jackson Lumen Christi's Derrick Walker celebrates scoring a touchdown in the second half of a 15-12 win against Traverse City St. Francis during the MHSAA Division 7 football finals Nov. 26, 2022 at Ford Field in Detroit.

St. Francis senior QB Wyatt Nausadis was 8 of 13 passing for 88 yards, while rushing for an additional 56. Meanwhile, Lathers was 6 of 12 for 72, but was picked off twice.

With 9:38 left in the second, St. Francis got on the board with a nine-play, 60-yard drive capped by Joey Donahue’s 1-yard run. But the Gladiators botched the extra point attempt. The touchdown was set up when John Hagelstein intercepted a Lumen Christi pass at his own 40.

The Gladiators took a 12-0 advantage after John Prichard came up with an interception at his own 44 with 3:16 left in the first half. Nausadis completed three straight passes for 21, 6 and 10 yards before keeping it himself for an 8-yard TD run with just 34 seconds remaining in the half, but St. Francis was unable to complete two-point pass.

Prior to Hagelstein’s interception, the Titans had recovered a St. Francis fumble at the Gladiators 35 but then turned it right back with the interception.

“We were playing hard,” Brogan. “Our defense, played I thought, really well in the first half and we had a couple of big plays that we overthrew. In the big games you’ve got to make the big plays. And so that was really my emphasis to them, to keep playing hard as hard as you are. And when you have an opportunity to make one, make one.”

In the second half, Lumen Christi’s defense held St. Francis to one first down and 29 total yards. The Titans had a total of five tackles for loss for 15 yards as Conor Smith and Franklin finished with seven tackles each.

The Titans were able to overcome seven penalties (for 50 yards) and three turnovers.

Jackson Lumen Christi head coach Herb Brogan is all smiles celebrating the 15-12 win over Traverse City St. Francis in the MHSAA Division 7 football final at Ford Field in Detroit on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022.

“I think they wore down a little bit,” Brogan said. “And like I said, I think they hadn’t played a lot of fourth quarter games and coming from up north where it’s colder. I think that probably had an effect on them. In high school games when the momentum begins to shift, a lot of times it’s hard to flip that switch. Another thing about the win is that we won despite ourselves in a sense. We made way too many mistakes, but when you get indoors that’s going to happen.”

St. Francis was gunning for its seventh state title in school history, but the Gladiators were plagued by a shaky kicking game and an offense that bogged down during the second half.

“I think, antidotally, we played the toughest schedule that we’ve ever played in our program’s history,” St. Francis coach Josh Sellers said. “From the regular season into the playoffs even, we had some quality wins over some quality opponents. The biggest part of this season, of course, is going to be losing this large group of seniors, who had a lot of big seasons for us for sure this year.”

Despite the heartbreaking loss, the St. Francis coach said there are a few silver linings to take from a team that went unbeaten for 13 games and came within a quarter of winning it all.

“We’re going to reflect on the season that we had and this one is going to sting, but we’re going to keep it in perspective,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s the game of football and a wise man once told me, and when the season is over and what I tell the seniors, ‘The sun is going to come up tomorrow.’ So will try to learn some life lessons from this game from this loss and from this season and we’ll move forward.”