Week 8 is here.

Area Football Standings

GREATER THUMB WEST

Team W L W L PF PA

*#Reese 6 0 7 1 296 68

#Vassar 5 1 7 1 307 107

USA 4 2 4 4 124 203

EPBP 3 3 3 5 148 282

Cass City 2 4 2 6 173 208

Bad Axe 1 5 1 7 102 298

BCAS 0 6 1 7 92 312

* Clinched title

# Clinched playoff spot

GREATER THUMB EAST

Team W L W L PF PA

*#H. Beach 5 0 8 0 273 79

#Marlette 3 2 6 2 263 142

#Ubly 3 2 6 2 226 74

Brown City 2 3 5 3 267 149

Sandusky 2 3 5 3 261 83

Mayville 0 5 1 7 107 363

* Clinched title

# Clinched playoff spot

NORTH CENTRAL THUMB

Team W L W L PF PA

*Deckerville 4 0 5 3 287 159

Memphis 3 1 4 4 193 258

#Kingston 2 2 6 2 302 143

Peck 1 3 1 7 142 292

N. Huron 0 4 0 8 76 341

* Clinched league title

# Clinched playoff spot

MID-MICHIGAN 8-MAN

Team W L W L PF PA

*A-Fairgrove 4 0 5 3 255 196

CPS 3 1 7 1 417 132

MCCM 1 3 3 5 190 263

Owen-Gage 1 3 5 3 246 181

Flint MSD 1 3 1 5 14 249

*Clinched league title

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

GTW

Vassar 43, Bad Axe 14

Reese 50, BCAS 0

EPBP 22, Cass City 20

GTE

Brown City 43, Marlette 12

Harbor Beach 47, Mayville 0

NCTL

Kingston 21, North Huron 20

Memphis 30, Peck 14

NON-LEAGUE

Sandusky 33, USA 0

Ubly 20, Deckerville 0

8-MAN

CPS 39, A-Fairgrove 6

Owen-Gage 41, MC Cardinal Mooney 20

NEXT FRIDAY’S GAMES

Sandusky at Bad Axe

Caro at Cass City

EPBP at Imlay City

Frankenmuth at Vassar

BCAS at Saginaw MLS

Harbor Beach at USA

Mayville at Kingston

Ubly at North Huron

Memphis at Brown City

Marlette at Peck

Deckerville at Armada

8-MAN

Owen-Gage at A-Fairgrove

E. Washtenaw Academy at CPS

END REGULAR SEASON

News and views as we head down the stretch

NEWS: Undefeated Harbor Beach can clinch the outright Greater Thumb East football championship Friday night with a win on the road at Mayville.

VIEWS: Not only should the Pirates roll to an 8-0 record, they will probably be able to sew up at least two home playoff games with a victory.

And, if they can win their Week 9 matchup against Unionville-Sebewaing Area, they will more than likely secure home field through the regional.

The Pirates have been impressive on both sides of the ball, but according to coach Troy Schelke, they are still looking to improve and put four quarters together in the same game.

Nevertheless, they have answered five consecutive challenges, dating back to early September when they beat a very good Reese squad. Since then, they’ve knocked off Brown City, Ubly, Marlette and Sandusky.

 It’s a nice turnaround for a program that hasn’t made the playoffs since its 2007 state semifinals run.

NEWS: Reese can clinch the outright Greater Thumb West title with a win against Bay City All Saints on Friday.

VIEWS: Like the Pirates, the Rockets shouldn’t have much trouble disposing of the Cougars.

In an odd twist, Friday’s game at BCAS is Reese’s final contest of the regular season. The Rockets do not have a Week 9 game scheduled.

NEWS: As of today, only Harbor Beach has clinched a playoff spot of all the teams in the Tribune’s coverage area.

VIEWS: The only guarantee this week is that either Deckerville or Ubly will secure a berth. Both of those teams are 5-2 and meet at Deckerville on Friday night.

If the Bearcats win, the Eagles will then have to beat a pretty good Armada squad on the road in Week 9 to guarantee their ticket. They could still qualify on points at 5-4, but that would be tempting fate.

USA is the only other area team with a chance. The 4-3 Patriots, who qualified last season at 5-4, have a rough road with games against Sandusky and Harbor Beach. 

Non-area teams which have qualified include Vassar and Marlette. 

In 8-man, Owendale-Gagetown looks like it will be one of the 16 teams to qualify for the official first-ever 8-man playoffs, regardless of what it does the rest of the season.

Those schools with 8-player teams will be ranked by playoff average at season’s end, and the top 16 programs will be drawn into regions of eight teams each for the playoffs in that division.

NEWS: Rumor has it that ALL the schools in the North Central Thumb League will be playing 8-man football next season.

VIEWS: This certainly is a contradiction to what some NCTL coaches said at the start of the season. A couple were adamant that they wanted to stay with an 11-man program, regardless of what some of the other schools did.

Apparently, NCTL schools have discussed this over the past month, and they will be announcing the change some time in November.

In short, this whole thing is a mess. NCTL schools wishing to stay with an 11-man program should merge with the GTC and form a football conference. This should have been hashed out a few years ago.

There is a way to do it. Some creative scheduling (ie. work) would have made it possible.

I have nothing against the 8-man game. But it will be simply shocking to see programs like Deckerville, North Huron and Kingston playing 8-man.

Sad, too.

Mike Bogan is the Daily Tribune’s editor. He also serves as sports editor.

Week 8 Blog Games

Here are the games for Week 8 of the Tribune Blog Football Contest.
We promise. We will have the updates and past few winners soon...

2 pointers
Bad Axe at Vassar
Reese at BCAS
Harbor Beach at Mayville
Peck at Memphis
USA at Sandusky

5 pointers
Ubly at Deckerville
Marlette at Brown City
EMU at CMU
MC Cardinal Mooney at Owen-Gage
Kingston at North Huron

10 pointers
Cass City at EPBP
Ohio State at Illinois
A-Fairgrove at CPS

20 pointers
Michigan at Michigan State
49ers at Lions

Tie breaker – 49ers at Lions, total points

Thanks once again for the patience...

Payback for Patriots

USA remained undefeated in GTW volleyball Tuesday night...

CASS CITY — Just a few days after falling to its Greater Thumb West rival in the finals of a tournament at Essexville-Garber, Unionville-Sebewaing Area returned the favor to Cass City in a showdown of two of the area’s top teams.

The Patriots did what they had to do to stay undefeated in GTW play here Tuesday night, holding off a late Red Hawk charge en route to a 25-18, 25-14, 16-25, 25-9 decision.

USA (8-0) now holds a 2 1/2 game edge in the GTW over second-place Bad Axe (5-2). Cass City slips to 5-3 in the league.

Cass City coach Brenda Sherman was frustrated with her team’s lackluster showing in Games 1 and 2 when the Patriots took command.

“When you show up for one out of four games with teamwork and drive, you can't beat a team like that,” she said. “We are capable of more, as they showed last Saturday, but again believing in yourselves and trusting each other is key. 

“We played hesitant and sluggish except for the third game when the girls pulled it together, but we were unable to hang on to it.”

Meanwhile, USA coach Teresa Rose was excited to see her team bounce back from the weekend loss to these same Red Hawks.

“Tonight was a huge win for our team,” she said. “We had just played and lost to Cass City on Saturday, so we knew going into tonight’s game that both teams wanted to walk away with the win. We just played really well.”

Once again, USA’s front row and defense made the difference. 

Defensively, Calie Valentine led the team with 30 digs while Maddy Payton added 20, Ashley VanHoost 18, and Mackenzie Treiber and Erika Fritz 13 each.

“Cass City has big hitters and we knew we had to shut them down,” Rose said. “I think defensively our team played really hard. They were going for everything and trying not to let anything hit the ground.” 

On the other side, Cass City hurt itself with several serve reception and passing errors in the first two games. While the Red Hawks were much better in Game 3, they seemed to run out of steam in Game 4.

“USA is a hard-hitting team with good defense,” Sherman said. “They have a lot of weapons and you have to be running on all cylinders to beat them. We got into our own heads instead of playing as a team.”

At the net for the Patriots, Payton paced the team with 11 kills while Sami Eisengruber and Miranda Fuerst added nine kills each, and VanHoost and Treiber six kills apiece.

“Our setters know they have to utilize everyone to keep other teams guessing where it’s going,” Rose said. “Having strong hitters every rotation is very helpful.”

Chelsey Bitzer led the USA passers with 25 assists while Fritz notched 12. Bitzer also had 17 points and two aces while Valentine chipped in 22 receptions, VanHoost seven points, Eisengruber 11 points, two aces and seven blocks, Fuerst three blocks, and Payton 15 receptions and nine points.

USA never trailed in Game 1, taking leads of 4-0, 14-9 and 22-13. Kills from Eisengruber and VanHoost closed out the opener.

Game 2 saw Cass City grab an early 4-2 edge, but USA rebounded quickly to gain control. Two kills from VanHoost and a Cass City hitting error accounted for the game’s final three points.

Cass City responded to its 2-0 deficit in Game 3, putting together a string of solid points en route to leads of 2-0, 9-4, 11-5 and 19-8. Kills from Megan Parrish and Jordyn Rasmussen, along with a pair of USA hitting errors, gave the Red Hawks the victory.

USA, though, came back and dominated Game 4, rolling to leads of 3-0, 9-4, 16-7 and 22-8. Payton earned the kill for match point.

For Cass City, Logan Rowell had 12 kills and two blocks while Rasmussen added eight kills, Parrish 15 assists and 20 digs, Stephanie Leeson 11 assists, Shania Chambers 20 digs, Carley Hendrick 13 digs, and Gracy Hollis one block.

Cass City, 19-9-3 overall, is off until next Tuesday when it hosts Bay City All Saints.

“We need to play better than that with the rest of league play and heading into districts,” Sherman said. “It can be done.”

USA, 31-2-4 overall, travels to BCAS on Thursday. 

A few photos...

 

Pirates are still red-hot

Adams filed this report from the Harbor Beach-Sandusky game Friday night.

SANDUSKY — Harbor Beach didn’t win any style points, but it did clinch a share of the Greater Thumb East title.

Despite missing out on some scoring chances, the Pirates kept their record perfect, defeating Sandusky 26-12 on Friday night.

Coach Troy Schelke has been searching for a complete game from his team all season. He didn’t find it Friday night.

“I’m concerned about it just because I want us to reach our potential,” he said. “It certainly gives us something to strive for. We know we can get better. I think we’re good, but we definitely can get better.”

Once again, the defense was up to the challenge. It contained the dangerous quarterback-receiver duo of Justin Mills and Brandon Tucker for most of the night.

Mills did complete 17-of-37 attempts for 191 yards, but was picked off five times, including a pair by Tom Sutherland.

Sutherland’s second interception sealed the game for the Pirates, leading to an Eli Kraft to Averey Wehner 33-yard touchdown to make it 26-6 late in the third quarter.

 “Tom Sutherland is one of the nicest young men you will ever meet. He works his tail off,” Schelke said. “He’s been on varsity for three years, so he was here during some tough times. He’s a true team player and a true leader. I couldn’t be happier for him.”

Harbor Beach took a 6-0 lead with 7:05 left in the first quarter after Sloan Klaski got loose for a 32 yard run.

Just before the half, Klaski flew over the pile for a 1-yard TD to make it 12-0.

Klaski followed up last week’s effort with another solid performance, rushing for 138 yards on 24 carries with the two scores.

Despite the halftime lead, Schelke felt it should have been more. The Pirates had the ball in the red zone three times and failed to score.

“We missed a couple of opportunities in the first half, we have to finish those,” he said.

Midway through the third, the Redskins cut the lead in half after Mills hooked up with Tucker for a 3-yard score. 

Harbor Beach made it 18-6 three minutes later after Derek Pfaff rumbled in from 19 yards.

Sandusky’s final TD came during its hurry-up offense in the fourth quarter. Mills found Tucker again on a dazzling 25-yard score.

“Sandusky has some playmakers,” Schelke said. “They’re certainly the best 4-3 team in our area.”

It was again a mix of Wing-T and spread for the Pirates which produced solid results. Pfaff added 72 yards on 14 totes, Kraft was 7-of-13 passing for 118 yards while Wehner led the team with three catches for 63 yards.

Klaski led the defense with 12 tackles. 

Schelke reflected on how his team got to this point.

“We’ve played some really good teams, and none of the games have been easy,” he said.

“I think it’s big for the kids. I think it may be more special for the coaching staff. We know to win this league you have to beat good teams in this area. Our side is very strong, so we take a lot of pride in having a share, but we want it outright.”

Harbor Beach will hit the road to play Mayville to put the finishing touches on the GTE championship next Friday.

“It’s very important for us to get better this week and next week,” Schelke said. “We can’t take anything for granted.”