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The original 256 are down to 64, and each division is down to just eight teams. This is the last chance for home-field advantage, and the last chance to play close to home for many West Michigan teams. Every week will now mean travel and a new reason to be thankful. We have traditional powers, defending champs, and Cinderella stories all looking to write the final chapter of the 2011 Football season.

Division 1
Grand Blanc (9-2) at Rockford (10-1) Saturday 1pm

Previous Meeting or Common Opponents: Both beat Holt. Rockford won 42-7 in week 2, Grand Blanc won 59-52 in the first round of the playoffs.

Why Grand Blanc Wins: The Bobcats will need to score with the Rams, their defense should provide little resistance for Rockford to score points. The offense will sling it around all night so look for Rockford to prepare accordingly. If the weather is cold and windy it could be a disaster for Grand Blanc who saw their 2004 playoff run end at Rockford. The Bobcats have never won a Regional Final.

Why Rockford Wins: This is when Munger and the Rams build on their reputation; Rockford is an experienced team who knows how to win playoff games. The Rams D will have their hands full with stopping this potent Bobcat offense but they have limited just about every team they have seen this year with the exception of Lowell. The Rams ability to run the ball will keep the clock moving and limit Grand Blanc’s chances on offense which plays into Rockford’s advantage. Avoid a shootout.

Winner Gets: Ann Arbor Pioneer or Detroit Catholic Central.

Division 2

Fenton (9-2) at Lowell (10-1) Saturday 1pm

Previous Meeting or Common Opponents: None. (Fenton Coach Jeff Setzky is brother-in-law to Lowell Coach Noel Dean.)

Why Fenton Wins: Honestly, they don’t know any better. The Tigers made a run this far last year and really have not had much playoff success in their existence. So maybe they just don’t know any better, they come in well prepared and just don’t understand that they shouldn’t beat Lowell. Much like Lowell, Fenton is led by their QB Houston Shaw who is a dual threat and has the experience of leading his team on consecutive playoff runs. The Special teams is also a point of emphasis here, think Virginia Tech, those special teams just happen to come up with big plays in big games.

Why Lowell Wins: They are the better team. Lowell is coached amazingly well and has the experience to go along with the teaching. Gabe Dean is a beast, plain and simple, he makes defending this offense nearly impossible. The Red Arrows looked shaky in the first round but came back to pound Muskegon last week. We fully expect Lowell to move on here, one step closer to a third straight trip to Ford Field.

Winner Gets: Walled Lake Western or Port Huron.

Division 3

East Grand Rapids (8-3) at Holland (9-2) Saturday 1pm

Previous Meeting or Common Opponents: Holland beat East in week 2, 30-22.

To read our detailed breakdown of this game check out Tuesday’s article.

Winner Gets: Mount Pleasant or East Lansing.

Division 4

Alma (9-2) at Comstock Park (7-2) Friday 7pm

Previous Meeting or Common Opponents: None.

Why Alma Wins: They found a way to stop Jake Brown. Not likely as the Park QB has been shredding defenses all season long but that is what will have to happen for Alma to have a chance in this one. Dylan Brown is a great RB for the Panthers and will have to navigate through a suddenly stingy Park defense (allowing 7 total points in two playoff games). Alma has played a pair of teams from the west side of the state in Newaygo and Howard City Tri County but nothing like this Comstock Park team.

Why Park Wins: Jake Brown is hard to stop and the thing about it is if you stop him on the ground he can still throw the ball extremely well. Jon Hoffman is another weapon for this Panther offense to go along with their very tall collection of receivers. Park is back home this week which should also provide a distinct advantage as the Panther students can keep it loud with the best of them! If Comstock Park’s defense keeps their play up this week then the home team should roll.

Winner Gets: Paw Paw or Zeeland West.

 Paw Paw (10-1) at Zeeland West (11-0) Friday 7pm

Previous Meeting or Common Opponents: None.

Why Paw Paw Wins: The Redskins are balanced on offense and have a defense that will attempt to set the tone early with physicality. They will need that tone from the coin toss to hang with the Dux, matching the physicality of Zeeland West is a tall task for any team (ask Catholic Central). Paw Paw will run the ball for the most part but senior QB Brett Boven can make plays with his arm as well. Locating the ball carrier will be the focus all week for the Skins as it has given Dux opponents fits all year long. Grab an early lead and running teams have trouble coming back in a timely manner if you play solid D.

Why West Wins: The Dux are big, tough, fast and athletic. Last week turnovers kept Catholic Central in the game longer than they maybe should have been it was clear Zeeland West was better. Clay Coatney leads these Dux and is a magician with the ball in the backfield; the ball carrier is often not located until he is already 5 yards down field. Zeeland could sit back to defend the pass and allow their pass rushers to get pressure on Mile Morrissey last week whereas this week it will be important to stay home and play pursuit lanes. If the Dux defense plays like they did last week this one will be over quick.

Winner Gets: Alma or Comstock Park.

Division 5

Menominee (9-2) at West Catholic (9-2) Saturday 3pm

Previous Meeting or Common Opponents: None.

Why Menominee Wins: If the Maroons have success running the ball out of their unique offensive set then this will be another classic between these two schools. The Maroons have put up 119 points so far this postseason so this could very well end up being a shootout that comes down to the 4^th quarter. The Single Wing offense that the Maroons run causes fits for most teams and is yet another example of the multitude of ways you can win football games at the high school level. Think of a “Wildcat” offense where you’re not sure exactly which back the ball will be snapped to (its pretty wild!). Menominee’s defense will also have to deliver a huge game to slow the Falcons.

Why West Catholic Wins: The Falcons and coach Dan Rohn want to defend their state title in a bad way, last year it took traveling to the UP to beat a Menominee team in the Semi Finals. This year it’s at West Catholic and they hope the home field helps out in a big way. West will lean heavily on their running game and Jalin Faison as they have all year. The Falcon defense has been playing great in these playoffs and they will need to be up to the task again on Saturday against this quirky Menominee offense.

Winner Gets: Dowagiac or Lansing Catholic.

Division 6

Montague (9-2) at Ithaca (11-0) Saturday 1pm

Previous Meeting or Common Opponents: None.

Why Montague Wins: The defense is improved over past Montague teams and they find a way to contain the spread attack of Ithaca. We all know about WR Brandon Moore and QB Travis Cockerill on the offensive side of the ball but in my eyes this game will come down to the play of the Wildcat defense. I do all I can to get Moore the ball in creative ways as throwing it all over the yard will be risky, the Yellow Jacket defense has 26 interceptions this year! Montague is the last team to beat Ithaca, in the 2009 semi-finals Cody Kater and company took home a 47-16 victory.

Why Ithaca Wins: The Yellow Jackets are the defending D 6 champs and have won 25 games in a row. Coach Terry Hessbrook has built a monster in Central Michigan and his spread attack has slashed through opponents all season long. QB Travis Smith has been a wild success this year after Mr. Ithaca, Alex Niznak graduated last year. Smith is also a dual threat as a sophomore and has Ithaca looking tough for years to come. Smith will look towards Charles Schnetzler when he throws the ball down field; the pair has hooked up for 11 scores. Garrett Miniard is the teams leading rusher and the heart of the defense at middle linebacker.

Winner Gets: Iron Mountain or Morley-Stanwood.

The original 256 are down to 64, and each division is down to just eight teams. This is the last chance for home-field advantage, this is the last chance to play close to home for many West Michigan teams. Every week will now mean travel and a new reason to be thankful. We have traditional powers, defending champs, and Cinderella stories all looking to write the final chapter of the 2011 Football season.

Our first game this week is a rematch of a week two shocker, Holland played host to East Grand Rapids in an OK White/Black crossover game and snapped the Pioneers 34 game winning streak with a 30-22 victory. The Dutch jumped out to a 24-0 halftime lead and had the Pioneers on the ropes from the opening kickoff with Alex Haas‘ 91 yard return to start the Holland scoring. Dutch super-stud QB Corey Willis ripped of a pair of long runs (49 and 43 yards) to go along with a 16 yard pass to Nathan Ricketts. Willis tallied 242 rushing yards on 31 carries and kept the ball away from the Pioneers potent offense to hold off the second half East flurry.

Upon further research into this game (that many thought East would roll in) many of the Dutch and their followers were not as shocked as the rest of the area. Holland coach Shawn McManus liked what he saw from his team early on and preached to his team all week, “Tonight we said let’s just leave it all out on the field.” It’s clear that a team like East cannot go unbeaten forever and eventually every run must come to and end. I credit these Pioneers for staying strong and staying together through a brutally tough schedule all year long. The Pioneers lost a tough one against Christian a few weeks ago and came back last Friday to avenge that loss, they will focus on avenging another loss this Saturday.

Both David Drummond and Corey Willis had huge games back in week two and will look to match those performances again this week. Willis has had the larger impact on his team this year with his output largely dictating the Dutch success. In the lone poor outing for Willis against Forest Hills Central in week 7 resulted in a Ranger blowout of the Dutch 42-7. Willis was limited to 50 rushing yards and the Holland offense could only muster 202 yards of total offense, with 97 of that 202 coming on a 97 yard 4th quarter TD pass. East will be focused on Willis all week long and will have to stop him first if they want another week to defend their 5 straight state titles.

Travis Palmer and this East offense is hitting on all cylinders right now and the defense is putting up equally impressive outings especially when you look at the offenses they have slowed. Drummond may not be tall but he is solid as a rock and does nothing to shy away from contact, the Dutch will focus on stopping the run but also must prepare for the East aerial attack. This will be a great game featuring some of the most electrifying players in all of West Michigan and when you toss in the bad taste that East will have entering this one the fans of these two schools are in for a treat.

Our final preview this week is out in Division 1 as Rockford will play host to Grand Ledge who is coming off of their round one victory at Grand Haven last week. The Bucs are one of three common opponents for these teams as they each defeated Grand Haven, Grandville and Holt this season. These two school have seen each other in the post season a few times in the last decade with Rockford holding the recent edge by winning the last two meetings in rather decisive fashion. Both teams are fairly balanced on the offensive side of the ball and stout while defending their endzone. Both teams survived relatively low scoring games last week and will look to do the same tonight.

Grand Ledge comes in at 8-2 after a 6-0 start out in the Capital Area Blue Conference finishing second in their league behind East Lansing. The Comets are led by Jalen Brady at quarterback how came up with big plays at the right moments last week to beat Grand Haven on the road and will need to find a play or two against Rockford tonight if he wants to play another week. The Comet defense also came up with a touchdown last week and for a defense that’s giving up just over 8 points a game putting up points of your own will lead to many Grand Ledge victories. Limiting Rockford’s ground game will be crucial early as well as grabbing an early lead. Battling the Rockford crowd can be a daunting task once you fall behind so staying close, if not ahead will be the key for the Comets.

Rockford comes in as OK Red champs at 10-1 suffering their lone loss on opening night to Lowell. The Rams are a playoff mainstay and are looking to avenge last years bitter postseason defeat. The Rams have been resilient all year, from losing starting QB Mark LaPrairie early in that loss to Lowell to facing their three toughest league foes to open conference play with back-up QB Kyle Short, to slipping past West Ottawa last week in a game that WO easily could have tied with about 3 minutes left. Coach Ralf Munger has built a strong team both physically and mentally and those are the ingredients for a deep playoff run. Brady Gent is a bruising back for the Rams who will help eat up clock and maintain control of the ball, doing so against this strong Comet D will be a challenge however.

“The Ted” will be rocking tonight when the top ranked team in D1 takes the field and that leave Grand Ledge in a very non enviable position. If Rockford can grab an early lead they should cruise. Comet faithful will be looking to shock the state however and knock the Rams out earlier than expected. The winner here will be rewarded with a Regional Final against either Grand Blanc or Midland, Rockford would host next week with a win while Grand Ledge would be set to hit the road for a third straight week.

Game #1

Our game of the week comes from two teams who know each other very well although they play pretty far apart and don’t have many common opponents. That’s because Muskegon and Lowell have met four of the last five years in the division 2 playoffs. These teams seem to meet up every year and always leave fans with their money’s worth. Muskegon is coming off of a huge win over Mattawan in which senior RB Juwan Lewis ran for 285 yards, yes I said 285 rushing yards for Juwan Lewis alone. The Big Reds totaled 420 yards total on the ground and were just too fast for Mattawan. Muskegon will need to be fast on Friday as well as tough on the defensive side of the ball to slow Gabe Dean and the Red Arrow read option plays. Lowell battled through a tough game against Forest Hills Central and used a blocked punt at the end of the first half to gather a 13-7 victory. Dean, who recently just committed to Cornell University to wrestle, has led his team to the state finals in Detroit each of his three years at the helm for these Arrows, winning it all in 2009 and coming up just short last year. This is a can’t miss game as many of the night are and the winner will hold the right to move on and face the winner of the Fenton and Okemos game also being played tonight.

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Today’s game is another Division 5 District Final in which Hopkins will travel to Dowagiac with hopes of moving on to Regionals. Hopkins enters at 7-3 and as the reining OK Silver champions. The Vikings have been building a solid program south of Grand Rapids and now look to grow on the big stage. Dowagiac comes in at 9-1 and owns a league crown of their own (actually they split it with Paw Paw, but beat them head to head so I give them the crown) and may be looking past this game as they might have expected to see Berrien Springs in this game. These teams have no common opponents so coaching preparation will be vital in this one!

The Vikings of Hopkins are here after a rough start but I applaud the schedule makers for preparing this team for success. A 1-3 start looked bleak for the Vikes but they faced a trio of tough teams in Edwardsburg (a top ranked team in D4), Hastings (A D3 mainstay) and Sparta (A D4 surprise but great team) all of which dealt Hopkins an L early on. Hopkins is riding a good wave right now and are doing so behind RBs Dylan Williams and Zach Joostberns who last week racked up 250 yards on the ground with a trio of scores. The Vikings have a great offensive line opening up holes for the backs as well as protecting QB Mitchel Pavlak. Slowing the Chieftain rushing attack will be crucial for this defense if they want to keep this one close.

The Chieftains of Dowagiac have overpowered many teams this year and have a defense that is as stingy as any in D 5. Last week they cruised past Parchment 24-8 after basically taking the run game away which is what Parchment does best. Look for them to attempt to do that again this week as they know Hopkins will want to run the ball so they should load up to prevent that. Dowagiac spreads the ball around between many players keeping them fresh and all doing different things well. D.J. Hunt leads the rushing attack with Dontel Highsmith the main target of the passing game for the Chieftains. Dowagiac will host this game and with the hour and a half drive one must wonder how many Hopkins faithful will make the trip.

The winner here will be on the road next week heading towards the Lansing area as either Lansing Catholic or Portland will be waiting, both teams have more playoff points and will be a tough foe. Neither team should be looking ahead however as it will spell disaster in this game if they are. Both of these squads are very good teams and a weeks worth of attention is needed to take this one home. If Hopkins can get the ball moving on offense they will be just fine in my mind. The Vikings had some turnover issues last week that they were able to get through but can’t afford those mistakes this week if they hope to beat a very tough opponent on their home field.

Game #2

The playoffs allow us the opportunity to relive some epic match-ups and Friday holds a few of those, none maybe as big as East Grand Rapids heading into Grand Rapids Christian. The Pioneers and Eagles just faced off two weeks ago and provided West Michigan with one of the best games of the entire year with Christian’s 50-49 double overtime road win. This time the game is at Christian and the Eagles hope that leads to a less stressful victory. East found success with the running game and David Drummond for much of the night while Travis Palmer made some exceptional throws as well that allowed the Pioneers to jump out to the early lead. A missed field goal in the first overtime would have won the game for East but it sailed wide right and the Eagles capitalized. East will have to find a way to stop Kavon Frazier the Eagle stud RB who had a huge second half allowing his team to ascend back to the top of the scoreboard. Christian will have to solve their glaring problem from the first meeting by holding on to the ball. The Eagles turned the ball over about 6 times either by interception, fumble or failed 4^th downs and it nearly cost them. Christian needs to clean up that aspect of their game if they want to move on in these playoffs. This game should be very close and come down to the end with the winner drawing the Holland at Zeeland East winner.

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Today’s game two of the top contenders in Division 5 including West Catholic who is the defending D 5 champ. The Falcons come in at 8-2 as the OK Blue champions and are looking to repeat last years success. They will have to go on the road and beat an undefeated Reed City team Friday night however if they hope to move on. The Coyotes come in at 10-0 and the Central State Activities Association champs, their first unbeaten season since 1966. These teams both squared off with Manistee this season, West Catholic got to this game by throttling the Chippewas 49-14 last week while Reed City could only manage an 8-0 victory back in week 6 over Manistee.

West Catholic continued to build on their tradition this year with another great year behind coach Dan Rohn. An opening night loss to Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and a week 5 loss to Muskegon Catholic Central had the Falcons sitting at 3-2 in their quest to defend the D 5 crown. West has turned it around however and have a very potent offense for this level of play. Tommy Staskiewicz has been the ignition to this attack all season under center and he has a wide arsenal of weapons to attack opposing defenses. The Falcons will take what a defense gives them whether it be on the ground with Jalin Faison or Staskiewicz himself, or via an aerial attack with Kyle O’Hearn being a favorite target through the air with 5 receiving scores. The Falcons are hungry and are no doubt hearing the talk that they are “big and slow” and can’t keep up with the Coyotes.

Reed City will host this battle although they only received 4 more playoff points than WC despite the Falcon’s two losses, a sign of the much tougher WC schedule. Reed City is a smaller team in regards to roster size, the Coyotes only have a 25 man roster so virtually all players are on the field all night long. The Wing T attack can be confusing but WC should be well prepared for it after facing the likes of Muskegon Catholic, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and Coopersville. Reed City is led by RBs Garrett Benson (a junior) and Nathan Kailing (a senior), this thunder and lightning attack respectively has run over teams all year long and will look to do so against a Falcon D which has shown holes at times.

Both of these teams are looking at home field advantage again next week with a win as the winner will draw either Menominee or Grayling. The keys in this one however are going to be West Catholic’s ability to match the physicality of Reed City as well as the Falcon’s deep bench which should allow for fresh players on the field at all times. Reed City squeaked by in earlier games this year against better opponents while West Catholic really laid it to some tougher competition. Look for this to be a hard hitting battle that will have the winner ready for a title push.

Game #3

Out in Division 6 the West Michigan Conference will take center stage as Montague will head on down to Oakridge for a rematch of their week 3 nail-biter in which Oakridge went for the two point conversion late in the 4^th to gain a one point edge. An all too familiar site for these fans who saw Montague pull the same stunt last year at Oakridge in their 28-27 victory in the regular season. These two schools are bitter rivals in every sport and this game is sure to be rocking! Montague comes in off of a late rally to get by Calvin Christian last week and will need their defense to step up big time in this one. The Wildcats have a very potent offense with the ability to score at any moment especially when Brandon Moore has the ball in his hands. For the Eagles of Oakridge it took them awhile to get going last week in their 18-0 win over NorthPointe Christian but Francis Decker got it going with an interception in the 2^nd quarter and then blew the game open in the 3^rd with a pair of touchdown catches. As these scores indicate the kicking games are not as good down at this level which leads to these crazy two point attempts and will make it vital to stay until the final horn on Friday night. The winner will be headed on the road next week as they will face either Montrose Hill-McCloy or defending division 6 champion Ithaca; both are D6 powers and will provide for a tough opponent.

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Today’s game is the top game in Division 8 as Muskegon Catholic Central will head south to face a stout Mendon team. These two teams come in as the top ranked teams in the entire bracket and were placed in a brutal District along with Saugatuck who was the 4th ranked team in all of Div 8 based on playoff points. Muskegon Catholic comes in at 9-1 on the year as an Independent school who suffered their only loss of the year in week 8 to Forest Hills Northern. I that game the Crusaders suffered a bit of a melt down allowing Northern to score 14 4th quarter points en route to a 20-13 victory. Mendon will host this game thanks to their 10-0 record although these teams sit atop the AP rankings for Div 8 in a tie for the #1 spot. This game will be played at 1pm on Saturday.

Muskegon Catholic comes in off of their 28-0 victory over a very tough Saugatuck team who was missing QB Bradley Speet after an ejection in the regular season finale. MCC created early turnovers to take the wind out of the Indian’s sails and grab a 14-0 lead just 6 minutes into the game. Jesse Anderson led the Crusader charge with 129 yards on 22 carries and two scores. The defense stepped up in a big way holding Saugatuck to under 200 total yards for the game and will need to come up with that sort of performance again this week. The fact that this game is being played on a Saturday I think helps the Crusaders who will have clear heads heading into this mega showdown.

Mendon is led by junior Tyler Harris who racked up 125 yards and four scores on only 11 carries last week against St. Joe’s Lake Mich. Catholic in the Hornets 45-0 romp. Harris complied over 1,200 yards on the ground and nearly 30 touchdowns on the season which weekly helped Mendon to their 44.5 point average margin of victory. The Hornet’s defense gave up 53 points on the year (20 of which came in the regular season finale), while the offense scored 52 or more in a single game 5 separate times! QB Chance Nightingale is another major threat for this Mendon team as he has thrown for 10 touchdowns to just 2 interceptions while also rushing for 11 scores.

This is going to be a great game down in a lower Division with the winner having the inside track to Detroit and will be favored at Ford Field as well. One point of emphasis for Mendon will be to clean up some sloppy play that showed up later in it’s opening round win, three fumbles and a slew of flags upset the coaches after the big win. Catholic Central will be using that play to remind the Crusaders that there are turnovers out there for them to grab and then take advantage of. This one will come down to who’s defense can come up with the most stops, Mendon scores early and often and MCC will have to prevent that if they have any hope of moving on to face the winner of the Climax-Scotts and Pittsford game.