Welcome to Semifinal Weekend. This week, all games are at neutral sites, and they take place Saturday at 1 p.m. instead of the normal 7 p.m. Friday Night. This week, we are traveling to Westland John Glenn High School for a Division 5 tilt between first-time foes Flat Rock and Notre Dame Prep.
Flat Rock enters this game sitting 10-2, and in the playoffs, they’ve outscored their opponents by 77 points. Leading them this far is Senior Quarterback Graham Junge. In last week’s win, Junge passed for 260 yards and four touchdowns on 17 of 23 passing attempts. In the win, Junge threw his 100th career touchdown pass to fellow Senior Adam Szalay, who broke the school record for the most receiving yards with 1,151 yards the week prior. While Adam Szalay caught Junge’s 1000th touchdown, his Brother Evan Szalay brought in two scores and a 2-point conversion on six receptions in the team’s Regional final win a week ago.
Also playing a role in the victory a week ago against Ann Arbor, Father Gabriel Richard was Running back Jacob Hagan. Hagan rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns in the victory. If Flat Rock can get similar production out of their four stars, especially Quarterback Graham Junge, who has put up a monster senior year with just shy of 2500 yards and 36 touchdowns, they can find themselves playing for their first State Title since they won it all the way back in 1976.
Notre Dame Prep enters this game at 10-1 after winning the school’s first Regional Title in school history. Leading Notre Dame Prep on this historic run has been the play of Seniors Joey DeCasas and Drew Heimbuch, along with Junior Sam Stowe. In their win last week over Armada, it was Joey DeCasas doing a little bit of everything as he made an impact in all three phases of the game as he pulled in five receptions for 55 yards and a touchdown, as well as returning a kick 99-yards for a touchdown, and then on defense he had an interception. Drew Heimbach also stepped up on defense for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame Prep. Heimbach totaled seven tackles, four of which were for a loss, one sack, a fumble recovery, and a blocked extra point. Not only did he have a great game on defense, he also had a touchdown on offense.
Commanding the offense of the Fighting Irish is Junior Quarterback Sam Stowe. Stowe completed nine of his seventeen passes for 77 yards and two touchdowns. He also used his legs in the game as he would rush for 15 yards and two more touchdowns en route to the 45-19 victory.
Will Flat Rock return to the State Title for the first time since 1976, or will Notre Dame Prep make it for the first time in school history? Either way, Saturday afternoon will make history at John Glenn High School.
Bear: Flat Rock
Nat: Flat Rock
Kirby: Notre Dame Prep