DIVISION 8 FOOTBALL: Harbor Beach stuffs Beal City for first state title

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

Twitter: @LocalSportsFans

DETROIT — For more than two decades, Harbor Beach has worked hard to make a return trip to the football state finals. Now, the Pirates have finally earned their first state title.

Fifth-ranked Harbor Beach downed previously-unbeaten Beal City, 35-10, Friday at Ford Field to claim the Division 8 state title.

“I just can’t be more proud of the group of guys than I am here today,” said Harbor Beach coach Troy Schelke.

“It was a tough game today,” continued Schelke. “Beal City has a great program and that is a great team out there that we beat today.”

Harbor Beach, which lost in the 1991 Class C state finals, led 28-3 in the third quarter before halting the Aggies’ mini comeback. Beal City cut the deficit down to 28-10 and had another long drive halted inside the 30.

Ty Rollin’s 11-yard TD sprint with 8:36 left in the third gave the third-ranked Aggies new life. Beal City would not score again and saw its dream of a perfect season go to the way side.

“I made some calls (on offense) that if I could do it again I would have done it differently,” said Beal City coach Lou Rau. “I am still very proud of this football team. Winning 13 games is still admirable.”

Beal City, which entered the game 1-3 all-time in state title games and last won in 2009, was stopped on fourth and goal only a couple inches shy of the goal line on its opening drive. That seemingly shifted the momentum over to Harbor Beach, who led 14-3 after the first quarter and 28-3 at the half.

A pair of long passes set the table for Harbor Beach’s first two scoring drives.

Aaron Ginther hauled in a 54-yard strike from Kraft to put Harbor Beach (13-1) up for good at 7-0 with 3:22 left in the first quarter. Essenmacher caught a 69-yard pass from Kraft to move the advantage to 14-0 45 seconds left in the opening frame.

Kraft was also 8-for-13 passing for 168 yards, with Travis Essenmacher catching two passes for 86 yards and Ginther snatching three passes for 66 more yards. Ginther also had 170 all-purpose yards and led the Pirates with 12 tackles.

After Paul Anders got Beal City (13-1) on the scoreboard with a 30-yard field goal with 9:37 left to play in the second stanza to cut the lead down to 14-3, Harbor Beach answered with two more scoring drives that ended with touchdowns.

Eli Kraft scored on a 4-yard run with 4:54 left in the second quarter, which was preceded by an interception return. Austin Seltz provided the fourth first-half touchdown with 19 ticks remaining courtesy of a 6-yard run.

“It started up front. The offensive line did a great job,” said Kraft. “They gave me enough time to throw and we have great receivers and coach called a good play that got open.”

Harbor Beach capped the scoring with 7:29 left in the contest when Derek Pfaff plunged into the end zone from 1 yard out. Colin Cook set up the play with an interception return down to the Beal City 6.

“(The first title) means a lot because we’ve had a great program over the years,” smiled Schelke. “This is something that was started years ago and we were finally able to win it all this season. The guys set a goal at the beginning of the year and were able to achieve it.”

Kraft was one of seven ball carriers for Harbor Beach, leading the way with 78 yards on 15 rushes. Pfaff added 64 more yards on 15 carries.

Rollin had 76 yards on 17 carries and 164 all-purpose yards for Beal City. Sam Schafer finished 10-for-28 passing for 168 yards, while Hayden Huber collected a game-high 13 tackles Schafer added 10 tackles for the Aggies.

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Tags: Beal City Football, football, Harbor Beach Football, high school football, MHSAA Division 8 Football State Finals, prep football

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