Jets Soar Past Rockets For Regional Championship

POWERS---It didn't take long for the North Central High School football team to take control of its regional championship game Friday night against Rapid River.

The state's top-ranked Eight-man team took no prisoners again for an eleventh straight mercy-rule victory, as the Jets scored three touchdowns in the first 2:35 of the game and rolled to a 62-8 win over the Rockets to earn a berth in next Saturday's semifinals.

"The offensive line, it all starts there,"", NCA Head Coach Kevin Bellefeuil said. "They (skilled players) don't get anything if they (the line) don't do their job. Defensively, (assistant) Coach Kleiman had a great game plan."

"We obviously wanted a different outcome tonight", Rapid River Head Coach Steve Ostrenga said. "We certainly wanted to keep it closer. We did some good things, but we just sputtered."

"You know, we needed everything to go right, and when you make four, five mistakes, and miss some blocks, it puts you in a tough position."

The Jets scored on the first play from scrimmage as quarterback Jason Whitens found receiver Bobby Kleiman all alone for a 44-yard touchdown pass. Then, after the Rockets fumbled on their first offensive play, the Jets went 41 yards in two plays.

Whitens ran for 25 yards and Kleiman scored from 16 yards out. A pass to Brett Baird made it 14-0. That happened just 55 seconds into the game.

And when the Rockets went three-and-out on the next series, the Jets set up for a 57-yard touchdown pass from Whitens to Dawson Bilski.

The Dylan Gagne two-point run made it 22-0, just 2:35 into the game.

After Rockets quarterback Mason Berglund was sacked on a 4th-and-7 at midfield, the Jets went on the attack again. This time, it was a 21-yard touchdown pass from Whitens to Bilski.

Gagne's two-point run made it 30-0, and there was still 6:55 left in the first.

On Rapid River's next possession, Berglund was intercepted by Marcus Krachinski, who returned the pick to the Rocket 17 yard-line.

The Jets faced 4th-and-3 from the Rocket 10 yard-line when Kleiman made an ESPN-like play. His one-handed, left-handed, catch of a pass that was behind him, set up a first-and-goal. Whitens passed to Baird for the touchdown on a six-yard strike to make it 36-0. Later, everyone was talking about Kleiman's one-handed, falling down grab.

"It all starts with Dub (Whitens) and our front," Kleiman said. "Our line has been doing an amazing job. Dub, you can always count on him to put it right down on the spot. You know, he needs a little help sometimes, you've just gotta do what you can for him, being such a great player. He's always making the passes, and we just have to make the plays."

"People say that's great coaching?" Bellefueuil said. "I had nothing to do with that. God gave him that gift. He does X-Box stuff like that all the time. That's what I call it. X-Box stuff. Which button did he hit to get that one?"

"That stings," Ostrenga said with a chuckle. "I guess to sum it up, we get them on fourth down, and they hita diving ,one-handed catch. So, that's how the night went."

North Central led, 36-0, after one quarter of play. Rapid River tried to slow the game down when it got the ball, and the Rockets put together a nice drive behind an unlikely source.

Sophomore David Johnson, who had no offensive carries since early in the season, started to have success. He keyed a 15-play Rockets drive in the second quarter that killed some time off of the clock, with eight carries for 32 yards.

"He ran hard," Bellefeuil said of Johnson. "I told him: man, you ran hard dude, where'd you come from? He just smiled. He did a great job, and their offensive line came off and our kids stood up a little bit, so that was a good thing for us to see on film and to adjust to (for next week), because we made some adjustments after that."

Unfortunately for Rapid River, Berglund was stopped just shy of a first down at the Jets nine yard line. And even with 91 yards to go, the NCA offense moved with ease. The final 64 of those yards came on a pass from Whitens to Kleiman to make it a 42-0 game.

This was still in the second quarter, so the running clock was not yet in effect

The Rockets got one first down on a nice 22-yard pass from Berglund to George Kanyuh, but the Jets defense held on the next three plays.

And with 1:57 left in the second quarter, the Jets got the ball again and Whitens found Bilski for a 45-yard touchdown pass.

NCA had a 48-0 lead at halftime, so the running clock started in the third quarter.

Rapid River got the ball first in the third quarter, and appeared to score on a touchdown pass from Berglund to Logan Hardwick. But Hardwick was called for offensive pass interference, so Rapid River had to try again on 4th and 21 from the 45 yard-line.

This time, Berglund found Hardwick behind the defense with no penalty flags, for the 45-yard score. Berglund ran in the two-point conversion to make it a 48-8 game.

On the ensuing kickoff, however, the ball went into Whitens' hands, and that was trouble for the Rockets. Whitens got the kick at his own 25, made a great cut against the grain, and then rumbled 75 yards for a special teams touchdown. It was 54-8.

The Jets closed the scoring with a defensive touchdown in the fourth quarter as Max Krachinski picked off a Berglund pass and returned it 59 yards to the house.

Tyler Bentley's two-point conversion run made it a 62-8 final score.

Whitens threw six touchdown passes: three to Bilski, two to Kleiman, and one to Baird. Whitens and Kleiman each had rushing touchdowns as well for NCA.

"The kids, I told them at the beginning of the year, if you put the work in, we have the talent, we have the numbers, that we can play hard and practice hard," Bellefeuil said. "They stuck to it. Everybody kept their grades up. Nobody got any trouble off the field. And we're still going. It's a credit to these kids."

"They've got eight athletes out there," said Ostregna, praising the NCA team. "And they can bring three, four guys off the bench that are as fast or faster than anybody that I have."

"That's just a very special, athletic group. This team has size, and speed. And because they have they have speed, they can run through the tackles."

As for the Rockets, the football season ends with a 7-4 record, with all four losses coming to teams who made the state playoffs.

The Jets (11-0) will host Cedarville (9-2) in the state semifinals next Friday night in Powers (6:00 CT/7:00 ET).

Cedarville upset undefeated Posen, 22-20, in overtime, Friday night.

The MHSAA has designated Eight-Man state semifinal games to be played on Saturday every year, but the Jets and Trojans mutually agreed to play Friday this time.

"That means everything," Kleiman said about being on his home field next Friday night. "We've never done that before. We've just got to keep it up. Keep going to practice, work hard, and keep being a team."

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box to see photos and videos taken by Nate Bellville, and to gear radio interviews and replays.