DETROIT — Just seconds before halftime, the West Catholic Falcons were up 14-0 over Negaunee. The Miners scored on the last play of the half to cut the Falcon lead to a single possession. The crowd that made the seven-hour trip from the Upper Peninsula went crazy.
Then, the Miners took the opening kick of the second half in for a touchdown, and the Negaunee crowd went crazy again.
But they didn't make a whole lot of noise after that.
West Catholic scored 31 points in the third quarter led by senior running back and future Air Force Falcon Tim Kloska, who had four touchdowns and 241 yards on the night.
"This kid works harder that any kid I've ever been around. He deserves everything he gets. I don't think he's getting enough respect around the state quite personally. It's one of those things where the more touches he gets, the better rhythm he gets in," said first-year head coach Landon Grove about Kloska.
"We have some really good football players around the perimeter as well. And then a lot of the credit goes to the o-line. I mean [Kloska] will be the first one to tell you how much better those guys have gotten all year."
On the first play of the game, West Catholic made a statement with a 72-yard touchdown pass from Bernie Varnesdeel to Carter Perry.
"I knew right before the game he was gonna be wide open because we were working on a play all week at practice when he's been open most of the time. And then he was the main option right there. So I just hit him and he executed it," Varnesdeel said.
The win marks West Catholic's first state championship since 2017. The seniors remember watching that game as middle schoolers.
"We've worked really hard for this, and this has been a dream since we were in seventh grade watching all these state championships, growing up with those guys. It's a great feeling because we've worked so hard," Kloska said.
West Catholic finishes the season 13-1. Their lone blemish on the season was a 28-20 loss to Fruitport in week seven. But they still played well enough to learn a share of the OK Blue title, in addition to all their postseason success.
"It's a testament to them. We had a really good feeling going into the year. I'm getting to know these guys, and as the season went on, we start progressing. In the summer, we started getting into team camp [we knew] that we had a special group," Grove said.
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