Area teams dealwith virus issues
Soccer ponders championship as football contends with schedule complexities
What makes a soccer champion? That’s a question theMacombArea Conference might have to answer as multiple teams in the Red Division navigate quarantine situations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anchor Bay leads the six-team division with a 5- 0- 0 record and 15 points, but it’s unknown how many Red games the Tars will be able to play before the regular season ends and the state tournament begins.
In the MAC, a match winner gets three points, and teams involved in a tie get one point apiece.
It’s not certain whether a team that currently trails the Tars could play enough matches and accumulate enough points to pass Anchor Bay — or if the MAC will adopt an alternative method of determining standings.
“Our league is aware of the situation and will be addressing it during our MAC meeting next week,” Jason Battle, the athletic director at Anchor Bay, said in an email Tuesday.
TheMichiganHigh School Athletic Association said of virus-related cancellations, “Except for football, any game cancelled because of COVID issues is not considered a forfeit. It is considered a no play provided the contest has not started.”
Ford is unable to play before Oct. 10, athletic director Bill Szlaga said.
“We are out 14 days (because) of COVID cases fromother teams,” Szlaga wrote in an email.
The Falcons had towithdraw from a match against Eisenhower scheduled for today. That game will not be rescheduled, Szlaga added.
Adam Schihl, the athletic director at Chippewa Valley, said he was “hopeful” games could be made up.
Eisenhower and Dakota tied 1-1 in the only divisionmatch played Mon
day.
That left the Cougars (32-1) in second place with 10 points followed by Eisenhower (2-1-3) with nine, Stevenson (2-2-1) with seven, Ford (0-3-1) with one and Chippewa Valley (0- 4- 0) with zero.
District tournaments begin Oct. 14.
Football
Warren-Mott will play Ecorse at home at 7 p.m. Friday in a non-league game, athletic director David Noble said in an email. Ecorse replaced L’Anse Creuse North, which won’t play this week and next due to COVID-19 issues, Crusaders team members were told. Warren-Mott is 2-0 and leads the MAC White by one-half game over Utica. Not playing L’Anse Creuse North will leave the Marauders with four division games at most.
In the Blue Water Area Conference, North Branch and Croswell- Lexington agreed to play each other Saturday night, the North Branch athletic department said on Twitter. North Branch was to have played Algonac and CrosLex was scheduled to play Almont this weekend, but those games were cancelled.
Algonac is playing Marlette after Marlette’s game against Memphis was cancelled, the Sanilac County News reported. Memphis forfeited the game to Marlette, according to the Yellowjackets’ schedule page on the MHSAA web site.
Almont High is closed until Oct. 12 because a student at the school has COVID-19, superintendent William Kalmar said in a letter posted to the Almont Community Schools Facebook page.