Haeger’s TD return helps Catholic Central win CHSL finale

NOVI » Pride is one heck of a motivator.

Even if neither team had anything tangible to play for in Friday’s Catholic League Central finale — with the regular-season championship wrapped up a week ago — it was obvious both Novi Detroit Catholic Central and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s were using their pride as an outright accelerant to stoke their fires.

While CC wanted to get on track after losing its bid at the CHSL Central title, the Eaglets of St. Mary’s — trying to bounce back from getting run over defensively in their own Week 6 loss — came out and played with their hair on fire on the defensive side of the ball, keeping it a one-score game through halftime, despite three turnovers inside their own 30.

It took Evan Haeger’s 96-yard return for a touchdown on the secondhalf kickoff to completely swing the tide to the Shamrocks, who went on to win the defensive slugfest, 21-0.

“You could tell in their demeanor, they were fired up. They wanted to come out and hit us and they kept us confused that first half. You could tell they were definitely ready to come in to play. They prepared well,” said Haeger, who had the game’s only score in the first half, a 14-yard touchdown run just one play into the second quarter.

But it wasn’t for lack of opportunities.

Raid Zerki’s interception set CC up on the 40-yard line, but the drive would sputter, and the Shamrocks would miss a field-goal attempt. One play later, they recovered a fumble on OLSM’s 22-yard-line, but would turn the ball back over on a fourthdown interception.

It was finally an interception by Jackson Ewald, and a return to the Eaglet 20 that set the Shamrocks up for Haeger’s go-ahead score.

“We gave them three turnovers inside the 30-yard-line. Great defense. Great defense. But their defense wouldn’t let us do anything, either,” said OLSM coach George Porritt, whose Eaglets got ripped for 43 first-half points in a loss to Birmingham Brother Rice a week ago, a stinging that helped motivate their performance Friday. “We played hard today. You know, a good team beat us — a great team beat us — but our kids played their butts off … and I couldn’t be more proud of the guys. I know you don’t feel good when you lose a game, but when kids put in an effort they put in an effort.”

The offensive frustration didn’t end for the Shamrocks with the goahead score, either. Driving to potentially make it a two-score game before the half, the Shamrocks fumbled inside the red zone, and OLSM recovered at its own 17, then ran off the final 38 seconds of the half, sending the Shamrocks to their locker room scratching their heads a bit.

“We felt like we had everything in place to do what we needed to do, it’s just we had to execute. It came down to execution. We were making mistakes. You can’t make mistakes and these big games like this,” said CC coach Dan Anderson, who at one point pulled starting quarterback Declan Byle out of the lineup and put freshman Skyler Hunter behind center to see if he could get something going. “I tried to talk to individuals. We pulled Declan at one point just to try to calm him down — which kind of made him even get a little more emotional but I mean he just has to realize that we did it to try to jumpstart us, and it did. Then we put him right back in and I thought he did all right.”

For Haeger, it was just a matter of the Shamrocks settling down.

“We had to take deep breaths as a team and just relax, and let’s just get back to playing our game,” said the junior, who is committed to play baseball at Alabama. “I mean, we needed to capitalize and I think we all took a deep breath as a team, and just played our game of football and that was the result of the veterans we have.”

It certainly helped to settle things when he grabbed the second half’s opening kickoff, wound his way through traffic around midfield, then zipped down the home sideline to score, making it a 14-0 game after the PAT.

“I mean, it was about the blockers — the blockers made it, made a great alley. I just kind of read the blocks … and I was able to capitalize,” Haeger said. “I had faith in the blocks. I mean the blocks were there. .. Coach (Ryan) Bell told us earlier this week, if you just hit it, it’s gonna be there, and tried to hit it, hit it fast and trust the blockers and they did a great job.”

The return improved the mood on the CC sideline dramatically.

“It’s huge. You could feel it sway,” Anderson said. “You know, I think anytime you can get those special team points that’s just — it just electrifies the whole team.”

The only other score in the game came four plays into the fourth quarter, as Spencer Lyon’s 1-yard TD plunge capped a 13-play, 56-yard drive that lasted more than six minutes of game time.

“It just proves if we do our jobs we can do it. You know, it’s just getting them to believe in it,” Anderson said.

Haeger finished with 85 yards rushing on 13 carries, as CC had 113 yards on 31 totes as a team. Byle finished with 72 yards through the air on 8-of-16 passing.

Catholic Central will take on Huron Heights from Newmarket, Ontario, next week, then close out the regular season with a trip to Traverse City to take on TC West. St. Mary’s has a date with Lake Catholic from Mentor, Ohio, next week.