Highlight Reel: Problems Persist in Football, But Area Schools Do Well at Golf and Tennis Regionals

Varsity Football

’s season is now on the brink.

A 24-22 loss to Hazel Park on Thursday means the Knights have to win their final two games of the season to automatically qualify for the playoffs this year. 

Since starting the season 3-0, Lahser has lost three of its past four games. It has a tough challenge next week when it heads to Auburn Hills for a game against Avondale. 

Time is also running out for the varsity football team. It isn’t in playoff contention, but the team is still trying to pick up its first win of the season.

It lost to Flint Northwestern 35-28 Thursday night in the Barons' third consecutive game decided by a touchdown or less. The loss pushed their losing streak to nine games, going back to last season. Andover’s only win last year was a 31-20 win over the Wildcats.

Andover quarterback Winston Urwiller had another solid game with 170 yards passing and a touchdown, but the Barons just couldn’t put enough points on the board.

Meanwhile, Brother Rice head coach Al Fracassa was denied career win no. 400 for the second consecutive week as his Warriors fell 21-19 on the road Friday at Catholic Central. 

It was also the second consecutive game in which the Warriors lost to a Catholic League opponent by less than 3 points. It lost an overtime thriller to Orchard Lake St. Mary’s last week, 10-9.

The only Bloomfield-area team to win this past week was Detroit Country Day. The Yellowjackets won their fifth consecutive game Friday over Linden 35-15. On the streak, the defense hasn’t allowed a single opponent to score more than 15 points, and the Yellowjackets' average margin of victory has been slightly more than 33 points per game.

A win over Blenheim at home next week would put Country Day in the playoffs.

Varsity Girls Golf

Marian, Country Day and Cranbrook Kingswood are all headed to the state finals. The schools all had top-three finishes at their respective regionals last Thursday.

The Marian Mustangs finished second in their Division 1 regional at the Heather Highlands golf course in Holly.

Macy Hudson, Kelly Lunghamer and Ellen Manson all played in the state finals last year and helped Marian qualify again. The trio of seniors all shot under 10 over par.  

Detroit Country Day and Cranbrook Kingswood both qualified at the Division 3 regional played at the Orchard Lake Country Club in Beverly Hills. The teams finished in second and third place, respectively. The Yellowjackets shot a 352 as a team, and Cranbrook was 12 shots back with a 364.

Varsity Boys Tennis

The boys tennis regionals went really well for Bloomfield Hills-area schools last week. The area will have schools playing in the state finals in three of the four divisions.

The Brother Rice Warriors qualified at the Division 1 regional at Grosse Pointe South. The Warriors dominated their regional with wins in all four singles flights and two of the four doubles flights. In the two doubles flights Brother Rice didn’t win, the team still made it to the finals.

Andover and Lahser will represent Bloomfield Hills in Division 2. Both schools qualified in the regional hosted by North Farmington.

The Andover Barons had two flight champions in singles action and one doubles champion. Sanjay Reddy won No. 2 singles, and Jonah Yousif won No. 4 singles, while Dylan Deitch and Cuthbert Sun won No. 3 doubles. 

Lahser senior Max Hemmrich won No. 1 singles, and teammates David Gwizdala and Michael Daniels won No. 1 doubles to help the Knights advance to Kalamazoo next weekend.

In Division 3, Country Day and Cranbrook Kingswood moved on in the regional hosted by the Yellowjackets.

Players from Country Day won seven of the eight flight championships and finished in second place in the other flight. Cranbrook Kingswood won the only flight that its rival didn’t and was the runner-up in the other seven flights. 

Varsity Soccer

Andover had two big wins in the Oakland Activities Association White division last week.

The Barons beat Farmington 2-1 Tuesday and then came back Thursday with a win over Royal Oak by the same score. The win over the Falcons was significant because along with Berkley, the three teams are competing for the division title going into the last week of the regular season.