CLICK HERE  to watch a replay of the Ishpeming-Loyola game, via MHSAA.
CLICK HERE to see and purchase Terry McNamara's photos of the game.
CLICK HERE  to see all of the game's team and individual statistics.

DETROIT---The Ishpeming High School football team was on a mission, and not even a big, physical team from the Motor City could derail that mission.

The Hematites were facing the Detroit Loyola Bull Dogs, the state's top-ranked team all season long. A team with several players destined to play in Division One college football once they graduate from the all-boys school.

And the Hematites were 450 miles away from home, playing at the Detroit Lions' Ford Field, which is just a few miles from the Loyola campus.

But the boys from Ishpeming are tough, too. And they showed that toughness by beating Loyola, 20-14, in the Division Seven state championship game on Saturday.

"Everyone said we were the underdogs," Ishpeming Coach Jeff Olson said. "Loyola has been so dominant all season. They're a very good football team. But these guys are used to being underdogs, and they're used to proving themselves. These kids had one goal all season...to get to Ford Field and win a state championship, and that's extremely hard to do. A lot of things have got to go your way. But these guys made things go their way."

"We're a hard-nosed football team," Ishpeming quarterback Alex Briones said. "We don't take any prisoners. We're going to fight all we can. We were hungry for a state title for ourselves, and obviously, we wanted it for our coach."

Eric Kostreva outruns his defenders. (MHSAA Photo by Terry McNamara)

The win was especially emotional for Olson, who's son, Daniel, committed suicide back in July. Daniel Olson was the quarterback on the Hematite team that made it to Ford Field two years ago, and many of the current Hematite players knew him personally.

The players....heck, the whole community....wanted to "win this one for Daniel". Coach Olson said after the game that this was not about him, but....

"I don't care what he says," Briones said. "We wanted this for him."

"We've had some tough times here," Coach Olson said. "But these kids have handled it like adults. These kids are like family to me. They made it comfortable for me to be back on the field (coaching) this season. They responded in a positive way."

Eric Kostreva scored all three of Ishpeming's touchdowns, and the Hematities made big defensive plays when they needed to. And after a last gasp effort to score failed and the clock went to all zeroes, the Bull Dog players and coaches just stood there. Stunned.
 

MHSAA Radio Call of Game's Final Play

"We didn't play well today, and they did play well," Loyola Coach John Callahan said. "That's all there is to it. We'll sit down after a couple of days and look at the film to see what we did wrong. I want to congratulate our seniors. They're why we're here, even though there's only five of them. We had a very young team, with some very good sophomores, and a freshman."

Loyola may have been "young", but they had plenty of talent and had won all 13 of their games this season by double digit points. Ishpeming had to pull out an 8-7 win in the semifinals over Pewamo-Westphalia just to get here. But the Hematites were not intimidated by neither the size nor the talent of the Bull Dog team.

Ishpeming got off to a good start as Kostreva rambled 55 yards for a touchdown early in the first quarter. But Loyola answered early in the second quarter as quarterback Toby Sharpe found Keymonne Gabriel for a 28-yard touchdown pass. The two-point conversion run gave Loyola an 8-6 lead heading into halftime.

Kostreva scored again, this time on a two-yard run, to put Ishpeming ahead, 12-8. But on the last play of the third quarter, Gabriel scored on a 20-yard run, putting the Bull Dogs back in front, 14-12, entering the fourth quarter.
 

But Ishpeming came back again, with Kostreva scoring his third touchdown (a three-yard run) with 10:36 left in the game.

Briones scored the two-point conversion, and Ishpeming had a 20-14 lead.

The Bull Dogs drove down the field, converting a fake punt for 45 yards along the way. But on 4th-and-1 on the Hematite eight yard line, Gabriel was tackled by Briones for a one-yard loss. That happened with 5:36 left in the game.

"That was huge," Briones said. "Because they got the big fake punt run, and then we were holding them (on the next three plays). We saw him (Gabriel) coming and we were just hungry for it."

The Hematites ran the ball three times, and were just shy of the first down at their own 18 yard-line. After a time-out, Olson rolled the dice and went for it, rather than punting the ball away. Briones got the first down with a quarterback-keeper.
 

MHSAA Radio Call of Ishpeming Red Zone Stop

"I was going to punt it, but the guys all wanted to go for it," Olson said. "If someone offers me 4th and three inches for a state championship, I'm going to go for it. I thought that the odds were with us. We always go for it on fourth and one."

"I think it was most of the team that ran over to the sidelines and said 'We're going for it', and we're going to get it'," Briones said.

Ishpeming got it, but did not get another first down. By getting that one on fourth and inches, however, the Hematites were able to burn another three minutes off of the clock and forced the Bull Dogs to use their final time out. The Hematites finally did punt, and when Loyola got the ball back, it had just 1:14 to work with, and no time outs.

Loyola managed only one first down, and spiked the ball twice to kill the clock. A last gasp pass down field was overthrown, and the Hematites started celebrating.

This game was also emotional for kicker Eric Dompierre, the 19-year-old student with Down Syndrome. He got to walk on Ford Field as a member of the Hematites after a two-year battle with the Michigan High School Athletic Association over its age rules.
 

The Hematites owned Ford Field.

Dompierre did not attempt a kick in the game, but was where we wanted to be: with his teammates on the sidelines.

Olson was also happy to see all of the Hematite supporters at Ford Field.

"I really belive that support drives these guys," Olson said. "Last week at the Superior Dome (for the semifinals), it was just packed with Blue and White. To be able to share this with them is just something special."

Kostreva led the Hematites with 183 yards on 20 carries. Briones had 54 yards rushing, also on 20 carries. Briones also completed two of four passes for 29 yards.

"We had great holes to run into, and then I had to make decisions on which way to cut once I got into the open field," Kostreva said.
 

MHSAA Radio Call of Kostreva's winning TD

How did the smaller Hematites deal with the bigger Bull Dogs?

"We used a lot of angles," lineman Brad Wootke said. "Coach Olson always preaches staying with your man, and we just got as big of a push as we could."

Gabriel had 129 yards on 21 carries to lead Detroit Loyola.

"There are no excuses," Callahan said. "We got outplayed. But we'll be back."

The Hematites football team returned to Ishpeming late Saturday night to a hero's welcome.

---Jack Hall