Prep Football Notes: Jefferson coach misses game to add to family
Rob Beaudrie can’t remember ever missing a game in 30 years of coaching football.
But he was not on the sidelines Friday when his Jefferson Bears lost 29-12 to Milan.
He had a good excuse.
Beaudrie was at the hospital with his wife, Sarah, as she gave birth to the couple’s fourth child — a girl named Cecelia James.
Week 2 summaries: Final stats for all 14 Monroe County Region teams
“She was induced Thursday morning and we waited to see what would happen,” Beaudrie said. “The baby was born Thursday night at almost midnight. I was not leaving.”
Beaudrie’s oldest son Noah took over as head coach for the Bears.
“Noah did a great job,” Beaudrie said of his son, who is an assistant coach at Jefferson. “I talked to Jesse (Milan coach Jesse Hoskins) and he was really complimenting Noah. It was a great experience for him.”
Beaudrie watched an internet stream of the game from the hospital.
“It was tough, but I was able to watch online,” the coach said. “I followed along, but I could not get too excited in the hospital.”
The Beaudrie family also includes Olivia, a sophomore volleyball player at St. Mary Catholic Central, and Luke, a freshman football player at Jefferson.
Rob Beaudrie says the new baby was “a surprise.”
Jefferson got some bad news Friday. Freshman Bret Gennoe, who led the Bears in tackles in the season opener, went down with an injury.
“It was the first play of the game,” Beaudrie said. “He broke his tibia. He’s out for the season.”
New role for Dundee's Layton
Ethan Layton took on a new role for Dundee’s football team Thursday night.
The senior who usually plays slot receiver, had to take over at quarterback against Erie Mason when starter Ryan Zanger went down with an injury in the second quarter.
“Ethan played quarterback as a freshman and has been in our system for three years,” Dundee coach Steve Ayre said. “He’s No. 1 in his class. He really knows the ins and outs of it.”
Layton more than held his own at the new position.
He finished just 7 yards shy of being the top rusher for the Vikings with 10 carries for 70 yards and completed 11-of-15 passes for 139 yards. He was involved in all five Dundee touchdowns.
He opened the scoring by catching a 44-yard TD pass from Zanger, then had three short scoring runs before capping his night by throwing to Cooper Buhl for a TD.
“Ethan did a really good job,” Ayre said. “He was pretty efficient. His numbers would have been better, but he had two dropped balls.”
Ayre had no qualms about having Layton take snaps.
“It didn’t change our play calling,” the coach said. “We trust him in key third and fourth-down situations.”
Ashton Viers stepped into Layton’s position as slot receiver.
“He came in and did a really good job,” Ayre said of Viers. “That's another great, smart kid who knows the whole offense.”
Dundee will know more about Zanger’s status for Friday’s game at home against Blissfield after the junior visits a doctor this week.
Airport stocked with skill
Airport is stocked with skill players on both sides of the ball.
Some are great rushers. Great passers. Great tacklers.
Nolan Zajac does it all.
In the Jets' Week 2 win over four-time defending Huron League champion Riverview, Zajac flexed his versatility.
He was 6-for-6 on extra-point attempts and added two field goals from 33 yards and 32 yards. In the team's Week 1 win over Gibraltar Carlson, Zajac was perfect on four PATs and also added a 25-yard field goal.
More: Airport takes down defending champ Riverview
In addition to his duties as a kicker, Zajac starts at tight end and excels as both a blocker and pass catcher. On defense, he's a physical outside linebacker.
On Friday against Riverview, he also led the team in receiving with 3 catches for 68 yards.
"We lean on Nolan as much as any kid we have," Airport coach Jim Duffy said. "If we need something done and we need somebody to do it, Nolan will be the guy we trust. He's so important to our game plan.
"He won't have the numbers like a lot of the other guys, but he's equally if not more important than anybody that we have."
Whiteford's Masserant not missing a beat
Kolby Masserant had a great game in the 2022 Division 8 state championship game, catching 5 passes for 82 yards for Whiteford.
He’s carried that momentum into 2023. In two games, Masserant has 9 catches for 207 yards and 3 touchdowns in Whiteford’s 22-7 win over Ida. He also had two interceptions for the Bobcat defense.
“We have a lot of team chemistry,” Masserant said. “We’ve all played so long together. We use that to the best of our ability.”
Petersburg power outage causes complications
Ten minutes before kickoff Thursday in Petersburg, a transformer appeared to malfunction just beyond the east end zone, causing power to go out across the city. Summerfield athletic director Kelly Kalb sprang into action, alerting both teams that they had to start the game immediately if they had any hope of finishing.
More: Summerfield holds on for 9-8 victory over Bronson
“Our biggest enemy was darkness,” Kalb said. “I knew we had to get the game going.”
By halftime, it became clear that the game wouldn’t be completed in time. Bronson school officials agreed to come back on Friday, but Kalb still had to secure football officials and get everything ready for what was essentially a second football game in two days.
“We had to find a chain gang, things like that,” Kalb said. “It’s been a crazy few hours. We might have gotten to the third quarter, but their coach was like, ‘If I am going to lose 6-0, I don’t want to lose 6-0 in the third quarter.’ Plus, no one wants a shortened game. The kids want to play a full game.”
Is Booms' 5 TDs a record?
Brian Booms either set or tied a Flat Rock record for touchdowns in a game Thursday night.
In just 17 carries, Booms ran for 181 yards and scored on runs of 2, 1, 71, 19 and 36 yards in a 35-6 victory over Grosse Ile.
Monroe News records also show Devon Crain with a five-TD game, but Flat Rock athletic director John Clair has been unable to find any records verifying that performance.
Bedford fans show some love
Bedford had its youth football players on hand for Friday’s game against Ann Arbor Skyline.
The future Mules got a lesson in sportsmanship.
More: Receiver's heady play helps Bedford record first win of season
Skyline running back TJ Bailey went down with a leg injury late in the second half. The Bedford fans immediately fell into a hush.
When emergency medical personnel eventually got Bailey onto a stretcher and were wheeling him out of the beautifully renovated Bedford Community Stadium, a loud cheer erupted.
Bailey responded with a wave to the Bedford stands.
Needing a defensive timeout
Summerfield coach Dylan Szegedi broke one of his own coaching rules Friday – calling a timeout when the defense was on the field.
“You never want to do that,” he said. “You save timeouts for offense.”
When Bronson switched offensive formations, inserting a fullback and guard into the backfield to take a direct snap from center, the Vikings started moving the ball down the field. After several plays of Bronson gaining big yardage, Szegedi had seen enough.
“It was just a little adjustment,” he said. “We weren’t in the right gaps so our linebackers could fill the spot. We got it corrected. It wasn’t a big difference, just a little shift.”
The adjustment made the difference, however, as the Bulldog defense stopped Bronson on three possessions in the final five minutes.
The Bulldogs are 2-0.
“We are finding ways to win,” Szegedi said.
More non-conference action for Whiteford
While most area teams have started or will start league play next week, Whiteford still has two more non-league tests before facing a Tri-County Conference opponent.
More: Defense stands tall for Whiteford in convincing win over Ida
The 2-0 Bobcats take on Ottawa Hills, Ohio, this week on the road, then host Edon, Ohio, the following week.
Ottawa Hills is the defending Toledo Area Athletic Conference champions and off to a 3-0 start. The Green Bears are averaging 42 points a game and have surrendered just three touchdowns in three games. Edon is 2-1.
“That’s a good football team,” Whiteford coach Todd Thieken said about Ottawa Hills. “We have to continue to get better, because we have some good teams coming up.”
BEST OF WEEK 2
RUSHING YARDS
Brian Booms, Flat Rock 181
Drew Harris, SMCC 147
William Gaskell V, Milan 139
Jack Mills, Airport 130
Jake Iott, Whiteford 115
PASSING YARDS
Vaughn Brown, Mason 259
Graham Junge, Flat Rock 216
Cooper Nye, Airport 186
Ethan Layton, Dundee 139
Micah Smith, Huron 110
RECEIVING YARDS
Korbin Herrera, Mason 130
Landon Vida, Carlson 101
Gavin Albring, Ida 96
Evan Szalay, Flat Rock 82
Toby Frazier, Mason 70
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Prep Football Notes: Layton, Zajac, Booms, Masserant star
