D7 football: Jackson Lumen Christi outlasts Menominee, wins record-tying 13th state title

Detroit — Jackson Lumen Christi’s Gabe King had a hand in two of the biggest plays of the Division 7 football state championship matchup against Menominee on Sunday at Ford Field, the second much sweeter than the first.

After muffing a punt in the early stages of the game to help Menominee run out to a 14-0 lead, King wound up on the receiving end of the go-ahead touchdown for Lumen Christi with just more than four minutes left to play in the game.

“He’s probably been our steadiest player all year long. Made a mistake, had 48 minutes to come back and make up for it, and he did that,” Lumen Christi head coach Herb Brogan said.

Following King’s catch and score on the Timmy Crowley pass to go up, 34-30, the Lumen Christi (13-1) defense mustered one last stop to ice the game and lock down a second-straight state championship. Menominee finishes the season 11-3. 

And with the win, Jackson Lumen Christi and Brogan continue a run of dominance that has gone on mostly unabated, including winning its first two in Division 7 since moving down from Division 6. Lumen Christi has won, now, 11 state championships under Brogan and five since 2016 — and 13 in program history, tied for the most in the history of the state of Michigan.

“It means so much just to be able to add to our already very, very long list of achievements and the legacy that comes with being a Lumen Christi football player,” lineman Aiden Pastoriza said.

Outside of King’s special-teams gaffe, Lumen Christi played a crisp, mistake free-game. It just couldn’t stop the Menominee offense and quarterback Trevor Theuerkauf for much of the game. After giving Menominee a short field, Theuerkauf marched his team down the field and converted a two-point try to get out to an 8-0 lead. An empty Lumen Christi possession helped Menominee stretch the lead to 14-0 — a second two-point try failed.

Despite the hole, Lumen Christi stayed true to a plan that’s worked well all season: Giving the ball to junior running back Kadale Williams. After a quiet opening frame, Williams was a nightmare for the Menominee defense all game. He finished with 27 carries for 276 yards and three touchdowns, plus a catch for 18 yards — 294 total.

“From the jump, I'm counting on the line," Williams said. "It's all up to them. It starts with them. So once they do their job, do great opening gaps, I owe it to them to make the play for them every time."

Menominee finished with just 342 yards total.

Were it not for Theuerkauf and his efforts, the margin could’ve been much greater. He finished with 273 total yards and three touchdowns. His ability to scramble, evade pressure and extend plays caused issues most of the game for Lumen Christi, as did the ability for the Menominee offense to run and pass with balance.

“We were able to run and throw to keep them off balance," Menominee head coach Chad Brandt said. "That's been an advantage for us all year. After the first drive, defensively, I think they got rolling."

A few key stops likely swung the game for Lumen Christi, though. 

Trailing 14-7 in the second quarter, Lumen Christi was getting driven back into its defensive end. A defensive pass interference — not an automatic first down — turned a 4th and 16 into a fourth-and-two, a down and distance Menominee had been converting all game. But as Theuerkauf rolled right and kept the ball on a run, the Lumen Christi defenders flooded the backfield and stopped him cold, short of the marker.

A few plays later, Williams rumbled 45 yards into the end zone to tie the game. Once the game was tied, Brogan felt his team established a modicum of control until Menominee retook the lead a handful of times in the fourth quarter. 

But each time it looked like Menominee had flipped the game, Lumen Christi had a response, right up to King’s go-ahead score.  

“We’re just steady with the ball and we wear teams down,” Pastoriza said.

Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.