He never would have done it in his younger years.
But Scott Cuthrell’s first decision as a 60-year-old turned out to be a winner.
The veteran Cass City football coach put the game in the hands of a kicker — and he and the Red Hawks were rewarded with the state’s biggest upset of Week 4.
Brody Schefka’s 23-yard field goal in overtime gave Cass City a stunning 17-14 victory over No. 1-ranked and defending state champion Millington in Big Thumb Conference White action.
“I don’t think we’ve kicked a field goal since 2005,” Cuthrell said. “But he nailed it.”
RELATED: Bay City area football scores for Week 4
On their 23rd-year head coach’s 60th birthday, the Red Hawks came through with a surprise party. Cass City was sitting on a 1-2 record and coming off a gut-wrenching loss to league rival Laker.
Heading to Millington to face the reigning state champion – which Cass City had never defeated in seven tries – didn’t bode well. But the Red Hawks had big ideas.
“We had a good week of practice, and we said ‘Well, we’ll find out after the first two series if we can play with them,’” Cuthrell said. “We really thought we could.”
Cass City (2-2, 1-1) struck first on a 25-yard touchdown run by Ryker Wallace to open the second quarter. But Millington (3-1, 1-1) countered with two touchdown passes from Garrett Woodward – connecting with Hudson Myers and Layden DeLong — to take a 14-7 lead into the half.
Will Perry’s 15-yard touchdown run to start the fourth quarter knotted the score at 14-14 – and that’s where it would stay through the end of regulation. Cass City won the overtime toss and elected to start on defense, giving Millington the first crack to break the tie.
“They went to the Power-I and tried to pound it, and we had some huge stops,” Cuthrell said. “They went for it on fourth-and-2 and our right side came up strong. Blake Mackowiak made a touchdown-saving tackle.”
When Cass City also failed to punch it in on its first three downs, Cuthrell made the rare call to his kicker. Brody Schefka, a dual-sport athlete who also competes in soccer, trotted onto the field with hero potential – and delivered.
“We had him working on field goals this week and he was pretty solid from 30,” Cuthrell said. “It’s kind of nice to have that in your back pocket.”
It took a slugfest to win the game, as expected, as Cass City managed 127 tough yards on 42 rushes. Wallace led the way with 92 yards on 25 carries while Perry finished with 34 yards on seven attempts. Preston Dorland was 2 of 6 passing for 53 yards in the win.
Jackson Anthony fronted the Cass City defense with 12 tackles while Gavin Franzel added nine and Braxton Kolacz recovered a fumble.
Woodward finished 5 of 12 passing for 86 yards and the two scores for Millington. Drake Terwilliger led the ground game with 73 yards on 14 carries.
All told, it turned out to be signature victory for Cass City and a memorable birthday for its head coach.
“The only gift I got was a bucket of water over the head,” he said. “I’ll take that any day.”
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