WEST BRANCH – Ogemaw Heights football team was mired in a 26-game losing streak stretching from the last two games of the 2014 season to the seventh week of last season before the Falcons brought it to an end with a 27-14 win over Tawas.
The Falcons then lost four in a row before edging Wyoming Kelloggsville, 18-14 in week three this year. Another four-game losing streak followed. But the Falcons closed out the season with a two-game winning streak, topping Grayling, 26-20 and smashing Houghton Lake, 42-22 to finish 3-6.
It was quite an accomplishment considering the Falcons fielded a young squad this season with nine sophomores being pulled up from the junior varsity, all of whom started at some points throughout the season.
But, that also means the Falcons will return an experienced team next year who have been exposed to the faster pace of the varsity game and should be ready to take even bigger steps forward.
Ogemaw, an independent not affiliated with a conference, does lose some key players, however, chief among them senior fullback Jullian Mlasko who led the team both offensively with 511 yards rushing and three touchdowns, as well as at linebacker topping the defensive charts with 139 tackles.
Another leader was Calvin Beck, the Falcons’ junior quarterback and corner on defense. He threw for four touchdowns and added five scores on the ground while running for 290 yards.
The Falcons also will return junior Jony Moore who coach Cody Kangas said was a “late bloomer” after making his first start in the third game of the season and finished the season with 436 yards and three touchdowns. The majority of his yards came in the last three games.
Heights was extremely young in the offensive line, starting just one senior, center Alex Page, with four sophomores starting a majority of the games along side of him. Kangas said Page did an excellent job bringing the sophomores along.
“We’re looking forward to the next couple years with those guys on the line,” Kangas said. “Not only that, (but) we have a couple great freshmen on the offensive line this year that I think will really help us out next year as well.
“Next year we will be very junior heavy up front, but we also have some size and some speed that I think we can do a lot of good things with.”
Defensively the Falcons’ biggest challenge will be finding someone to fill Mlasko’s shoes at middle linebacker. But Kangas thinks sophomore Hunter Neubecker who started alongside Mlasko could fit the bill.
The Falcons should be returning some great defensive backs in Moore and Zea Kartes taht Kangas believes can really anchor the defensive backfield and shut down the opponents’ passing game.
One of the key returning players on the defensive line is sophomore Jere Getzinger, a 6-foot-3-inch, 235-pound defensive end who Kangas says has blazing speed around the edge. At the other defensive end is sophomore Trevor Munson. Marshall Donovan lines up in the middle at nose guard and does a great job disrupting things in the front.
“We’re excited where we are on defense,” Kangas said. “We switced to a new scheme this year, from a 4-4 last year to a 3-3 and it seemed to work out, We gave up fewer points than we did last year.”
The Falcons also scored more points than they did a year ago, and that certainly points to the team heading in the right direction. Offensively, the Falcons run some double wing, or Flex Bone as Kangas calls it, with some jet sweeps and trap plays.
Heights has also “dabbled” a little bit with a “T” formation that Kangas said will be a little more prevalent next year.
“We brought a coach on who came from Florida that is a very knowledge straight ‘T’ guy, and we like some of the concepts he has brought,” Kangas said. “We’re going to try to incorporate that a little more into our game, as well as find ways to our playmakers the ball.
“For me anyway, I always like to see the athletes I have and we’ll mold it (the offense) around them. I think the offense we have here is going to take a step forward. We have some great guys who can run it, and I’m excited to see where we’re at.
“Last year was a great step forward, and this year we took another step. We were in quite a few of the games we lost, so we’re definitely seeing a trend forward. We’re starting to see some kids that are excited to see what’s coming, and we have kids that want to come out for football.”
Kangas only expects the Falcons to be better than last year’s 3-6 record next year.
