Advertiser Sports

09/20/2024

Congratulations to Reese junior Jaidyn VanOchten on a phenomenal milestone last night in the Rockets' sweep of the Lakers.

We will have more in Wednesday's edition of The Advertiser.

09/20/2024

It’s Sugar Bowl time!

Tonight’s Game of the Week on the air will feature longtime rivals Reese and Unionville-Sebewaing in the 31st annual Sugar Bowl.

The coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. followed by kickoff at 7 p.m.

Aaron Lee will also be out and about, as he’ll be sideline for the Millington at Cass City showdown.

09/18/2024

Advertiser-area football leaders
Through three weeks

Rushing
1. Michael Gorman, North Branch
43 carries, 579 yards, 12TDs (13.5 yards per rush)

2. Kobbi Ke, Frankenmuth
38 carries, 377 yards, 3TDs (9.9 yards per rush)

3. Ryker Wallace, Cass City
67 carries, 354 yards, 6TDs (5.3 yards per rush)

4. Brady Green, USA
23 carries, 346 yards, 4TDs (15.0 yards per rush)

5. Dallas Walsh, Millington
23 carries, 330 yards, 4TDs (14.3 yards per rush)

6. Landon Russell, Millington
20 carries, 307 yards, 6TDs (15.4 yards per rush)

7. Westley Chapin, Marlette
43 carries, 303 yards, 5TDs (7.0 yards per rush)

8. Deegan Carter, Reese
32 carries, 288 yards, 2TDs (9.0 yards per rush)

9. Gavin Wager, Mayville
26 carries, 276 yards, 5TDs (10.6 yards per rush)

10. Tanner James, Kingston
26 carries, 236 yards, 9TDs (9.1 yards per rush)

Passing
1. Madix Gorleski, Vassar
53-of-92, 642 yards, 7TDs

2. Truk Terbush, Millington
15-of-23, 451 yards, 4TDs

3. Gavin Wager, Mayville
21-of-32, 363 yards, 5TDs

4. Tanner James, Kingston
16-of-28, 325 yards, 4TDs

5. Brady Benson, Reese
12-of-30, 210 yards, 2TDs

Receiving
1. Luka Campbell, Mayville
10 receptions, 258 yards, 3TDs

2. Austin Long, Vassar
17 receptions, 237 yards, 4TDs

3. Blake Karr, Vassar
10 receptions, 219 yards, 2TDs

4. Bryce Martin, Millington
8 receptions, 213 yards, 2TDs

5. Landon Russell, Millington
3 receptions, 172 yards, 2TDs

We will have our first defensive leaderboard of the season on Thursday afternoon.

09/18/2024

Mayville falls short, Millington's Terbush goes off, North Branch earns third straight shutout, and the rest of your week three football roundup.

DRYDEN — Mayville struggled to find a groove here Thursday in a Big Thumb Conference Blue Division loss.

09/18/2024

Marlette scored a big win on the road in overtime against Unionville-Sebewaing on Friday behind a strong ground performance from Adam Wilcox.

The Red Raiders prepare for another key Big Thumb Conference Black Division matchup on Friday while the Patriots will travel to Reese for the annual Sugar Bowl showdown.

SEBEWAING TWP. — Marlette and Sandusky were engaged in a back-and-forth battle in Week 2 that saw the teams score almost 100 total points.

09/18/2024

A longtime rivalry was settled for another season on Friday, as Cass City took out Big Thumb Conference White Division foe Laker.

The Red Hawks now take a 2-1 overall and 1-0 BTC White record into a fourth week battle against Millington on Friday.

OLIVER TWP. – In an ever-changing football landscape, some things are always the same. Teams that commit to running the ball early and often will see dividends pay out in

09/16/2024

09/13/2024

Homecoming action tonight on the airwaves!

The Classic Rock I92 Game of the Week will feature Marlette (1-1) at USA (1-1) for Big Thumb Conference Black Division play.

Pregame starts at 6:30 followed by kickoff at 7 p.m.

09/12/2024

Advertiser-area football leaders
Through two weeks

Rushing
1. Michael Gorman, North Branch
28 carries, 344 yards, 9TDs (12.3 yards per rush)

2. Ryker Wallace, Cass City
48 carries, 297 yards, 4TDs (6.2 yards per rush)

3. Dallas Walsh, Millington
18 carries, 246 yards, 3TDs (13.7 yards per rush)

4. Landon Russell, Millington
13 carries, 243 yards, 4TDs (18.7 yards per rush)

5. Brady Green, USA
28 carries, 233 yards, 1TD (8.3 yards per rush)

6. Gavin Wager, Mayville
16 carries 190 yards, 4TDs (11.9 yards per rush)

7. Westley Chapin, Marlette
22 carries, 173 yards, 3TDs (7.9 yards per rush)

8. Nicholas Rayl, Kingston
21 carries, 158 yards, 3TDs (7.5 yards per rush)

9. Will Perry, Cass City
28 carries, 157 yards, 5TDs (5.6 yards per rush)

10. Kobbi Ke, Frankenmuth
23 carries, 157 yards, 1TD (6.8 yards per rush)

Passing
1. Madix Gorleski, Vassar
27-of-54, 344 yards, 5TDs

2. Gavin Wager, Mayville
14-of-18, 306 yards, 5TDs

3. Tanner James, Kingston
12-of-19, 232 yards, 3TDs

4. Truk Terbush, Millington
8-of-15, 192 yards, TD

5. Brady Benson, Reese
7-of-17, 132 yards, TD

Receiving
1. Luka Campbell, Mayville
7 receptions, 232 yards, 3TDs

2. Blake Karr, Vassar
4 receptions, 154 yards, 2TDs

3. Austin Long, Vassar
9 receptions, 111 yards, 3TDs

4. Wesley Chapin, Marlette
3 receptions, 91 yards, 3TDs

5. Colin Corlis, Kingston
5 receptions, 91 yards, TD

We are still working on coaches to send over defensive stats, once we get those, we will post defensive leaders.

09/08/2024

The fast course at Shepherd welcomed in over 40 schools including a handful of Advertiser-area squads.

SHEPHERD — A total of 41 schools competed here Wednesday in the Shepherd John Bruder Classic cross-country race.

09/08/2024

A trio of Big Thumb Conference squads competed at Marlette on Wednesday, including newcomer Millington.

The quad also included Blue Water Area Conference's Croswell-Lexington, who finished the day undefeated, but numerous young players gained experience heading into the season.

MARLETTE — The Marlette varsity volleyball team hosted a nonconference quad meet on Wednesday.

09/08/2024

Caro volleyball had a rough 2023 season where they struggled to find wins.

The Tigers have already won three games early in the 2024 season under first-year head coach Stephanie Goodall, and she anticipates more growth as the season continues.

Caro’s Morgan Long (12) and teammate Maddie Stefanovsky (11) prepare for the serve in a volleyball match against Capac on Tuesday at Caro High School.

09/06/2024

Game of the week coverage tonight begins at 6:30 p.m. with kickoff following at 7 p.m.

We will also have our reporter Aaron Lee visiting the Marlette/Sandusky and Laker/Vassar games.

Grab next Wednesday’s edition of The Advertiser for a complete wrap up.

09/04/2024

What game would you like us to cover in-person Friday night?

09/04/2024

💙🏐Congratulations to North Branch Volleyball Alum Sam (Fish) Erger! Coach Erger is the Head Coach at SMU and they beat #2 Nebraska in 3 sets tonight! Way to go Sam! What a victory!🏐💙

08/28/2024

The Vassar volleyball team hosted an early season quad against Akron-Fairgrove, Mayville, and Montrose, Millington finishes runner up at Bad Axe, and state-ranked Cass City and North Branch enjoys success at out of the area tournaments.

VASSAR — The Vassar varsity volleyball team hosted a quad invite on Friday with Akron-Fairgrove, Montrose and Mayville.

08/28/2024

The first Classic Rock I-92/Advertiser Game of the Week is slated to begin on Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. with pregame coverage from Stamats Field in Caro.

The Tigers will look to kickstart the season under first-year head coach Jacob Galsterer while second-year head coach Chris Sikora brings his Broncos in with high hopes for a strong 2024 season.

92.1FM, classicrocki92.com, search 'WIDL' on the TuneIn app.

CARO – Opening night of the 2024 varsity football season is upon us.

08/28/2024

We want to introduce you to the newest member of the Advertiser stable, as Aaron Lee joins us to help with , not only laying out the paper, but also as a writer primarily in the sports section.

Lee will be helping to cover athletic contest, and also news stories from time to time, so if you see him out and about, say hello and welcome him to the Thumb-area!

Aaron Lee, originally from Oak Harbor, Ohio, is the new sports reporter at The Advertiser headed into the fall season.

08/23/2024

We also want to give a personal shoutout to Landyn and wish him the best of luck at CMU.

Before he started here, I only knew Landyn from his play on the field for the Red Hawks in football, to being the biggest hype man on the bench for the basketball team, and running, sometimes while laughing in track and field.

It has been a blast having him in the office, from his random singing, to his constant eye on weather, and just talking football. We hope he'll continue giving us the Classic Rock I92 Game of the Week weather report while he's busy in Mt. Pleasant.

Good luck, Lando!

All of us here at the Advertiser want to send a big shout-out and well wishes to our forecaster Thumb Forecast Landyn Schott who joined us last fall as a high school intern with WIDL 92.1 FM and is now off to college as a valued full-time employee who did an incredible job this past year. Landyn is off to CMU today where we have no doubt he will do tremendous things while still helping us out from Mt. Pleasant with his daily forecasts on WIDL.

08/12/2024

First official Millington football practice is in the books for the fall 2024 season.

07/31/2024

Rylie Betson proved she could win from anywhere on the field, and was a pivotal part of three of the Patriots five consecutive Division 4 state titles.

Betson is officially taking her talents to West Virginia to play softball for the Senators of Davis & Elkins.

SEBEWAING TWP. — Unionville-Sebewaing Area’s Rylie Betson has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows during her high school softball career.

07/31/2024

Some of the Thumb-area's top basketball talents had a rare opportunity July 23rd at Millington High School.

Cramer Basketball hosted the Thumb Invitational, a camp run by former Thumb basketball standouts Evan Neff and Zac Yorke, that included help from fellow former Thumb-area basketball standouts Nic Yorke, Steve Cramer and Adelyn Moore.

MILLINGTON — A pair of former Thumb-area basketball standouts hosted a camp on Tuesday at Millington High School for highly-touted local basketball players.

07/31/2024

A school rich in college softball talent, Unionville-Sebewaing has produced some impressive volleyball talent, as well.

Twenty-twenty-four USA graduate Jenna Gremel is the latest Patriot to play volleyball at the next level.

SEBEWAING TWP. — Some girls at Unionville-Sebewaing Area High School dream about playing softball at the next level.

07/31/2024

Marlette's Dalaney Gage and Frankenmuth's Payton Schafsnitz share a lot of similarities on and off the softball field.

The record-breaking pair will team up for the Northwood University softball team and share a dorm beginning in August at the Midland-based university.

MIDLAND — Dalaney Gage and Payton Schafsnitz have a lot more in common than just their love of softball.

07/26/2024

CASS CITY – The Cass City Area Summer Athletic Program hosts its 12th annual Fun in the Thumb Baseball Tournament July 26-28.

07/24/2024

Cass City father and son duo, Adam and Preston Dorland, put their pole-vaulting talents on display at Grand Haven on July 12 and 13 against some strong competition.

Preston set the new Cass City junior high boys' pole vault program record last season at 12 feet, while Adam holds the Cass City varsity pole vault record at 14 feet, one inch, a record he set in 2000 as a senior.

GRAND HAVEN — The old saying is like father, like son.

07/24/2024

Legendary Millington football coach Roger Bearss has always had a love for the game of football.

According to those around him though, it was the affection he had for his players and coaches that was just as important to his hall of fame resume as the wins and trophies.

MILLINGTON — Retired high school football coach Roger Bearss II was always a hall of famer to those close to him.

06/20/2024

This is one of three stories wrapped into the Unionville-Sebewaing softball coverage featured in today’s edition of The Advertiser.

Congratulations again to the Patriots on a remarkable feat.

EAST LANSING — The Unionville-Sebewaing Area softball team’s motto all season was “Dial In.”

06/19/2024

We'll be sharing some pics that our wonderful staff photographer John Cook Photo Services took from the last week of softball action.

Let's start with the Unionville-Sebewaing softball quarterfinal showdown against Plymouth Christian last Tuesday at Grand Blanc High School.

06/19/2024

I was notified that I overlooked a few players on my regular season baseball leaderboard.

I apologize and I made it right. Most categories stayed the same, but there were a few shakeups in others.

Here is an updated FINAL FINAL Advertiser-area baseball leaderboard

Average
1. Aaron Bower, Marlette, .500
2. Colin Corlis, Kingston, .479
3. Isaiah Helton, Kingston, .455

On-base percentage
1. Aaron Bower, Marlette, .638
2. Colin Corlis, Kingston, .582
3. Isaiah Helton, Kingston, .557

Slugging %
1. Aaron Bower, Marlette, .895
2. Kam Schlund, USA, .696
3. Isaiah Helton, Kingston, .662

Hits
1. Luke Foco, Reese, 39
2. Aaron Bower, Marlette, 38
2. Trevor Gleeson, Vassar, 38
3. Ryker Wallace, Cass City, 37

Doubles
1. Isaiah Helton, Kingston, 14
2. Brady Ellison, Reese, 13
3. Matt Mellendorf, Cass City, 11

Triples
1. Ryan Rich, Frankenmuth, 5
2. Logan Diener, Frankenmuth, 4
2. Brady Mitchell, North Branch, 4
3. Garrett Franzel, Cass City, 3
3. Truk Terbush, Millington, 3
3. Carter Patrick, Cass City, 3

Home runs
1. Aaron Bower, Marlette, 7
2. Kam Schlund, USA, 4
2. Wyatt Waterman, Caro, 4
3. Ryker Wallace, Cass City, 3
3. Ryan Rich, Frankenmuth, 3
3. Brady Ellison, Reese, 3

RBIs
1. Jake VanderHaar, Frankenmuth, 38
2. Kam Schlund, USA, 34
3. Aaron Bower, Marlette, 33
3. Brady Ellison, Reese, 33

Runs
1. Luke Foco, Reese, 51
2. Isaiah Helton, Kingston, 42
3. Carter Patrick, Cass City, 37
3. Jackson Anthony, Cass City, 37

Walks
1. Hunter Stroup, Vassar, 31
2. Cam Benson, Reese, 30
3. Aaron Bower, Marlette, 29

Stolen bases
1. Luke Foco, Reese, 43
2. Truk Terbush, Millington, 42
3. Jackson Anthony, Cass City, 34

Pitching
Innings pitched
1. Brady Mitchell, North Branch, 66
2. Trevor Gleeson, Vassar, 60
3. Owen Yens, North Branch, 59

Wins
1. Luke Foco, Reese, 9
2. Isaiah Helton, Kingston, 8
3. Brady Mitchell, North Branch, 7
3. Owen Yens, North Branch, 7
3. Drew VanOchten, Reese, 7
3. Luka Campbell, Mayville, 7

Strikeouts
1. Isaiah Helton, Kingston, 133
2. Brady Mitchell, North Branch, 99
3. Luke Foco, Reese, 95

ERA
1. Brady Mitchell, North Branch, 0.74
2. Caden Sommerfield, Frankenmuth, 0.90
3. Owen Yens, North Branch, 0.95