Football: Saturday's playoff roundup

Detroit Catholic Central coach gets 300th victory

Dana Wakiji / The Detroit News

Novi -- It's not often the coach gets the game ball after his team wins a Division 1 district championship.

But it's not every day the coach wins his 300th career game, which Detroit Catholic Central coach Tom Mach did Saturday night with a 38-0 shutout of Livonia Stevenson.

"In Coach Mach style, we had no idea it was the 300th win because he wanted it to be all about us and the district championship," senior captain Niko Palazeti said. "We didn't even know until the assistant coaches told us and I found out in the newspaper. Once we found out, it meant a lot more and we really wanted to get it for him, we wanted to win in this type of fashion, just pounding the football C.C. style, so it was good."

Palazeti said it has been an honor to play for Mach for four years.

"He's a legend," Palazeti said. "He's taught me so much, not just on the football field but in life. Being humble, carrying yourself, not talking a lot but just carrying a big stick, just details, persistence, determination. He taught me everything and I really appreciate him."

Mach was typically humble about his accomplishment -- a feat only six other high school football coaches ever have achieved in Michigan history.

"It means that I'm very old," Mach said, laughing. "It's really great because all 300 have been here at Catholic Central and I'm really proud of that fact. When I first came in to Catholic Central, my goal was to make sure I didn't get fired in the first five years. Here we are 34 years later. It's been a great ride."

Palazeti and his senior running mate, Anthony Capatina, made sure No. 300 would be a great ride for Mach.

Palazeti had 166 yards and four touchdowns on 29 carries and Capatina had 153 yards and one touchdown on 18 carries as C.C. (11-0) avenged last year's loss to Stevenson.

"We wanted to win in devastating fashion," Palazeti said. "They beat us last year and there was definitely the revenge factor. We wanted to get 'em. We didn't like them very much and I don't think they liked us so it was definitely a grudge match."

Palazeti's running style is straight ahead, while the smaller Capatina uses his elusiveness to get yards on the outside.

"Niko and Anthony have been our 1-2 punch all year," Mach said. "They're both great young men, they both have great talent. Niko gets you inside and Anthony gets you outside, so we call them Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside just like they did back in the earlier days."

Catholic Central also thank the defense, which kept Livonia Stevenson's top rusher, Austin White, from getting loose.

"Our defense has been playing very, very well all year long," Mach said. "We had to play great technique, make sure that he didn't get to the outside. We knew that he liked to cut back, we tried to stop his cutbacks. The kids just did a great job of playing very disciplined and not over-pursuing and let him come to them. He's a very good back and we respected him a great deal. We didn't know if we could stop him because we've seen him play a number of games that nobody could stop him. But I thought that we did a very good job of shutting down some of the things that he likes to do."

Catholic Central will play next Saturday against Canton, a 60-21 winner over Ann Arbor Pioneer in its district final.

"It's another neighborhood kind of rival," Mach said. "They scored 60 points last week so we're going to have to find a way to stop some of that from taking place. Also, they play very good defense so we're going to have to look at the films and prepare very hard for them."

As for celebrating his 300th win, Mach said he didn't have big plans.

"I'm not really sure," he said. "We're just going to go in, relax. You can't celebrate too long because somebody else will sneak up on you."

Livonia Stevenson finished the season 8-3.

More football

• Detroit Crockett 50, Hazel Park 48, (2 OT): In a Division 3 district final, Tony Lippett was 17-for-27 for 300 yards and three touchdowns and also rushed for 125 yards with four touchdowns and Aston Gaines caught six passes for a touchdown and a two-point conversion for Crockett (10-1).

• Detroit Southeastern 41, Detroit Cass Tech 0: In a Division 1 district final, Paris Powell had 17 carries for 208 yards and four touchdowns and James York made eight tackles and had two sacks for Southeastern (10-1).

• Marine City 37, Marysville 8 : In a Division 4 district final, Anthony Nickerson ran for 92 yards and a touchdown, Tony Ellul 77 yards and a score and Colby Aures caught a TD pass and recovered a fumble in the end zone for another for Marine City (11-0). Marysville finishes 7-4.

dwakiji@detnews.com; Detroit News staff contributed