Gladwin Seeks First Football Regional Title Since 1998

GLADWIN – The Gladwin Flying G’s secured their first district title since 2000 with a dominant 59-25 win over Kingsford on Saturday.

Now, the team sets its sights on winning the regional championship and advancing to the state semifinals for the first time since 1998.

Muskegon Oakridge waits for them in the regional championship game. This is the third straight trip to the regional stage for the Eagles. Each of the last two years, they’ve lost to Grand Rapids Catholic Central in this round.

The game between Oakridge and Gladwin kicks off at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Muskegon Oakridge.

“I think a lot of our community is going to be down there just because we haven’t had a team like this in a while,” said Gladwin senior Logan Kokotovich. “Everyone seems to be into it this year and they’re all going to travel well.”

Oakridge has used a dominant rushing attack to help them find success this season, led by junior Trevor Jones.

“They like to run it up the middle and we’re a good up the middle run-stopping team,” said Gladwin senior Lucas Mead. “I think if we can control them that way then we should be good.”

Gladwin has dominated teams all season long, playing only one game that was within one possession (a 33-27 road win over Pontiac Notre Dame Prep). But Gladwin head coach Marc Jarstfer has been preaching to his team that from here on out, the competition gets much tougher.

“When you get to this point and you’re playing for a regional title, you’re in the top eight [teams] trying to play for a chance to be in the top four,” said Jarstfer. “So they have good players all across the board. They’re very disciplined. They play good football all the way around. So we’re just preaching to our guys that we have to play mistake-free football, possess the ball, not turn it over, try to get turnovers and make the most out of every possession.”