No. 5 Howell’s comeback attempt comes up 1 yard, seconds short in upset loss to Grandville

Howell's Walker Weiss (11) and Bryce Kish (22) team up to try to tackle Grandville's DJ Hardiman (center). No. 5-ranked Howell found itself trailing Grandville by 24 points early in a Division 1 first-round playoff game on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, rallied to cut it to one score, but had its final drive stall out at the Grandville 1-yard line as time expired. (MATTHEW B. MOWERY)

HOWELL — For all the thousands of yards the Howell Highlanders racked up on the ground this season, the one they’ll regret is the one they ran out of time to get. 

After cutting a 24-point fourth-quarter deficit back to just one score, the No. 5-ranked Highlanders had one last chance to tie it up in the waning seconds of Friday’s Division 1 playoff opener, only to have time expire before they could run one last play from the Grandville 1-yard line, falling 38-30 to the Bulldogs.

“We play an extremely tough schedule. We knew we can play with anybody when we prepare well and do that. So, you know, we came in not thinking we were an underdog by any means. We felt we were the better team,” Grandville coach Eric Stiegel said. “We felt that that we had a lot of things that that were going to be be good against those guys, and you know, I'm just excited that we got we got more football left.”

The loss ended the unbeaten season for the Highlanders (9-1), who won their third straight KLAA title, and were considered one of the contenders in D1, while the Bulldogs (5-5) — who finished fifth in the OK Red Conference — advance to the district finals, where they’ll face No. 10 Portage Central (9-1).

“Our kids executed a plan really well to start both halves, defensively. Offense did a great job. You know, I give Howell credit — they leaned on us. Went no-huddle, kind of wore on us a little bit. They're they're a they're a big physical team, so I give them credit for that,” Stiegel said. “But our our guys had such a really really great week of preparation for this game. So you know they did a heck of a job, and I give you know our defensive staff and our assistant coaches (credit). They did such a great job preparing us.”

Grandville jumped ahead by two scores early in each half, and kept Howell having to dig itself out of the holes, which isn’t the easiest thing to do as a run-first, straight-T offensive squad, as Stiegel himself knows perfectly well.

“It was huge. It was big to start both halves the way we did with really an advantage. You know, the first half we get up (16-0), and then that second half we came out, got a quick stop, and scored. And I think that really put pressure on them. … We scored again, we got to 38-14, and that was it. You know, again they they clawed back, but it's tough to do that,” said Stiegel, who reminded his squad it wasn’t over, despite the 24-point advantage. “It’s always that way. We had to keep playing, and we said we had to fight, scrap, and claw for for everything, and we did.”

The Bulldogs took that 38-14 lead with 10:01 left in the game, when quarterback Alex Highland ran it in from 3 yards out for his second touchdown of the game, then added his fourth 2-point conversion pass of the game with a pass to Jayce Hopewell.

Howell quarterback Palmer VanDeven answered with a 1-yard TD run — followed by a 2-point conversion run by Arber Korkut — to cut the deficit to two scores, at 38-22, with 8:11 left, then the Highlanders got a three-and-out by the Bulldogs to get the ball back with more than six minutes left.

A 63-yard run by Jack Gondick sparked a drive that ended in a 2-yard TD run by Bryce Kish with 4:16 left, and coupled with another 2-point conversion run by Korkut, left the Highlanders down one score, 38-30, with 4:16 left. 

Grandville ground three and a half minutes off the clock before a failed fourth-down conversion attempt — followed by a nail-biting measurement — turned the ball over on downs with 1:45 left. Korkut’s 41-yard catch-and-run on a fourth-and-10 play got the Highlanders to the Grandville 30 with just over a minute left, and a 15-yard catch by Jackson Mata got it inside the Grandville 5 with 36 seconds left, but without any remaining timeouts, and the Highlanders trying to pound it in on the ground, there weren’t enough seconds left to get it done. 

Howell's Arber Korkut reaches up to grab a pass. No. 5-ranked Howell found itself trailing Grandville by 24 points early in a Division 1 first-round playoff game on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, rallied to cut it to one score, but had its final drive stall out at the Grandville 1-yard line as time expired. (MATTHEW B. MOWERY)

The final ticks ran off the clock as Howell tried to get back to the line for one last play from the Grandville 1, but the effort was too late. 

Grandville jumped out to a 16-0 lead, as Highland ran it in from 7 yards out on fourth-and-2, then hit tight end Harrison Price with a 2-point pass to end a four-minute drive to start the game. The Bulldogs missed a field goal on their second drive, but turned an interception into quick points, as Hopewell scampered 33 yards to paydirt with 10 seconds left in the first quarter, and Highland hit Price again with a 2-pointer to make it 16-0.

Korkut ripped off a 41-yard touchdown run to get Howell on the board with 10:47 left in the half, but Grandville ground out a seven-plus minute drive before Hopewell scored again from 2-yards out to make it 22-6 with 3:13 left before halftime. 

Bryce Kish got free for a 48-yard touchdown run, and Korkut ran in the 2-pointer to cut the Howell deficit to 22-14 with just under two minutes left in the half, and with the Highlanders getting the second-half kickoff, things seemed to have stabilized some for Howell.

But Grandville forced a three-and-out on Howell’s first drive of the second half, and answered with a 1-yard touchdown run run by Hopewell and a 2-point pass from Highland to Price to make it 30-14 with 4:42 left in the third.

A quick, four-play drive by Howell ended in a failed attempt to convert a fourth-and-11 near midfield, turning it over on downs with 2:35 left, and Grandville ground four and a half minutes off the clock before Highland’s 3-yard TD run with 10:01 left gave the Bulldogs a 24-point cushion.