Sports · Michigan
Michigan high school football playoff scores: District semifinal roundup by region
The MHSAA football playoffs opened Friday night with district semifinals in all eight 11-player divisions and regional semifinals in 8-player. Grandville, 4-5 in the regular season, upset unbeaten Howell 38-30 in Division 1, Harrison outlasted McBain 60-52 in Division 7, and Ludington reached the first district final in school history on a touchdown pass with 16 seconds left, MLive reported.
Detroit Cass Tech, Detroit Catholic Central, Saline and Clarkston all advanced in Division 1, and Marine City scored 86 points against New Haven in Division 6. In the north, East Jordan ended Iron Mountain’s season 42-35. Grand Rapids Catholic Central’s Division 5 game with Comstock Park was not played Friday; a Kent County judge ordered the MHSAA to let it be played by Tuesday.
We’ve split the scores into one story per region. Every score is a final listed the same way by MaxPreps’ MHSAA brackets and at least one other outlet, with no outlet we checked reporting it differently. This week the outlets we checked disagreed on 31 Friday finals, so those games are left out and named at the end of each regional story.
District semifinal scores by region
- Southeast Michigan and Detroit: High school football playoff scores, district semifinals
Cass Tech and Detroit Catholic Central rolled, North Farmington edged Ferndale 27-26 and unbeaten Gibraltar Carlson blanked Mumford. Verified MHSAA district semifinal finals from Southeast Michigan and Detroit. - Mid-Michigan, the Thumb and Blue Water Area: High school football playoff scores, district semifinals
Harrison outlasted McBain 60-52, Millington and Ithaca set up a Division 7 showdown, and Marine City scored 86. Verified MHSAA district semifinal finals from Mid-Michigan, the Thumb and the Blue Water Area. - West Michigan: High school football playoff scores, district semifinals
Grandville stunned unbeaten Howell, Portage Central edged Hudsonville, Ludington won with 16 seconds left and Mona Shores rallied past TC Central. Verified MHSAA district semifinal finals from West Michigan. - Northern Michigan and the U.P.: High school football playoff scores, district semifinals
East Jordan ended Iron Mountain’s season 42-35, Bark River-Harris and Kingsley rolled and Cadillac beat Marquette. Verified MHSAA playoff finals from Northern Michigan and the U.P., plus Saturday’s games.
About a dozen first-round games are scheduled for Saturday. District finals are Nov. 6–7, regional finals Nov. 13–14 and semifinals Nov. 21, with the 11-player finals Nov. 27–28 at Ford Field, the MHSAA says. Our playoff schedule and ticket guide has the details.
Sources:
Michigan High School Athletic Association, Football page (tournament dates), https://www.mhsaa.com/sports/football
MaxPreps, “2026 Michigan High School Football Playoff Brackets: MHSAA,” Divisions 1–8 and 8-Man 1–2, https://www.maxpreps.com/tournament/A9WR7rvzAkGYahD7V_k34g/fGuLyEUaTEyjbx3aGxBJ0A/football-26/2026-michigan-high-school-football-playoff-brackets-mhsaa-division-1.htm
The Associated Press, “Friday’s Scores,” Oct. 30, 2026, as published by WJFW, https://www.wjfw.com/sports/regional/fridays-scores/article_4b37fcd6-6d28-5247-94ee-e2c6e9101e0b.html
MLive, Jared Purcell, “Live high school football updates for Michigan football playoff district openers,” Oct. 30, 2026, https://www.mlive.com/highschoolsports/2026/10/live-high-school-football-updates-for-michigan-football-playoff-district-openers.html
Photo: Michael Barera, “North Lamar vs. Commerce football 2015 07 (Commerce on offense).jpg,” Aug. 28, 2015, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-adjusted; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Lamar_vs._Commerce_football_2015_07_(Commerce_on_offense).jpg
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