NoneOKEMOS — Even very good teams need a bounce or two to go their way to make it all the way to the promised land, but when every one goes in the opposite direction, it can end up being a long day. Related Articles High School Sports | Resilient St. Mary’s squad headed to Ford Field with 28-27 OT semifinal win over Groves High School Sports | PHOTOS: Football State Semifinals – Flat Rock vs Pontiac Notre Dame Prep High School Sports | Photo gallery from the Division 2 football semifinal between Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and Birmingham Groves High School Sports | Everest Collegiate completes unbeaten season, fends off OLL to repeat as D4 champs High School Sports | Photo gallery from Everest Collegiate vs. St. Joseph Our Lady of the Lake in the D4 volleyball state final None of the bounces in Saturday’s Division 1 semifinal went the way of the Rochester Adams Highlanders, who were outscored 20-0 in the second half, as No. 4-ranked Hudsonville rolled to a 27-7 win at Okemos High School. “I thought we got the fumble down there, on the first drive — it was clearly out. They didn’t see it. We’ve still got to make a stop. And then fumble on the one going in ... We had two of our top guys get hurt in the second quarter, and without those guys who have been so important for us all season, kind of threw our chemistry off on offense, a little bit,” Adams coach Tony Patritto said. “We didn’t make plays in second half, and they did. And, you know, it happens sometimes.” The Hudsonville Eagles (12-1) will take on Detroit Cass Tech (11-2) in the D1 finals at Ford Field next Saturday. The Technicians beat Detroit Catholic Central, 17-14, in the other D1 semifinal. For Adams (10-3), it was the first loss in seven games, since the Highlanders found themselves 4-2 after back-to-back road losses to Lake Orion and Oxford, by a total of four points, shunting them out of contention for the OAA Red title. The two teams went into halftime tied at 7-7, but it could’ve been a bit different, if a couple of those bounces had gone Adams’ way. Hudsonville ground out a 14-play drive to open the game, but one play before the capper, it appeared the Highlanders had forced a fumble. When the ball stayed with the Eagles, one play later, they punched it in with a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Griffin Baker, the first of four he accounted for on the day. After the Highlanders tied it at 7-7 on a 39-yard pass from Nolan Farris to Tommy Offer, the Highlanders had a chance to go up a score after stopping the Eagles on downs near midfield, with a 30-yard Farris run getting Adams into the red zone. But a fumble the other way gave the ball back to the Eagles on their own 1 — the same spot as the other miscue — and the half ended in a deadlock. Adams turned it over on downs at midfield to open the second half, and the Eagles used the short field to take a 14-7 lead on a 5-yard Baker run. On the final play of the third quarter, Hudsonville linebacker Ethan Carter got in the passing lane and tipped an interception to himself to set up another short field, and a 1-yard Baker TD run, making it 21-7 with 10:26 to play. After another Adams drive stalled on downs with 8:03 to go, Hudsonville took six minutes off the clock before scoring again on a 5-yard pass from Baker to Jack Wills on fourth-and-goal, making it 27-7 with 1:55 to go. The Adams offense spluttered much of the day, getting behind the sticks, and then in long down-and-distance plays, the Eagles would go to a ‘Radar’ defense, with no down linemen, bringing blitzers from all angles. “We saw it on film, watched it, and we felt really good about our game plan against it — and really didn’t cause any problems for us at all, to be perfectly candid. We just had breakdowns in offense in the second half against their regular defense, and that put us in third-and-long where they can do that,” Patritto said. “And then we, you know, clearly, we had some backups in trying to make plays. And I give our kids a credit, they didn’t quit, and our kids really grinded to the end.” Adams was looking for its third title-game appearance, and second in four seasons. This one may have been a bit less expected, though, considering that the Highlanders lost their starting quarterback to injury in that two-game midseason stretch. That’s why Patritto told the Highlanders “I love you to freakin’ death,” in the postgame meeting, after reminding them that they’d more than upheld the standard at Adams. “We’re picked to take second-to-last in our league. We don’t have any four- or five-stars. Our quarterback (Ryland Watters) goes down in the middle of the season. He’s just an amazing player and next-man-up mentality. But really, ultimately, it’s like no one cares who gets the ball. No one cares who gets the glory. What a pleasure to be around, because it’s so rare in today’s society. So you hit the nail right on the head. I’m so proud to be associated with these kids because they were selfless, and they didn’t care what people thought, and they just did their best to try to win,” Patritto said. “Honestly, that’s kind of the standard here. And I gotta give credit to the kids, the players that come to our program and have just kind of embraced that, and they’re the ones that carry it forward. So they’re all so memorable. I love these kids so much, but this is a special season.”Argentina's Racing wins its first Copa Sudamericana championship by beating Brazil's Cruzeiro 3-1
CP NewsAlert: Amber Alert issued in Quebec for woman, 39, and nine-year-old boy
George Kresge Jr., who wowed talk show audiences as the The Amazing Kreskin, diesGuest post: Romania’s economic “Golden Age” - public perception versus the reality in numbersThe Social Democrats have had “a positive day” as they look set to grow their representation in the Dail parliament. Party leader Holly Cairns, who gave birth to a baby girl on polling day, is well placed to retain her seat in the highly competitive constituency of Cork South-West. The Social Democrats, founded in 2015, won six seats in the 2020 election with around 3% of first preference votes. The exit poll after Friday’s General Election put the party on 5.8%, which would give them the most support of the smaller groups in the Dail. Social Democrats Wicklow candidate Jennifer Whitmore said she was “feeling great” as she arrived at the count centre in Greystones on Saturday. “It’s been a really positive result so far. Obviously, a little bit to go yet, but it’s looking really good,” she said of tallies that put her on 14% support and in line for the third of four seats in the constituency. “I think even across the country it’s looking good for the Soc Dems. “I’m hearing really positive things from all the different count centres, so it looks like our six TDs will hopefully be returned, and then we could be in contention for a number of other seats as well, so it’s a really positive day for us.” Asked whether the party would be willing to enter government formation talks with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, Ms Whitmore said: “There’s still a while to go. “We’re in contention for a number of seats, but we’ll wait until we get them delivered and then we’ll be thinking about talking to the others.” Asked if she was worried by how support for the Green Party looks to have dropped after being a junior government partner, Ms Whitmore said small parties “can often bear the brunt of being in government”. “I think that’s why we were really clear that we set out our five deal-breakers, because we wanted to be very upfront with the public to say ‘if we do go into government, here is what we will be able to achieve’. “We didn’t want to over-promise, and we didn’t want to give people the impression that we were going to do things that we weren’t going to be able to get. “So we were really clear and very transparent in saying, ‘these are the five things that we would achieve if we go in’, and hopefully that will stand to us in the negotiations.” She said that Ms Cairns, who became leader last March, would remain involved in the party over her maternity leave, with deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan stepping in. Mr O’Callaghan said on Saturday his party’s “red lines” were not intended to rule them out of being in government with Fianna Fail or Fine Gael. “This is about defining our negotiations and talks with the parties once the election counts are over,” he said. On a common platform for left-wing parties to negotiate from, Mr O’Callaghan said: “We certainly intend on talking to the Labour Party and other parties over the coming days and weeks, that’s our intention.” The Social Democrats were co-founded by Roisin Shortall and Catherine Murphy in July 2015 – along with then-independent TD Stephen Donnelly, who later joined Fianna Fail and became health minister. Asked about the difficulty facing Mr Donnelly to keep his seat in Wicklow, Ms Whitmore said it was always going to be “a dogfight” for the “highly contested” fourth and final seat in the constituency. “When I was going around on the doors, I was getting a lot of positive feedback from people. People weren’t really talking about other parties or mentioning other candidates. “So I think it wasn’t clear from that what was going to happen, but I think the fourth seat was always going to be the really messy one.”
2024 was a year of stand-out music with fans’ lives soundtracked by redefining pop tunes, beefy diss tracks and viral songs taking off across social media platforms. With so much content to consider, narrowing down the world’s best five tunes of the past year proved challenging. However, some stood out above the others, not just on the charts but in the impact they could deliver. So, in no particular order, here’s our take on the best songs of 2024. Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar It debuted at No.1 on the Hot 100 and became the longest-running No.1 in the history of Billboard’s rap chart. It is none other than Lamar’s response to Drake’s seven-and-a-half-minute diss track that dragged his long-simmering beef with the fellow rapper even more into the public eye. The controversy centres around extremely serious allegations of paedophilia and exploitation aimed at Drake and his associates which remain unproven and are denied. Lamar’s vocals are sharp and relentless, matching the song’s intensity, synth and ratchet vibes. Pitchfork’s Paul A. Thompson described how Kendrick “tap dances across the beat, as nimble as he’s sounded since he signed to Interscope”. The feud between Lamar and Drake is among the biggest in hip-hop in recent years but many people are clearly enjoying singing along to it. Good Luck, Babe! by Chappell Roan The 26-year-old has been a name in the music industry for almost a decade but this year she has really kicked off thanks to this song which was her first top 10 hit to make it onto the Billboard chart. The catchy heartbreak track consists of good wishes to a former lover in denial about their queerness. Billboard wrote: “The verses are every bit as strong as the glistening chorus, all playful, pillowy synths and easygoing ‘80s beats.” It’s just as glittery as her onstage costumes and awards outfits. Before she was Chappell Roan, she was Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, a closeted sad-girl singer-songwriter who got dropped by her label Atlantic Records in 2020. In 2023, she released her debut album via a new label and cued instant success which doesn’t seem to be waning. Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter Some music lovers have declared the former Disney Channel actress’ song as the hit of the summer. The catchphrase “That’s that me espresso” was the “foam on top of what was already one of the most unmistakable, invigorating and naturally addictive singles of 2024”, Billboard wrote. The play-on-words and lyricist queen demands to be heard with lines such as “walked in and dream-came-trued it for ya”, and “I can’t relate to desperation / My give-a-f---s are on vacation”. If it wasn’t the song itself garnering chatter online, it was the accompanying music video that featured a flirty Carpenter getting herself into all sorts of trouble. While the caffeine-injected hit didn’t earn her spot on the Billboard Hot 100, her breezy Please Please Please follow-up sure did making it a breakout year for the star. This year was also a big one for Carpenter having toured with Taylor Swift on her The Eras Tour. Max Corstorphan It’s Ok, I’m Ok by Tate McRae This generation’s so-called Britney Spears has said goodbye to her child-star days and is preparing to enter a fiery adulthood with this relatable and personal viral track. The 21-year-old is happy to tell the next girl in her ex’s life that she can have him with the line: “It’s okay, you can have him anyway.” McRae alludes that she’s detoxed herself from a past relationship and is letting both her ex and the other woman know she’s over it and onto bigger and better things. With humour and sarcasm shining through, the track was first teased to fans via TikTok with a snippet of the chorus doing the rounds on the video-sharing platform prior to its anticipated release. The pop star has well and truly risen up the ranks this year having completed her first world tour. And she even kicked off the Aussie leg right here in Perth last month. McRae has extended the tour with more dates in Europe, the UK and the US in celebration of a new album coming out on February 21. Girl, so confusing featuring Lorde by Charli XCX Rumours of a feud between UK pop star Charli XCX and New Zealand’s Lorde were finally addressed and put to bed when Charli released a remix of her song Girl, so confusing. She turned her original song about her fears of a frenemy’s intentions into an emotional moment of resolution between the two singers who not only have the same hair but also a lot of self-doubt and mutual admiration in common. Billboard wrote: “A song born out of real life that’s committed to remaining grounded in that messy and complicated reality. Equal parts reactionary and revelatory, ‘Girl, so confusing’ is a towering peek inside the psyches of two of pop’s most important women.”