With the Michigan Girls High School Flag Football League season ready to kick off, Birmingham Groves hosted a three-way scrimmage with Redford Union and the P-CEP Prowlers — the co-op team between Canton, Plymouth and Salem — on April 22 to help each team tune up for Week 1.
While each team faced each other for only one 20-minute half, there was still plenty to learn about each squad during the preseason action.
Here are four takeaways after watching the scrimmage:
Mokachar must lose the fullback jersey number
Well, it’s too late to change Jenna Mokachar’s number, but it’s safe to say the No. 30 jersey she wears for the P-CEP Prowlers doesn’t do her skill set justice.
The Plymouth freshman was hands down the best player at the scrimmage, catching six passes on seven targets for 66 yards and rushing once for 16 yards in a 0-0 tie with RU, then adding five catches for 67 yards and four rushes for 40 yards in a 6-0 loss to Groves.
She looked like a prototypical NFL slot receiver, snagging passes in the flats, becoming a threat in the short and intermediate game and taking end-arounds and reverses for first downs.
You watch her play and think Wes Welker, Danny Amendola and Cooper Kupp — or, for Gen Z readers, Amon-Ra St. Brown or Puka Nacua.
While she shares their natural ability to use speed and athleticism to move the chains on underneath routes, she doesn’t share their jersey numbers. The Prowlers need to get her a No. 83 like Welker or digits in the teens like Kupp (10), Nacua (12), St. Brown (14) or Amendola (16) so she can really fit the part.
Coach Derek Hoffman said he’ll take that into consideration when he orders jerseys next spring because that backup linebacker/special-teams ace number she’s rocking just isn’t working.
For now, the best I can do is give her a nickname to help her out.
I’m thinking Purple Nacua.
Don’t worry about Saba or Buskin
RU coach Jon Ghazal and Groves coach Geoff Wickersham are close friends, which is fitting because both of their squads entered the spring with the same question: How will their returning QBs fare without their elite counterparts?
For the Panthers, that’s junior Ameerah Saba, who has been an excellent passer while sharing the backfield with Cameron Cherry, Hometown Life’s Player of the Year in 2025.
Cherry took pressure off Saba in the pocket. She could catch passes and make defenders miss. She could outrun linebackers and rushers, despite usually being the biggest player on the field. And she could throw downfield with precision.
Now she’s gone, lost to graduation, and Saba must work her magic without one of the best players in Michigan by her side.
Judging by how Saba led the Panthers down the field against Groves and P-CEP, she should be just fine this spring.
She led two TD drives against the Falcons, finishing 7 of 13 passing for 103 yards and a 24-yard TD pass to Jamie Rucker while also rushing for a 14-yard score. She also went 5 of 11 passing for 57 yards against P-CEP.
She’s even found a favorite receiver in Kayleigh Goodman, whom she targeted eight times over the two games, connecting on five passes for 60 yards.
Groves junior Ke’lko Buskin also showed off her arm, despite not having current North Carolina Central University player Gabby Frazier-Body in the backfield.
While the Falcons’ receivers are still working on their timing with Buskin, you can see the progress they’re making. Against P-CEP, she was 9 of 12 passing for 94 yards, including a game-winning 26-yard TD to Chloe Morucci in the waning moments. She also completed three passes for 31 yards against RU.
She made heads-up plays almost every series, especially finding veteran targets for first downs in no-run zones. But perhaps her biggest highlight of the evening came on an incomplete pass. She lasered about a 40-yard bomb with a perfect spiral just inches beyond her receiver, who was about a half step behind the throw. It’s the kind of long-range threat you don’t normally see in this league.
Once Groves’ receivers get on the same page with Buskin, the Falcons could be dangerous offensively.
Kecskemeti continues to bounce back from injury
Speaking of Buskin’s receivers, Ella Kecskemeti showed exactly how much she was missed last season after sitting out the spring with a right ACL injury.
She plays both ways, even grabbing three flags on three consecutive plays during the scrimmage, but she excelled most at center and in the slot as essentially a tight end.
Buskin targeted the nearly 6-foot senior eight times, often looking for Kecskemeti in do-or-die fourth-down situations near midfield. Her size and reliable hands made it tough for smaller corners and linebackers to cover her, especially when she peeled into the flats or settled in front of linebackers near the sticks.
Kecskemeti caught two passes for 26 yards against RU, then added four receptions for 48 yards against P-CEP. Two of her catches went for 20 and 23 yards, working as Buskin’s safety blanket the way Rob Gronkowski was for Tom Brady back in the day.
Are the Prowlers a state champion dark horse?
RU is always a contender to make the state tournament, having put together back-to-back undefeated regular seasons to earn the right to play at Ford Field the past two seasons.
But watch out for upstart P-CEP this spring.
While the Prowlers didn’t score a touchdown, they had by far the best offense at the scrimmage.
Three of their four drives ended at the goal line, turning them into winners of a macabre closest-to-the-pin game where they reached the end zone but just couldn’t get in it.
Which is saying something because they were missing a staggering 32 players, most of whom were away, suiting up for the softball teams at Canton, Plymouth and Salem. That left them with only 16 of their 38 full-time varsity players and 19 of their 29 JV players.
Yet being shorthanded didn’t matter.
Backup QB Kaylyne Pace marched the offense down the field all evening, going 6 of 10 passing for 66 yards and an interception against RU and 5 of 11 for 67 yards against Groves.
RU stopped their first drive at the 1-yard line after Pace and Mokachar couldn’t connect on a short pass in the end zone.
Groves forced a turnover on downs at the 3 when Mokachar’s reverse pass to Giana Jourdonnais missed by a few feet.
Then they had a potential game-winning drive against the Falcons end in the most heartbreaking way possible. Pace kept moving the chains in the final 90 seconds, alternating between first-down throws and spikes to stop the clock. P-CEP, once again, got to the 1-yard line with 3 seconds left. Hoffman called for a jet sweep to Mokachar, but Pace and Mokachar bobbled the exchange, resulting in a fumble that ended the game.
Luck wasn’t on P-CEP’s side in the scrimmage, considering the odds of not punching in a TD three times at the goal line are slim. But they proved just how electric they can be, even when shorthanded.
Expect them to compete in the All Grit League division against Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard, Northville, Saline and Ypsilanti Lincoln this spring because they should be considered a contender to make the state tournament based on how they’re already playing before the season starts.
SCRIMMAGE SCOREBOARD
REDFORD UNION 12, BIRMINGHAM GROVES 0
RU
Ameerah Saba 7 of 13 passing for 103 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions; one rush for 14 yards, one touchdown; one pass breakup.
Jamie Rucker one reception for 24 yards, one touchdown.
Kayleigh Goodman two receptions for 26 yards.
Makiya Stevens one reception for 25 yards.
Mariah Tinsley two rushes for 13 yards; two receptions for 18 yards.
Juliana Harris one rush for minus-1 yard; one reception for 15 yards.
Molly Lucado one rush for 9 yards.
Amiyah Benson one pass breakup.
Groves
Kel’ko Buskin 3 of 10 passing for 31 yards; one rush for 1 yard.
Ella Kecskemeti two receptions for 26 yards.
Olivia Lee two rushes for 10 yards; one reception for 5 yards.
Keymari Brown one rush for 9 yards.
Hailey Vincent one rush for 7 yards.
REDFORD UNION 0, P-CEP PROWLERS 0
RU
Ameerah Saba 5 of 11 passing for 57 yards, one interception; one rush for 5 yards.
Kayleigh Goodman three receptions for 34 yards.
Juliana Harris two receptions for 21 yards.
Mariah Tinsley one rush for 10 yards.
Khrystal Wilson one rush for 9 yards.
Jamie Rucker one reception for 2 yards.
Amaya Tigney one interception.
Darinyah White one pass breakup.
P-CEP
Jenna Mokachar six receptions for 66 yards; one rush for 16 yards.
Kaylyne Pace 6 of 10 passing for 66 yards, one interception.
Hailey Garnett three rushes for 23 yards.
Alyvia Poirier one rush for minus-1 yard.
Charlotte Williams one interception; one pass breakup.
Elizabeth Nordstrom one pass breakup.
BIRMINGHAM GROVES 6, P-CEP PROWLERS 0
Groves
Kel’ko Buskin 9 of 12 passing for 94 yards, one touchdown.
Ella Kecskemeti four receptions for 48 yards.
Chloe Morucci three receptions for 36 yards, one touchdown.
Claudia Whitelam one reception for 9 yards.
Olivia Lee two rushes for 8 yards.
JaLayah Buffin-Pitts one reception for 1 yard.
Mamy Diop one pass breakup.
P-CEP
Jenna Mokachar four rushes for 40 yards; five receptions for 67 yards; 0 of 1 passing for 0 yards.
Kaylyne Pace 5 of 11 passing for 67 yards.
Hailey Garnett two rushes for 6 yards.
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on his new X.com account at @folsomwrites.
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: 4 takeaways from Groves’ preseason girls flag football scrimmage
Reporting by Brandon Folsom, Hometownlife.com / Hometownlife.com
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
