Top-ranked Detroit Catholic Central and rival Brother Rice will headline a packed Prep Bowl LIV card at Ford Field on Saturday, Oct. 24, with the Shamrocks carrying a 7-0 overall record and a perfect 4-0 mark in CHSL Central into the 7:30 p.m. showcase finale. Brother Rice enters at 5-2 overall and 2-2 in its division, ranked No. 4 in Division 2, looking to end more than a decade of frustration against Michigan’s top-ranked program.
The matchup caps a day built around the Catholic High School League’s 100th anniversary, according to The Oakland Press. Catholic Central could clinch the CHSL Central division outright with a win, and the Shamrocks haven’t lost a divisional contest since a 14-7 setback at Warren De La Salle on Sept. 22, 2023. Brother Rice, meanwhile, hasn’t beaten Catholic Central head-to-head since a 41-14 win back in 2014.
A Century-Old Rivalry Renewed
The stakes extend well beyond this season. Catholic Central and Brother Rice have each won CHSL football league championships. Catholic Central arrives at Ford Field as the reigning MHSAA Division 1 state champion after a 42-19 win over Detroit Cass Tech last November, a title that was the program’s first in football since 2009, per the school.
That championship was the 11th in Catholic Central football history and part of a record-setting 2025-26 school year in which Shamrock athletic teams won six MHSAA state championships across football, baseball, hockey, golf, lacrosse, and wrestling, according to Detroit Catholic. The Shamrocks are led by head coach Justin Cessante, a 1999 Catholic Central graduate and former Grand Valley State national champion player who became the program’s 13th head coach in January 2023 after nearly two decades coaching high school football and athletic development in Michigan, according to Catholic Central’s own announcement.
Earlier Kickoffs Set the Stage
The day starts well before the marquee game. CYO championship games are scheduled for 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m., with the high school portion of Prep Bowl LIV beginning at 12:45 p.m., per the Oakland Press report. The CHSL Cardinal title game, featuring the first-place teams from Intersectional Divisions 1 and 2, kicks off at 1:30 p.m., with a scholastic all-Catholic squad recognized at halftime…