Shrine holds off Oakland Christian to advance to district final
AUBURN HILLS » Royal Oak Shrine’s No. 1 goal from the start of the season has been simple: win a second straight district championship for the first time in school history.
The Knights are in position to make that goal a reality after they defeated Auburn Hills Oakland Christian, 28-19, to advance to the Division 8 district finals where they will face Clarkston Everest Collegiate.
“It’s been our No. 1 goal, backto-back district championships for the first time in school history,” Shrine head coach Oscar Olejniczak said. “We’re going to prepare like we do every week, we’re going to come together tomorrow for practice and watch film. We’ll have our game plan ready and go to work against a very, very good Everest team. But we’re pretty good, too.”
Shrine quarterback Conor Benson came up huge in the victory, going 15-for-21 passing for 275 yards and four touchdowns, including two in the fourth quarter.
“That’s our kid, Conor’s our guy,” Olejniczak said. “Conor runs the offense. Benson’s been our three-year starter at quarterback and I’m hard on him, and he just responds every single day. The kid is tough as nails and now he starts on defense.”
Charles Niehaus rushed for 117 yards and added five receptions for 90 yards and a touchdown for the Knights (6-2). Sophomore Andrew Bala had five receptions for 91 yards and two touchdowns and Alex Armenio had four receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown in the win.
“I’m so proud of these kids,” Olejniczak said. “A lot of teams have gone through adversity, I understand it’s been a tough year for everybody. But we haven’t had our entire team since the first half of the first game because of injuries and everything else that’s going on. We’re still not there, but these kids go out there every day and they fight with everything they have. Everyone keeps telling them they don’t have enough and they just go out there and fight. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”
Olejniczak said it was a complete team effort and he was really pleased with his team’s defensive effort.
“Defensively, Aaron Smith calls our defense,” Olejniczak said. “Then you got our two edge players in Ugo Ike and Alex Armenio, who were putting pressure on that quarterback all day. Niehaus and Benson were our hybrids. It’s a team effort. Our defensive staff works their tails off and they do an amazing job.”
Niehaus returned the opening kickoff to the 7-yard line to give the Knights an early boost. Two plays later Benson found Ar
menio for a 10-yard touchdown to give Shrine a 7- 0 lead with 11:03 left in the first quarter.
“It’s always good to start off the game like that,” Niehaus said. “I wish I had enough energy to get all the way in, but it happens. To start off with a touchdown, it’s hard to lose after that.”
Oakland Christian responded when Connor Butcher hit a 25-yard field goal on the Lancers’ first drive. Butcher added a 28yard field goal in the second quarter to pull the Lancers within one, 7- 6, with four minutes left in the second quarter.
Oakland Christian quarterback Daniel Siminski connected with Carson Ford for a 57-yard touchdown to put the Lancers ahead 13-7 with 6:57 left in the third quarter.
The Knights offense then came alive when Benson found Niehaus for a 27-yard touchdown to put Shrine up 14-13 with 4:24 left in the third quarter.
“Conor was slinging it,” Niehaus said. “He wasn’t taking sacks, he was getting the ball out and hitting people, that’s all we ask of him.”
Benson then connected with Bala for an 8-yard touchdown and a 54-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to put the Knights up 28-13 with 4:21 left to play.
Oakland Christian’s Siminski found Lake Patterson for a 10-yard touchdown with 3:13 left, but the Lancers 2-point conversion try was no good and Shrine was able to hold on for the 28-19 win to advance to the district finals.
“It feels great to get back there and especially to face Everest. We lost to them in the regular season,” Benson said. “It’s going to be a competitive game that we’re going to have to play.”
“That’s what our season goal was and especially against Everest,” Niehaus said of advancing to the district finals. “Everest has had our number the last couple years, but we were down a couple players when we played them in the regular season. But this is the game for it all.”
Oakland Christian finishes the season 6-2.
“I’m proud of our kids. We hung in there,” Oakland Christian coach Rich Alkire said. “We’re losing a really special senior class. In two years here they’ve done a lot of winning and I’m just so thankful for them for setting the foundation that hopefully we can build on and be back here. But that doesn’t seem like a big consolation now, because I have a bunch of seniors I love. It’s a special crew. They just came up short and there’s no shame in losing to Shrine. That’s a program that’s here every year.
“I thought defensively we played really well. We gave up some big plays. It was great to have Mason Kolb back, He does a lot for us. And of course Siminski is great every night. And I thought Lake Patterson was phenomenal tonight. It’s nice to see big players step up in big games, we just didn’t have enough.”