De La Salle romps to D2 crown, beats Traverse City Central
The job’s finished.
When De La Salle quarterback Brady Drogosh left the field after last weekend’s football semifinal win against Livonia Franklin he said “job’s not finished.”
Drogosh and his teammates took care of that Friday when the Pilots built a 41-0 lead and rolled to a 41-14 victory against Traverse City Central in the Division 2 championship game at Ford Field. The win completed the first undefeated season in school history and was the fourth state football championship for De La Salle, more than any other Macomb County school.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Drogosh, who completed 14 of 19 passes for 142 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 174 yards on 19 carries. “This is what we’ve been working for. It’s what we’ve been striving for since we lost last year (to Muskegon Mona Shores in the final). We knew we were going to be on the other side in this one.”
De La Salle was as dominant in the championship game as it was on the road to the finals, building a 34-0 halftime lead on the strength of the passing and running of Drogosh and a defense that held the Trojans to only 149 yards in total offense, most of that coming in the last 6 ½ minutes when Central scored its two touchdowns.
“We knew against Traverse City Central we would have to compete at the highest level. That was the goal,” said Pilots coach Dan Rohn. “Our goal wasn’t just to get here. It was to win. That’s why it was awesome to play this well.”
Rohn’s message before the game was a bit different than usual.
“We talk a lot about representing our school and our community but today I told these guys to play for each other,” he said. “They’ve earned this. They’re not going to play with each other ever again. They had an incredible week. We had an alumni practice with over 85 alumni at our practice. We had a great day yesterday. We’ve had a lot of support but I told them, ‘today it’s all about you.’”
The Pilots struck early, like they have throughout the playoffs. They took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards in
13 plays with Rhett Roeser going in from a yard out. Brady Lowe kicked the first of six extra points.
De La Salle’s defense stopped Central on downs on its first possession. The Pilots took over on their 38 and on the first play of the second quarter Drogosh connected with Triston Nichols on a 20yard scoring strike.
Central got two first downs on its next possession, but the drive halted at midfield when James McDonald and Will Beesley stopped quarterback Josh Burnham on fourth
down. It took De La Salle only two plays to extend the lead to 21-0 on a 45yard run by Drogosh.
The Pilots focused on stopping Burnham, who rushed for more than 1,300 yards this season. The De La Salle defensive effort held him to 28 yards on 17 carries.
“We knew they averaged 50-some points per game so we had to get off to a quick start,” said Beesley, who led the Pilots with eight tackles. “Punch them in the mouth from the beginning. Our motto this week was ‘bring the wood.’ Be the most physical team on every play. I think we did that today.
“We wanted to stop the ‘jet’ first and foremost.
They do a lot of things off that. We keyed on Burnham and tried to contain him the best we could.”
De La Salle added two more touchdowns in the final 24 seconds of the first half. The first came on a perfectly-thrown 13-yard pass to the corner of the end zone from Drogosh to Nichols. Moments later, Devin Schmelter intercepted a pass and returned it 18 yards to the Trojans’ 24. On the next play, Drogosh hit Alton McCullum for the touchdown.
Another interception set up the Pilots’ final touchdown. Jamari Allen returned it 27 yards to the Central 15 and DeNiro Johnson scored from the one late in the third quarter.
Traverse City Central scored on a 5-yard run by Burnham with 6:36 to go and Josh Klug scored on a 24-yard run with about a minute and a half to play.
“De La Salle played a phenomenal football game,” said Central coach Eric Shugars. “They’re a very physical football team and they took it to us. We couldn’t get anything going. We couldn’t get the momentum going.
“We were scrambling to get something going in our favor and I felt we couldn’t do that. That’s credit to them and the game plan they had to come at us and be physical.”