CHAMPIONS AGAIN
Drogosh leads De La Salle to second consecutive state title
De La Salle can make a team uncomfortable in a hurry.
The Pilots did it Friday when they raced to a 21-0 first-quarter lead and defeated previously-unbeaten Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central 52-13 in the Division 2 championship football game at Ford Field.
“We feel like we have our team dialed in and ready,” said coach Dan Rohn, who won his second straight championship with the Pilots to add to the four he won at Grand Rapids West Catholic. “If we can get a team down, we can play more aggressively on defense. Our focus the last five or six weeks has been to make sure we score early and put pressure on teams.
“We knew (FHC) was a team that wanted to run the ball. Defensively, we wanted for force them to do things they haven’t done all year. We tried to put pressure on their corners on first down. They tried to mix their coverages and we took advantage of that. When you’re forced to do those things and you’re not used to doing those things, it makes it tough.”
De La Salle used all of its weapons on offense. Quarterback Brady Drogosh completed 21 of 23 passes for 249 yards and two touchdowns. He also had 15 carries for 152 yards and three touchdowns. Freshman receiver Damion King IV had seven catches for 91 yards and Triston Nichols, playing through a torn ACL, caught five passes for 56 yards and a touchdown.
“We got outplayed in all facets of the game,” said Rangers coach Tim Rogers. “We looked long and hard to find weaknesses in De La Salle’s team and we couldn’t find any and we found it out again today. Dan Rohn does a great job and they’re deep.
“There aren’t many weaknesses in their players. The secondary is good, defensive line is good, the linebackers are tough. I coach the defense and
we couldn’t slow down the quarterback. Why he’s not recruited by Alabama, I don’t know. He’s an excellent football player.”
Rogers said he knew the Pilots have been getting off to fast starts throughout their playoff run and he tried to prepare the Rangers for it.
“We talked about compartmentalizing the stress and playing one play at a time,” he said. “I don’t think we came out star struck, but they’re a good football team, they had a good plan and they got after us early. That’s a tough team to try to trade punches with because they’re explosive all over the field.”
De La Salle’s defense held FHC’s running game to 42 total yards.
“From everything we’ve seen on film, they have a run-heavy offense so we wanted to stop the run and force everything back inside to our linebackers,” said linebacker James McDonald. “We have a lot of good people forcing the ball inside, Mason Muragin, our D-end is really strong and it works out well.”
McDonald’s stats are proof. He led the Pilots with four tackles, including three solos, and he was credited with 1.5 sacks.
This was the sixth time in two years that De La Salle has played at Ford Field — three state finals and three Catholic League finals.
“I think it helps a lot because you’re used to the temperature and things like that,” McDonald said. “But it still comes down to who puts in more work.”
The Pilots started just as quickly as they had in each of their previous four playoff games, scoring on their first five possessions.
Drogosh, who completed 14 of 15 passes for 188 yards in the first half, capped a 6-play, 69-yard drive from the opening kickoff with a three-yard run. Drogosh had a 25-yard run in the drive and completed passes of 17 yards to King and 16 yards to Sherron Sutton II.
Rhett Roeser scored from three yards out on the eighth play of a 62-yard drive to put De La Salle ahead 14-0 with 5:25 left in the first quarter. Payton Babich’s 10-yard interception return set up a 38yard scoring strike from Drogosh to Jack Yanachik and Landon Ryska’s extra point extended the lead to 21-0.
A two-yard run by Drogosh ended a 10-play, 62-yard drive early in the second quarter. King had a run of 13 yards on the first play of the drive and the freshman also caught a pass for 13 yards. At that point, De La Salle had 236 total yards to 32 for FHC.
The Pilots’ defense stopped Central deep in its territory and after a punt, De La Salle took over on the Rangers’ 36. Four plays later, Drogosh and Nichols connected on a nine-yard TD pass.
Two fumbles led to FHC touchdowns late in the second quarter. A 22-yard pass from Justin Osterhouse to Roman Brummel got the Rangers on the scoreboard. Less than a minute later, Osterhouse connected with Ty Hudkins on a 25yard pass on the first play after a recovery by Nolan Hartl.
Ryska completed the first half scoring with a 25-yard field goal with one second remaining to send the Pilots to the locker room with a 38-13 lead.
De La Salle continued its domination in the second half, scoring on its first two possessions. Drogosh scored on a nine-yard run and Roeser got his second TD of the game on a 19yard run with 6:46 left in the third quarter.
The remainder of the game was played with a running clock.
The championship was the fifth for De La Salle and this year’s win marked the second time the Pilots have won back-to-back titles. They also did it in 201718. De La Salle, which lost by a point to Brother Rice during the regular season, ended the year 13-1.
FHC, which had to replace 30 seniors from last year’s team, finished 13-1.