NORTON SHORES, Mich. — Outside of the final six minutes of the game, Mona Shores dominated a rematch of the Division 2 state championship against Detroit King on Saturday afternoon.
The Sailors got off to a hot start with an eight-yard touchdown run by Elijah Johnson just over three minutes in, and they wouldn't look back.
After a Brady Rose touchdown pass to Demetri Roberson and a touchdown run from Rose, Mona Shores would lead it, 21-0 after a quarter.
Rose would find the endzone again in the second quarter to give the Sailors a 28-0 lead at the half.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Rose would find Gary Humphrey on fourth-and-goal from the nine yard line to put a running clock on the Crusaders, 35-0.
Detroit King would score three touchdowns late in the game, but Mona Shores would win, 35-21 behind four touchdowns from senior Brady Rose as well as eleven tackles, a forced fumble and fumble recovery on defense.
Mona Shores 35
— FOX 17 Blitz (@FOX17Blitz) October 24, 2020
Detroit King 21
Final
The Sailors had a running clock on the first play of the 4th quarter before three late scores.
Brady Rose:
18 car 126 yds 2 TDs 6.67
4/5 pass 111 yds 2 TDs
11 tks, 1 For Fum, 1 Fum
Mona Shores finishes the regular season 6-0! pic.twitter.com/bLCAg71vJB
"Some coaches said, 'why are you playing this game?'" said Mona Shores head coach, Matt Koziak, "and I said, 'because I want our kids to play a game,' I don't want to sit on our hands and take playoff points."
The game was highly anticipated, despite the Crusaders coming in with two losses on the season due to a tough schedule.
"It was a lot of fun, we were able to play it here at Mona and our kids played well," Koziak added, "I'm proud of our coaches, that's a tough team to defend and they're so physical and fast."
And Brady Rose certainly didn't hurt his case for Mr. Football in the state of Michigan with his dominant performance, either.
"Everybody did their jobs," Rose said, "we shut them down until the fourth quarter, we did our job. Holding them to zero points through three, to the Division 2 state runner-up, that's a huge thing for our defense."
The Sailors finish the regular season at 6-0 and will now await their playoff fate, which will be announced sometime Sunday afternoon.
"We had to show them last year wasn't a fluke," Rose added, "show them that this year's team is just as good as last year's team, we replaced the people we needed to, it's a big win going into the playoffs."
And the Sailors were very clear the win was for senior player Devin Gibbs, who was diagnosed with Leukemia nearly a month ago.
Gibbs was released from the hospital on Friday and was able to stand on the sidelines for the win on Saturday.
