By Robby Swanker
Staff Writer
In the game of football, it obviously takes a team to win. One player cannot win a championship alone.
In the case of Shores’ football team, it didn’t just take team; it took a bunch; more specifically Brady’s Bunch.
Junior Brady Rose, who was thrust into quarterback action at the beginning of the 57-56 semifinal win over Walled Lake Western when starting QB Caden Broersma was injured, led the Sailors to the school’s first football state title at Ford Field on Friday, Nov. 29.
Rose, listed as 5-foot-7, 145 pounds, followed up his five-touchdown semifinal performance with another solid all-around game in Shores’ 35-26 victory over Detroit Martin Luther King in the Div. 2 finals. He finished with 90 rushing yards and three TDs; plus, he completed 8-of-11 passes for 122 yards and a score.
“We lose our all-state quarterback who played in this game last year and came up short, and then a backup quarterback comes in and leads us to our first state championship ever,” coach Matt Koziak said. “Our offense didn’t change at all. We may have ran more option, but as far as our playbook shrinking, not at all. Brady has one of the best football IQ’s of anyone I have ever coached.”
The Sailors, playing in the state finals for the third time in school history, had to overcome adversity going up against a powerhouse of King, which was shooting for its fourth state title in five years. King also had at least three players with Division-I offers, which made critics believe that Shores had no chance to win this game.
“People go back to our getting whooped by Muskegon [a 53-0 loss in week eight],” Koziak said. “(The Big Reds are) a great football team. I know it sounds crazy, but it was one of the best things that happened to us. It humbled us, it made us dig a little deeper and understand we might not be as good as we think we are without doing the little things.”
In the state title game, the Sailors dominated early, scoring on their first drive with a 1-yard rushing touchdown from Rose.
After senior Cam Sobish’s sack caused a King fumble, Rose and his offense took advantage and drove down the field and capped it off with an 18-yard touchdown run by senior Tre Hatcher, going up 14-0 early in the second quarter.
“After my touchdown, I thought the game was ours,” Hatcher said. “We stopped them, and we scored again, so I thought it was our game to win as long as we kept applying pressure.”
After King made it 14-6, Rose scored another 1-yard TD with 3:29 left in the first half to make it 21-6; however, the Crusaders made it 21-12 at halftime with a touchdown with 25 seconds before the half.
In the third quarter, King struck first, cutting the lead to 21-20.
Later in the third quarter, King’s freshman quarterback Dante Moore, who is being recruited by D-I schools, made a mistake by throwing into the proximity of Rose, who came up with a momentum-boosting interception.
“I was in man coverage, and the guy I was covering ran an out route, so I passed him to our shallow guy and sat in the middle and read the quarterback’s eyes,” said Rose, who also plays safety.
Driving down the field and building confidence, the Sailors were faced with a crucial fourth and five from King’s 17-yard line. Senior Jaylen Hopson caught a pass from Rose and galloped into the endzone, stretching the lead to 28-20.
Early in the fourth quarter, Maryland commit Peny Boone burst through the Sailor defense and charged his way to a 66-yard touchdown, again cutting the lead, making it 28-26.
The Sailors would then methodically march down the field, keeping possession of the ball for 8:40 minutes until Rose scored from the King 2-yard line, advancing the lead to 35-26.
“On our last drive, I knew we needed a score to finish the game,” senior lineman Derek Pennell said. “We kept grinding and cutting time of the clock and finished it with a score. After this, I knew we had it.”
On King’s final drive of the game, senior Kolbe Torvinger put an end to any comeback with an interception with 36 seconds left. The Sailors took a knee to seal the first state title in Shores’ history.
Rose, adding on to his impressive offensive performance, notched a team-high 10 tackles on top of his interception. Trovinger and sophomore Jeff Lenartowicz added seven tackles apiece while Sobish and junior Gary Humphrey made five stops each.
“I still don’t think it’s set in,” Koziak said in the press conference after the game. “It will set in 10 years from now, a year from now, I don’t know. What these young kids did and what they had to overcome in the playoffs, it’s unbelievable.”