Michigan high school football finals: Warren De La Salle easily repeats as Division 2 champ

Even Brady Drogosh might have thought duplicating last year’s performance in the Division 2 state football final would be hard do, but think again.

After he accounted for 319 yards in total offense in last year’s 41-14 title victory conquest over Traverse City Central, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound senior continued to make Ford Field his own personal playground Friday leading the Pilots to convincing 52-13 victory Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central.

It was a signature performance from Drogosh, passed for two touchdowns and ran for three more and totaled 401 yards to help claim the fifth state championship for the Pilots (13-1).

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The Cincinnati commit was a one-man demolition crew as he connected on 21 of 23 passes for 249 yards and added 152 yards rushing on just 15 attempts.

“This will be my third year at Ford Field, which was a huge advantage, I think, for me and the team,” said Drogosh, who also started the 2020 state final as a sophomore in a 25-19 loss to Muskegon Mona Shores. “I didn’t come out nervous, I came out confident. We got the ball first and I knew we wanted to score first and come out fast. When we came out and scored fast, I just got rolling and rolling.”

Drogosh threw only two incomplete passes and might have saved his best for last, but he had some lofty standards to adhere to.

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“I think it was one of my best games,” Drogosh said. “In 2018, Chippewa Valley was here and my mom worked there. so I went to their game and Tommy Schuster had no incompletions (14 of 14 for 209 yards and two TDs in a 31-30 win over Clarkston). I just wanted to shout-out my game to him. I always modeled my game after Tommy. I trained with Tommy. I threw two incompletions so I wasn’t as good as he was, but it was definitely good for me.”

By halftime, the Pilots had 336 yards in total offense with Drogosh racking up 300 himself while roaring out to 35-0 lead.

And it was almost a perfect first-half quarterback rating for Drogosh, who completed 14 of 15 passes for 188 yards and two TDs. He also rushed 12 times for 112 and another two TDs.

“I coach the defense and we couldn’t slow down the quarterback,” Forest Hills Central coach Tim Rogers said. “I’m surprised he’s not recruited by Alabama. He’s a darn good quarterback. He obviously checks a lot of things at the line of scrimmage and he’s an excellent football player.”

Drogash scored on a 3-yard run with 9:47 left in the opening quarter followed by Rhett Roeser’s 3-yard TD run at the five-minute mark.

After Payton Babich intercepted a Ranger pass thanks to a quarterback hit by defensive end Mason Muragin (Illinois commit), Drogosh hit Jack Yanachik on a 38-yard TD toss to make it 21-0 after one quarter.

The De La Salle offensive onslaught continued into the second quarter as Drogosh scored on a 2-yard keeper to cap a 10-play, 62-yard TD drive with 9:25 remaining in the half.

The Pilots’ Sherron Sutton II had a 68-yard TD punt return nullified by a face mask penalty, but it didn’t matter as Drogosh completed a 9-yard TD pass to Triston Nichols.

Forest Hills Central (13-1) showed some life answering with two quick scores, the first coming on a 22-yard TD pass from Justin Osterhouse to Roman Brummel with 2:34 to play.

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Rangers linebacker Raymond Cargill then caused a De La Salle fumble that was recovered by Nolan Hartl and Osterhouse followed by hitting Ty Hudkins on a 25-yard TD pass with only 1:41 remaining to cut the deficit to 35-13.

But the Pilots had the last word of the opening half as Landon Ryska booted a 25-yard field goal with one second on the clock to make it 38-13.

The Pilots took a 45-13 advantage with 8:41 remaining in the third on Drogosh’s third rushing TD of the game, a 9-yard keeper. Roeser then added a 19-yard TD run to start the running clock with 6:46 to go in the same period.

Forest Hills Central, making its first finals appearance since 1994, had a tough day all around. The Rangers used two quarterbacks, Osterhouse and Mason McDonald, who were a combined 7 of 20 passing for 91 yards. They also had just 61 yards rushing for a total of 151 compared to De La Salle’s 476.

“There good in all facets of the game and they’re a really good football team,” Rogers said of the Pilots. “We looked long and hard to find a weakness in De La Salle’s game. We couldn’t find one. They’re well coached ... and they’re deep. There are not any weaknesses in terms of players. The secondary is good. Defensive line is good, the linebackers are tough.”

De La Salle was making its fifth D2 finals appearance since 2017 and has now won four titles.

“Really, really special senior class when you talk of the number of kids we have in it, and how hard they’ve worked,” De La Salle coach Dan Rohn said. “They just never stopped pushing each other. I couldn’t be more proud. When I met with this group three years ago, I asked a lot out of them. They stood up tall and stepped up to the challenge.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MHSAA football finals: Warren De La Salle easily repeats in Division 2