Michigan high school football finals: Detroit King's defense stands tall vs. DeWitt in D-3

It will go down as the goal line stand of the 2021 Michigan high school football playoffs.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time as Detroit King’s defense came up huge down the stretch to deny DeWitt a repeat championship, 25-21, in the Division 3 final on Saturday night at Ford Field.

Trailing by four, DeWitt marched 67 yards down to the King 5 and had first-and-goal, but on fourth down, the Crusaders’ Karl Williams and Blake Bailiff combined to stop Bryce Debri at the 1 with only 2:29 left.

“As far as the linebackers — me and Blake — we just looked at our keys,” said Williams, a 6-foot, 195-pound senior. “Whenever the guard and tackle came straight at us, we shoot that gap and meet the running back. He came straight at us and we met the running back in the gap.”

King then came up with a clutch first down pass from Dante Moore to Chansey Willis Jr. to go into the victory formation.

“It was a hard-fought one,” said Williams, who had eight tackles, including a sack. “It was just happiness all around the whole stadium because we’ve been working for this forever, since the summer. It’s been our goal since the summer. To accomplish our goal — that’s big.”

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Moore, a junior and one of the top QBs in the nation, was 18-for-24 passing for 228 yards, while Terrence Brown, one of the King heroes on both sides of the ball, rushed for 113 yards on 11 carries.

“I had a lot of hits, they hit me a lot, but I’m good,” Brown said. “It was tough. They (DeWitt) would never give up. They just kept fighting until the end and they’re a very good team.”

King finishes the season 13-1 overall and secured its fifth state title in program history, while DeWitt ended its season at 12-2.

King coach Tyrone Spencer said it was his team’s best defensive effort of the season and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“The goal line stands ... making adjustments when they were trying to outflank us and outnumber us ... great job by the kids staying focused, staying confident and believing in themselves,” said Spencer, who garnered his third state title as the Crusaders’ head coach. “Awesome group of kids.”

Brown also came up with a clutch interception and 21-yard return to the DeWitt 25 with 11:50 left in the fourth.

“They put us in a position, Coach trusts me and said they were going to try me and I came into my zone and I locked in and had to make a play ... finish the game out strong,” Brown said.

It led to the Crusaders’ go-ahead TD as Sterling Anderson took it in from 3 yards out with 8:22 to play. The score was set up by Moore’s 10-yard pass to Joseph Williams, whose second effort led to a critical first down.

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Up 21-19 at the half, DeWitt forced its third turnover of game with 8:06 left in the third when Bryce Kurncz hit Moore from the blind side and lineman Trevor Dennis pounced on the fumble at the King 27.

But the King defense held when Terel Hollingsworth and Marquise White teamed up to sack Holtz on fourth-and-goal at the Crusaders’ 8.

To open the game, King took just 56 seconds to score as Brown bolted up the middle for 51 yards to stake the Crusaders to a quick 7-0 lead.

DeWitt really could have been behind, but its defense came up with a pair of critical stands in the red zone during the opening quarter as Wisconsin commit Tommy McIntosh denied Lynn Wyche-El Jr. on fourth-and-goal, followed by a fumble recovery at his own 6 (after a replay review).

King got a pick-six from defensive end Kenneth Merrieweather, who batted down a Tyler Holtz pass at the line of scrimmage before plucking the ball out of the air and racing 45 yards for a TD with 10:42 remaining in the second quarter.

The Crusaders, however, failed on the PAT and DeWitt got on the board with 5:46 left in the second period on Holtz’s 6-yard TD pass to Debri to cut the deficit to 13-7.

Brown ran for a 6-yard TD with 3:03 left in the half to cap a nine-play, 70-yard drive. But the Crusaders were denied on the two-point conversion attempt and DeWitt answered with only 40 seconds to play in the half on a 15-yard TD pass from Holtz to McIntosh.

Just 25 seconds later, Holtz picked off Dante Moore’s pass at his own 31 and raced down the sideline untouched for a 69-yard pick-six to give the Panthers a 21-19 lead.

“I thought we doing really good,” Spencer said. “We had control of the game at the end (of the half) and went a little haywire with the turnovers, but we persevered through and we won, so I’m happy for the kids and everybody. It’s always fun to be here.”

Holtz was 10-for-18 passing for 156 yards, while Flegler added 69 yards rushing on 10 attempts.

“Some of it was self-inflicted on us with turnovers, but at the end of the day, hats off to them (DeWitt),” Spencer said. “They had a great game plan keeping an umbrella on everything and making us earn everything underneath.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MHSAA football: Detroit King dethrones DeWitt for Division 3