DETROIT — In the history of Sailors football, no team has ever won consecutive state titles. The 2023 group fell just short in their efforts to be the first.
South Christian lost in the division four state finals to Harper Woods, 33-27.
"It was a heck of a football game," said South Christian head coach Danny Brown. "Obviously we didn't come out on the right end of it but those are the fun ones."
The Sailors trailed by 14 points in the first quarter, as 20 points in the third quarter and by 13 points in the fourth quarter. Each time the team fought back until finally they trailed by just six points with less than five minutes remaining.
On their final drive, Carson Vis led the Sailors down the field with a 21-yard pass to Austin Tiesma, then a 20-yard run of his own on 4th-and-7. Then finally, facing 4th-and-1 from the three-yard line with three seconds to go, Vis looked to pass on more time, but his final attempt was knocked down, sealing the Sailors fate.
"They knew we ran that play earlier," Vis said of the Harper Woods defense. "I stuck with it and trusted it, number 28 made a good play and that's it."
Vis completed an MHSAA record 30 passes for another MHSAA record 441 yards on two touchdowns and one interception. The junior added a score on the ground and 72 rushing yards, for an MHSAA record-setting total of 513 yards of total offense. Senior playmaker Jake Vermas totaled 10 receptions for 196 yards and a touchdown.
Brown said he was proud of the fight his team showed in getting up after being knocked down.
"The message at halftime was ' We've been resilient and nothing you're doing in life when you're chasing success is ever going to be easy, there's going to be adversity. Less one play, they fought like crazy...we almost had it."
Brown added that he thought the Sailors started a little slow because the bright lights of the moment got to them, Vis said the end result was awful but he still took something from it.
"It's just fueling me and a bunch of the juniors to come back next year because we know what it takes," said Vis. "It helped us grow a lot."
The Sailors end the season with a record of 10 and 4.
