WARREN — It’s no secret that Warren De La Salle’s football program has encountered a few bumps in the road in recent months, and Saturday’s semi-final game against Oak Park was no different.

But the Pilots have gotten used to meeting challenges along the way, and as a result, things worked out against Oak Park. Brett Stanley’s three-yard touchdown run in overtime gave De La Salle an exciting 26-20 win, sending the team back to Ford Field in its quest of a third state championship in four years.

De La Salle (7-4) will play last year’s Division 2 champion, Muskegon Mona Shores, at 1 p.m. Friday.

All of that was in doubt for a few minutes in the fourth quarter Saturday, when the Pilots squandered a 17-6 second-half lead and fell behind, 20-17, following a 4-yard scramble by Oak Park quarterback James Burnley with 6:42 remaining in the fourth quarter.

But De La Salle made big plays from that point on. The Pilots tied the game on Cody Cummings’ 22-yard field goal with 1:30 to play, Dionte Dandridge intercepted a long bomb in the final minute as Oak Park was going for the win, and Jayden Conklin forced a fumble as Oak Park had the ball in overtime, setting the stage for Stanley’s rushing touchdown.

“When we let them hang around, we knew it was going to come down to a battle,” coach Dan Rohn said. “It was a battle, and our kids did an amazing job of staying focused and grinding it out.”

“We knew that we were the better team; we fought as hard as we could, and we came out on top,” Conklin said. “I said (to my teammates on the sideline), ‘Just play for your brothers.’ We’re a brotherhood here. You’ve got to play for your brothers and play for each other.”

Now, they get one more chance to play for each other, in late January, in the climate-controlled home of the Detroit Lions.

That just underscores how unusual a journey it’s been for the program since it ended the 2019 season suddenly, two days before the playoffs were to start, because of a hazing scandal that came to light. The school announced it would forfeit its pre-district playoff contest to Birmingham Groves and sat out the 2019 post-season, ending its streak of two consecutive state titles.

In order to move on, De La Salle hired Rohn, who had won four state titles earlier this decade at Grand Rapids West Catholic. 

But that was about the time the novel coronavirus pandemic hit, and it was unclear whether the 2020 season would ever get off the ground. The start of the season was delayed, the first three games were cancelled, and when the regular season finally started, the Pilots limped through it with a 2-4 record. Teams encountered another pause between the district finals and regional rounds, which put playoff games on hold for seven weeks before resuming Jan. 9.

During the latter shutdown, Rohn said the coaches were able to prescribe conditioning drills via Zoom, broke up into smaller groups by position to strategize, and concentrated on more interpersonal aspects, such as recognizing players’ birthdays and bringing in college and professional football players to give motivational talks.

And when it became necessary to host the semi-final against Oak Park, the De La Salle administration had to gain a last-minute waiver from the city of Warren in order to play the game on school grounds. The new St. John Baptist de la Salle Field, built in 2019, was never intended to serve as a host site for varsity football games, since the sound and parking could interfere with the surrounding neighborhood.

But the Pilots persevered, and earned one of their biggest wins in program history. 

“It’s been a long 14 months, and between the pandemic and everything that’s happened, we really needed it,” Rohn said. “I can’t say enough about the alumni and the administration right now, and even the community of Warren, they allowed us to do this. There’s a lot of people that came together to make this happen and I couldn’t be more proud to be part of it right now.”

After suffering regular-season losses to state (and Catholic League) powerhouses Birmingham Brother Rice, Novi Detroit Catholic Central, DeWitt and Detroit Cass Tech, the Pilots seemed to catch fire during the playoff run, which included wins over Roseville, St. Clair Shores Lakeview, Port Huron and Warren-Mott before the Oak Park thriller. The Pilots have won the last 15 post-season games they’ve played, the longest winning streak in the state.

Conklin said it was a case of the team coming together over time.

“We have a very, very young team, not many seniors,” he explained. “We went over there (along the sideline) and we prayed and made sure we got everything together. Our young guys really wanted to play for the seniors, and I really do appreciate that. They worked their tail off all season to get us where we are now.”  

“We’ve gone through so much the past 14 months, not being able to play in the playoffs last year, and now we’re here,” Stanley said. “It’s an amazing family. I’m just happy for our community and our families. We’ve just got to get prepared again to go up against Mona Shores.”