ADA, Mich. — Forest Hills Eastern hosted South Christian Friday night with a district title on the line.
The Sailors, who are coming off their only perfect season in program history, are looking to defend their 2022 Division 4 state championship.
South Christian has also won three straight district titles, while Forest Hills Eastern earned district championships in both 2020 and 2015.
The Hawks went into this matchup hoping to avenge a 32-29 loss to the Sailors in week four of the 2023 season.
Overall, South Christian leads Forest Hills Eastern 10-2— with the Sailors winning their last eight games in a row against the Hawks.
Even with the history of facing one another often, Friday night marked their first time meeting in the playoffs.
In the end, the Sailors win it 22-14 to earn their fourth-straight district championship.
“Earlier, about every game this season, every team’s given us three, two minutes, and we’ve gone down and scored. In the first game we played them, before halftime, about 45 seconds, we went down and scored. And so, you know, we, that’s kind of what we do as a team. Our O-line stepped up and my receivers made some big-time catches,” Carson Vis, who completed 11 of 17 passes for 166 yards and two touchdowns, said.
“It’s awesome. All credit to Carson for finding me on that, and Coach just drew up an awesome play right there. It was awesome,” Noah Funk, who caught the game-winning touchdown for the Sailors, added.
“Carson, he’ll be the first to tell you he didn’t have a great game— just wasn’t his normal self— calm, cool and collected, but you could see it in his body on that last drive where, like, a guy like that in a big moment, he’s just gonna take over and he’s just gonna, he’s gonna be him. I mean, that’s why he’s Carson Vis, so I think that type of confidence speaks volumes to the offense and they just go out and do what they did,” Head Coach Danny Brown said.
South Christian will take on Big Rapids in the regional final next week.
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