Warren De La Salle’s Josh Wilk signals that he has a first down and first-and-goal at the 1-yard line, setting up a touchdown and a 24-0 lead Friday.
Josh Wilk had a secret, but it is no longer a secret.
“You know what, I knew we had a good defense, but no one else knew that,” said Wilk, a Warren De La Salle senior safety. “But now they know us. They know what we’ve got.”
The cat came out of the bag Friday night when De La Salle dominated Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, 31-8, in a game that wasn’t even that close.
This was a showdown between the defending Division 2 state champ — De La Salle — and the defending Division 3 champ — St. Mary’s — but it turned into a rout because the Pilots (4-1, 2-0 in the Catholic League) have much more than just a dynamite defense.
You can begin at quarterback and that is where Wilk is a first-year starter but looked like a seasoned veteran, running for 129 yards on 16 carries and scoring two touchdowns.
Week 5 Michigan high school football scores
Wilk was magnificent on De La Salle’s amazing 94-yard, 15-play drive that gave the Pilots a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter. Three times he dropped back to pass on third down and three times he scrambled for first downs.
“On film we saw the holes were open,” Wilk said. “We knew we could pass the ball, but when I looked up the holes were open — great blocking by our guys. The receivers, we’ve been working on blocking on the outside and that’s what they did.”
The drive ran 7:28 off the clock and it was the type of drive that St. Mary’s usually does to other teams.
“That was big,” Wilk said. “We take pride in that — going down the field, taking time off the clock, keeping our defense off the field, giving them a break.”
Another secret to come out was that the Pilots have another running back besides Allen Stritzinger, who missed his second straight game.
In his place, Tru Wilson stepped in and gained 117 yards on 26 carries and was able to play off Wilk’s running ability.
“It helped a lot,” Wilson said. “They had to watch out for both of us. He had over 100 yards and that’s crazy for a quarterback.”
It is crazy for any team to have two 100-yard rushers against the Eaglets (4-1, 1-1).
“He was outstanding,” St. Mary’s coach George Porritt said of Wilk. “Him and (Wilson) were just outstanding and their offensive line was great, too. I thought we’re a little bit better defensively than that. We didn’t do a very good job tonight, but hats off to them, they beat our butts.”
Making this rout possible was that St. Mary’s is normally one of the best running teams in the state but managed only 38 yards rushing against the Pilots.
“We just never got in sync,” Porritt said. “My hats off to their defensive coordinator and their whole staff doing a great job.”
Myles Charley scored on a 28-yard jet sweep three plays into the third quarter to give the Pilots a 17-0 lead and Wilk’s 1-yard run made it 24-0 early in the fourth quarter and school was out.
De La Salle dominated in the trenches on both sides of the ball, proving its toughness against a usually tough St. Mary’s line.
“They stepped up and I thought we physically attacked them and did some good things today,” said De La Salle coach Paul Verska. “We had some trouble with some blitzes early, but we picked it up later on.”
The St. Mary’s blitzes gave Wilk opportunities to tuck the ball and run to daylight.
“I saw lanes,” Wilk said, “and you k now what, I took them.”
Yes, now we know.
Contact Mick McCabe: 313-223-4744 or mmccabe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1.
Sept. 25 high school football results