GRAND BLANC Traverse Moore took matters into his own hands Saturday afternoon. Or should we say feet. Moore, a senior quarterback from DeWitt, directed the Panthers’ Wing T offense to perfection, rushing for 263 yards in the second half alone in helping top-ranked DeWitt remain undefeated on the year with a 41-20 victory over unranked Warren De La Salle in a Division 3 state semifinals clash at Grand Blanc’s Don Batchelor Stadium. Moore finished his productive day with 29 carries for 319 yards and touchdown runs of 1, 52, 1, 14 and 87 yards to lead the Panthers to the Division 3 state championship game. For good measure, Moore was also 4-for-4 passing for 33 yards but his final four touchdowns came in the second half where at one time unbeaten DeWitt (13-0) scored 34 straight points to turn a 13-7 halftime deficit into a 41-13 lead by the midpoint of the fourth quarter. “I know a lot of people said that we didn’t play the tough schedule, so we have something to prove,” said Moore, whose team has outscored its opposition 673-148 this season, including 226-59 over four postseason games. “I think we have a really good football team and the seniors really want to win it this year after we lost in the semifinals last year.” With 27 seniors, DeWitt making the postseason for a 32nd time in program history will face fellow unbeaten and second-ranked Mt. Pleasant at 12: 30 p. m. on Nov. 29 in the Division 3 state finals at Ford Field in Detroit. The Panthers, who lost in the state semifinals last season, are trying to win their second state title in their storied history. Playing in its seventh state semifinals game over the last decade, DeWitt also won the D-3 crown in 2020 a season where the Panthers also defeated Warren De La Salle (43-3) during the regular season. “We made a couple of key stops in the third quarter and then Moore had several long runs in the second half. I think he’s very (underrated). He’s one of the best in the state and he proved that today,” said longtime DeWitt coach Rob Zimmerman. “I thought we came out in the second half and just played better.” Trailing 13-7 entering the third quarter De Witt slowly made its comeback but had to navigate an early turnover to do so. De La Salle’s Joey Marasco picked up a fumble at the Pilots’ own 37 and put together a drive down inside DeWitt territory. Buty three penalties in the drive, including a 10-yard flag on a fourth-and-three situation at the DeWitt 42 pushed the ball back to the De La Salle 48 and forced the team to punt away. De Witt made the Pilots pay with a swift four-play drive which saw Moore scamper 52 yards down the right side for the score and couple with a Rose extra point, tied the game at 13-13 with 6: 00 to go in the third quarter. That helped open the floodgates for the Panthers. On De La Salle’s next series, the Pilots botched a fake punt on fourth-and-eight from the DeWitt 43 and ended up losing 17 yards on the play and turned it over on downs back on the De La Salle 40-yard line. It didn’t take the Panthers very long to take the lead, as DeWitt used six plays to go 40 yards and Moore scored on a 1-yard keeper and Rose drilled the PAT for the 20-13 advantage with 1: 43 left in the third stanza. Forcing the Pilots to punt away on the final play of the third quarter, DeWitt struck again with 10: 11 left in the game for a 27-13 lead, as the talented and speedy Moore scored again on a 14-yard run. DeWitt’s Jadon Bender picked off De La Salle sophomore quarterback Grayson Thurston three plays later at the Panthers’ 48. Two plays later, Tyler Bashore scored on a 28-yard run and rose converted the extra point for a commanding 34-13 lead with 9: 00 to play. Again, forcing De La Salle to turn the ball over on downs on its next drive 20-yard pass play was just short on a fourth-and-21 situation at the DeWitt 21 the Panthers broke the Pilots back on its next drive. DeWitt used only three plays when Moore ran 87 yards untouched for another score and Rose hit the PAT with 4: 38 left to make it a 28-point lead. “I do think we came out (in the second half) and played with a chip on our shoulders,” admitted Moore. “We did not want to come up short again. We knew we could play better.” DeWitt scored 13 points in the third quarter and 21 points in the fourth quarter as part of its 34-0 run. “We just made too many mistakes, especially in the second half. We had too many penalties,” sighed De La Salle coach Dan Rohn, whose program has been to at least the Elite Eight in all six seasons with the Pilots, including Division 2 state titles in 2021 and 2022 and state runner-up showings in D-2 in 2020 and 2023. “We had the penalty on fourth down when we were moving downfield, and we had the (botched) fake punt. But it was more than those two plays. We just didn’t play very good overall in the second half after we played pretty well in the first half. You have to play a complete game against a team like DeWitt.” De La Salle (6-7) scored on its second drive after they returned a punt to its own 49. Four plays later, Anthony Bitonti scored on a 1-yard plunge and Jackson Tur booted the extra point for a 7-0 lead with 2: 44 left in the first quarter. DeWitt countered with a 12-play, 80-yard drive where Moore ended the series with a 1-yard touchdown run and Vincent Rose nailed his extra point. The Pilots’ Zach Wagner recovered a fumble in a scrum at the DeWitt 32 with just under five minutes to play in the half. Ten plays later, it was Bitonti who fought his way through traffic from 1 yard out to put his team up 13-7 with 1: 11 remaining in the half. The extra point attempt sailed wide left, leaving De La Salle with a seven-point lead at the half. It was the Pilots’ last lead of the season. “We had a great run, we just came up a little short today against a very good DeWitt team,” said Rohn. “When these seniors were freshmen, we had 48 play football but only 8 finished that journey with us today. We are a relatively a young team this year, so for us to get back to the (Final Four) with such a young group says a lot about the upperclassmen, their leadership and (willingness) to help us get this far.” Thurston still finished 14-for-23 passing for 176 yards, while senior Damion King IV had six catches for 120 yards for De La Salle. DeWitt outgained the Pilots by a 451-290 margin. Bashore added seven carries for 60 yards for the Panthers, who chalked up 418 rushing yards and 33 passing yards to advance to the state finals.
https://www.macombdaily.com/2025/11/22/dewitt-explodes-for-34-second-half-points-to-knock-off-warren-de-la-salle/