Mona Shores picked up right where it left off in their 2019 state championship season by defeating rival Reeths-Puffer 55-0 in a game that was about as one sided as it gets. The Sailors scored on every possession but one, and registered a shutout on defense.

“We didn’t have to punt, we didn’t have a turnover, our defense shut them out…it was just a great collective effort from our kids.” Mona Shores coach Matt Koziak said.

Senior quarterback Brady Rose led the Sailors in rushing with 113 yards on 10 carries and 4 touchdowns. Junior Elijah Johnson was not far behind with 13 carries for 102 yards.

The main story of the night, however, was senior slot receiver Elijah Farnum. Farnum only scored one varsity touchdown in garbage time last season against Grand Rapids Union, but racked up 3 tonight. Two of them were on rushes of both 13 and 16 yards, and one through the air for 58 yards. “Elijah Farnum just kind of was that late bloomer, where he worked his butt off to get on the field…we knew he could do it” Koziak said

The guy who threw Farnum’s touchdown, was junior quarterback Mark Konecny, who had a coming out party of his own. He saw very limited action during the varsity playoffs last year, but came onto the scene to throw for 79 yards and two touchdown passes. The Sailors used him in different packages, with Rose being moved to wide receiver.

Reeths-Puffer coach Matt Bird discussed his frustration after the game, as he said “There’s a huge separation between our program and theirs…we’ve got a lot of things that we need to work on, but we did very few things well today.” Bird however, said he did see fixable mistakes “There were a lot of technique mistakes on our things and we’ll work on it and get better.”

The win moves Mona Shores to 1-0 and drops Reeths-Puffer to 0-1.

STATS LEADERS

Passing
Reeths-Puffer: Ben Veihl (10/28, 143 YDS)
Mona Shores: Mark Konecny (4/5, 79 YDS, 2 TD)

Rushing
Reeths-Puffer: Landon Mechem (5 ATT, 17 YDS)
Mona Shores: Brady Rose (10 ATT, 113 YDS, 3 TD)

Receiving
Reeths-Puffer: Tayte Vanderleest (2 REC, 45 YDS)
Mona Shores: Elijah Farnum (1 REC, 58 YDS, TD)