HART — Hart hasn't enjoyed the success it wanted in the win-loss column this year, but much of the season, the Pirates were competing well and taking good teams into the second half before their depth advantages wore them down. Friday night, though, the rival Shelby Tigers wasted no time pulling away.
The Tigers scored touchdowns and two-point conversions the first five times they had the ball and buried Hart, 40-0, for their first back-to-back Blood, Sweat and Tears Jug victories since 2013 and '14.
It wasn't hard for Hart coach Joe Tanis to point out the biggest difference between his team's scrappy previous games and Friday's.
"I'd say the difference was Jaylin Henderson," Tanis said of the Tigers' star quarterback. "I am so grateful that guy is gone (after this year,) and Brody Fessenden. Those guys are just on a little bit of a different level. We felt like we had them a number of times, and those guys were able to break tackles. It was really five big plays by Jaylin Henderson, I feel like."
Henderson indeed had an explosive performance, running for three touchdowns, all in the second quarter, and setting up Brody Fessenden's two scoring runs with other huge gains. On only 11 carries, Henderson piled up 220 rushing yards, with Fessenden going for 70 more, negating any real need for the passing game. The Tiger defense got nine solo tackles from Fessenden and seven more from Julian Prado. Dashiell had an interception.
Keaghan Monroe led Hart (2-6) with 45 rushing yards and Haegan Hansen had 40. Hansen had four solo tackles and Easton Hopkins picked off a fourth-quarter pass.
Shelby's Jaylin Henderson (16) maneuvers through the Hart defense for his first of three second-quarter touchdowns during Friday's game at Hart. Henderson had 220 yards rushing in the Tigers' 40-0 win.
Both Henderson and Tigers' coach Jacob Tumele were quick to credit Shelby's offensive line for his and Fessenden's remarkable success. The big guys up front created huge holes for their senior stars to run through.
"We just challenged our guys," Tumele said. "I heard it all summer, that we graduated so many guys up front on the offensive line. Our kids took that as a challenge. We've gotten better over the course of the year at what we're doing offensively. That was able to open up holes. Our kids blocked to the whistle. It was good to see."
It was a reunion of sorts for Tumele and Tanis; Tumele spent three seasons on Tanis' staff at Hart before becoming an assistant at Greenville and later ending up in Shelby.
"They came out and they played great defense," Tanis said. "They did a good job. He's doing a good job at Shelby. I'm really proud of him."
The Pirates went three-and-out on their first two possessions, and in between, Henderson broke off a 20-yard run to set up Fessenden for the opening touchdown. Henderson then threw a nice two-point pass to Elijah Dashiell after a penalty backed the try up five yards.
After another stop, Henderson converted his only completion of the game, a big one on third down to Ashton Moore that led to his 10-yard touchdown run. He then exploded up the middle for 38 and 73-yard scoring runs on the Tigers' last two possessions of the first half.
"Just our mentality," Henderson said of what helped the Tigers dominate Hart from the get-go when other opponents have been unable to. "In the locker room, everybody was really hyped after we just kept scoring. That pushed us to the second half to keep putting up more points and doing what we had to."
Getting a shutout was especially sweet for Shelby (4-4). The Tigers didn't allow a significant scoring opportunity for Hart until the third quarter with the running clock already in place, and came up with a fourth-down stop inside their own red zone.
Hart's Sawyer Boos (1) tries to find more running room as Nash Hagstrom takes him down during Friday's game at Hart. The Tigers won, 40-0.
"We haven't had a big win like this over our rival Hart in a lot of years, so it was nice to see us come out and dominate the line of scrimmage," Tumele said. "That was really good to see because Hart was in a really good battle against Ludington and Whitehall, and they've been playing tough.
"We just did a really good job. Our front play has drastically improved over the course of the year. Our defensive line, our linebackers, and all that good stuff. We are getting better throughout the season. Our up front play has really been challenged, and we're playing much better on than we were early on in the year."
Tanis said Henderson and Fessenden in the back seven made getting to the edge a daunting task, so the Pirates concentrated on going up the middle with the run game. It didn't yield much, as Hart gained only 119 total yards and had under three yards per carry.
It was the Pirates' last home game at their current athletic facility, as it will be renovated prior to, and possibly during, the 2027 football season. The upgraded facility will be named in honor of retired superintendent Mark Platt, and Tanis said it's unknown when it will be ready, but he joked that he'll be coaching the construction workers to get it done faster so the Pirates can play at least part of their home schedule there next fall.
It also sent off a small group of seniors Tanis said won't see the fruits of the work they did to improve Hart football, but he hopes they'll be able to enjoy the program's future success from afar.
"Losses like tonight will definitely fuel the younger guys," Tanis said. "Structurally, in the school, we're working on putting some things in place that we need to to be able to compete in the Lakes that we haven't had the last couple years, and to be honest, because we haven't had that the last couple years, you're seeing the results of that, unfortunately, on the field right now."
Shelby, meanwhile, sets its sights on a home game against Orchard View next week. A win would give the Tigers a chance to make the playoffs, but it'll be a daunting task after OV routed Oakridge Friday.
"We have a great opportunity to play a really good football team," Tumele said. "Aaron James has done a really good job with that. I'm just excited to get back to work and and have a good week of practice and see what we can do."
