NORTON SHORES – A lot of people were wondering how the Mona Shores Sailors would react after losing to Muskegon in their final regular season game last week.

The Sailors showed on Friday that they were more than ready to get the taste of defeat out of their mouths.

Mona Shores opened the Division 2 playoffs with a resounding 48-20 victory over Traverse City Central in front of a home crowd.

“That felt great,” head coach Matt Koziak said about his team’s response to the rivalry loss last week. “We don’t like to talk about it, but we lost a big one last week. We talk about a new chapter, and everyone is 0-0. The seven wins and two losses we had in the season are irrelevant.”

Sophomore quarterback Johnathan Pittman admits that he and his teammates had the loss on their minds, but were determined to push forward.

“lt’s huge,” Pittman said. “Especially losing to Muskegon is huge. They’re our rivals. But the guys came in ready to work and focused on Traverse City Central.”

The Mona Shores defense wasted no time showing it was ready for playoff action.

On the fourth play of the game, Brandon Bankard intercepted a Trojan pass and set the Sailors up at the opponents’ 43-yard line.

Just one play later, Pittman found Jaylen Vinton with a 43-yard touchdown pass.

“It felt great,” Pittman said about the strong start. “Coming in I was a little nervous, so it felt great to get those nerves out and play.”

Ke’Waun Farnum scored on an 11-yard touchdown run with 5:11 left in the first quarter to extend the Sailor lead to 14-0.

The final score of the first quarter came with 15 seconds remaining when Dahmir Farnum punched in a one-yard touchdown run to make the score 21-0.

In the second quarter, Pittman hit Eric Cotner with a 21-yard touchdown pass to make the score 28-0 with 9:25 left in the first half.

Bankard broke loose for a 64-yard touchdown run, then Pittman connected with Cotner again, this time on a 33-yard touchdown strike, to close out the first half.

Mona Shores led 42-0 at halftime.

“We came in with the mentality we wanted to dominate,” Pittman said. “Going into next week, we wanted to have that energy going, especially coming off a loss to get that bad taste out of our mouths.”

The Sailor defense was impressive with a first-half shutout.

“Our defense has been lights out all year,” Koziak said. “We wanted our defense to have that swagger and energy back. They came out and showed that.”

Traverse City Central scored a touchdown on the Sailor reserves in the third quarter to make the score 42-7 heading into the fourth.

After two more Trojan touchdowns, Mona Shores’ Dominic Piggue broke loose for a 66-yard touchdown run to make the final score 48-20.

Pittman completed 8 of 9 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns.

“It starts with our trigger guy,” Koziak said about his quarterback. “He’s gotten better every week and he really threw some great balls tonight. It’s nice that he’s hitting his stride, and nobody works harder than him, even as a tenth-grader.”

Cotner led the receivers with 64 yards and one touchdown on three catches while Bankard totaled 54 yards and one touchdown on two receptions.

Bankard had 92 yards and a score on three carries while Dahmir Farnum added 50 yards and a touchdown on four runs.

Mona Shores will visit undefeated Forest Hills Central next week in the Division 2 district finals.

“Another battle,” said Koziak, whose team has played FH Central in the playoffs each of the last two seasons, and four out of the last five. “It seems like destiny has us meeting every year. I know last year wasn’t as close as previous ones. But we have to go there, and they haven’t lost yet. They have a great defense. I haven’t watched a ton of film, but it seems like we’re always crossing paths.”