Di’Mari Malone knew that the Anchor Bay Tars’ run of outrageous offensive production was over.

“I definitely thought of an offensive shootout,” the Dakota linebacker/running back said. “Nobody had defense, and I knew with them coming in here, playing the top defense in the state, that wasn’t going to happen.”

The Tars entered Week 3’s contest against the Dakota Cougars as one of Michigan’s top offenses, having scored 117 points through two games which included a 66-65 overtime thriller in Week 2 over Roseville.

But Malone and the self-proclaimed best defense in the state shut the Tars all the way down from 66 points to just six on Friday night, leading to a 34-6 Cougar victory.

“I think we prepared really well,” said Dakota head coach Greg Baur. “We had a really good plan. I thought, going in, the kids executed it near-flawlessly.”

The game didn’t start out one-sided. The Cougars scored on their opening drive when Brady Hamby punched in a 2-yard touchdown, but Dakota’s next drive ended with an interception by Anchor Bay’s Gerry Hanson III, who returned the ball all the way from the Tars’ own red zone all the way to Dakota’s 22.

It was by far Anchor Bay’s best starting field position of the game, and they made good on it with a 6-yard touchdown pass from Ryan LaFear to Gabe Marshall. The extra point was blocked, leaving them down 7-6.

It was all Dakota from there on out.

Hamby scored his second touchdown early in the second — the PAT was blocked — and was followed up by the play of the game: a 33-yard touchdown run by Malone to push the score to 20-6.

The Michigan State commit who took several carries and caught a pass on Friday, took a handoff behind left tackle and fellow future Spartan Justin Bell. He ran through one defender, side-stepped another while spinning away from contact, took on several more would-be tacklers and proceeded to power himself forward another handful of yards into the end zone.

“I got the ball, and my main goal this whole week of practice, I’ve been running hard,” Malone said. “Like just going straight to the end zone, no matter what. And when I see them holes open, then I got to look in the open field and I hit a couple of moves I got.”

Jadon Ford’s 26-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Petrovitch and an Elijah Goins 1-yard touchdown run in the second half capped off the scoring for Dakota.

Anchor Bay’s offense was handicapped when they determined that starting running back Isaiah Domey, who entered the contest averaging 255 rushing yards per game this season, wasn’t healthy enough to play. It was a lingering injury that he had been dealing with at practice, and after struggling to gain yards in the Tars’ first few series, head coach Mike Giannone decided to pull the plug.

“He’s (Domey’s) our best player,” Giannone said. “And then we got Hanson and LaFear, but they feed off of each other. It was difficult, but that wasn’t the excuse. If we blocked, it still probably wouldn’t have been an issue.”

With that wrinkle out of their offense, it allowed players like Malone and Hamby — who’s also a starting linebacker — to feast.

And while Baur praised his players’ execution, Giannone made sure to give the Cougars coaches their flowers.

“Matt Carley coaches the defensive line extremely well,” Giannone said. “He does a great job with them. And I will tell you, Greg and Jason Baur do a great job of scouting, and they had us down, probably better than we had us down if there is such a thing.

“They do have some good players, but they put them in the right position. I thought Angelo Plouffe called a great game. They’re just hard to stop, and we got to come back. That’s a good football team.”

Watching the Cougars win isn’t new for Giannone — he’s only seeing it from a different perspective. Before the game and at halftime, Dakota honored Giannone and the work he did as Dakota’s former head coach, highlighting specifically the 1999 team which marked the turn of the Cougars’ program from one that was a throwaway to what it is now.

“Greg’s done a great job maintaining the program and adding some things to it,” Giannone said. Having (been) gone nine years, they didn’t miss a beat, probably got even better. Being with the (1999) team meant a lot. It was very special, because they built this program, and a lot of people don’t remember them, but the foundation was laid by these guys when no one wanted to come to Dakota.”

Baur believes that Giannone is on his way to doing the same with Anchor Bay: “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them in late October.”

Dakota improved their season record to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the Macomb Area Conference Red. They’ll take on

The Tars are 2-1 and 0-1 in the Red.

Dakota awaits a date with also-unbeaten Stevenson next week at Runkel Field in Sterling Heights.

Anchor Bay’s bounce-back attempt will take them back on the road to Shelby Township against unbeaten Eisenhower.