Does Dakota’s Brady Hamby ever get tired?

“No,” he said. And his coaches never tire of him.

“He never gets tired,” echoed Dakota offensive coordinator Angelo Plouffe.

And from Dakota head coach Greg Baur: “He’s a player of the year candidate, in my opinion.

“I know there’s a lot of guys out there with five stars and a lot of offers, but if you want to win a football game, you want that kid on your team.”

On Friday, Nov. 8, Baur and Dakota wanted to win a football game — and behind a 32 carry, 175 yard and four touchdown two-way performance by Hamby, they managed to take out the Eisenhower Eagles 41-14 to secure a Division 1 district championship.

“The coaches put a lot of trust in me, and I thank them for that,” Hamby said. “And I just run the ball as hard as I can every single play.”

Friday’s game between the Cougars and Eagles was more than the average district championship game — on top of the obvious elimination factor, the two had played a tooth-and-nail Macomb Area Conference game earlier this season, which went to the Eagles, 21-14 at Swinehart Field on Oct. 11.

So when Ike’s Braylon Burnside intercepted Dakota’s Jadon Ford and returned the pass for a touchdown on the first play of the game on Friday, the Cougars could have started to panic.

“We talked in the locker room about adversity and it hit (on the) first play of the game,” Baur said. “We fought through it, and that’s what we had to do. But I trust our quarterback, I trust our team, and it just shows the resolve we had to come back from that. A lot of other teams would have put their heads down. We didn’t.”

They answered with a 50-yard bomb from Ford to Chase Thornton to get downfield, and Hamby’s first touchdown — he scored on rushes of 3, 1, 1 and 4 — tied the game.

Hamby’s second score put the Cougars up 14-7, and on the Eagles’ next play from scrimmage, quarterback Jack Bullock’s option pitch hit the turf and was scooped-and-scored by Dakota’s Logan Critesser, suddenly making a 7-7 game 20-7 after a missed PAT.

Bullock ran in a 2-yard touchdown before halftime, putting Ike down 20-14 heading into the break with them getting the ball back out of halftime.

But two punts, two interceptions by Bullock — both to Dominic VanVliet — and a three-and-out in the second half juxtaposed with three Dakota rushing touchdowns (two by Hamby, one by Dimari Malone) on four drives made for a lopsided second half.

“The second half, they stuck with their run and pounded us,” said Eisenhower head coach Chris Smith. “And you know, we couldn’t stop them. Defensively and offensively, we were on the field too much on defense, because offensively, we turned the ball over after a couple plays right away. So just, you know, all the things in the second half just kind of broke down on us.”

Turnovers were the difference in Eisenhower’s win over Dakota in October — something that the Cougars knew was going to be vital again in their playoff rematch.

“If you can get turnovers, you can win a lot of games, especially playoff games,” Baur said. “We were preaching, ‘don’t turn it over,’ and we turned it over on the first play, but we also were preaching ‘take it away.’ And we got a few takeaways tonight, one for a touchdown, so kind of equaled out.”

Baur said that they didn’t use the revenge against Eisenhower angle too much during the week, saying that, once the game starts, it all goes out the window.

But for Hamby and the Cougar players, the win did feel a little bit sweeter considering the opponent.

“We needed this game,” Hamby said. “They beat us two years in a row, and we needed this game.”

The loss ends Eisenhower’s season with an 8-3 record and a co-MAC Red championship, which they split with Dakota.

“This group has won two MAC Red championships,” Smith said. “So this senior group has really accomplished more than most Eisenhower groups have in the past 20 years. So they’ve really done a great job.”

Dakota will be back at home on Friday, Nov. 15 for a box office regional final duel against the Cass Tech Technicians (9-2), who have blown out both Stevenson (41-) and Dearborn (42-7) in the early rounds.

“Our defense is pretty darn good,” Baur said, “and now we’re going to be tested with another really good team next week, but I like our chances.”