CLARKSTON -- Now it's Stevenson's turn to try to derail Clarkston's Scarlett Express.

Quarterback Tyler Scarlett ran for 225 yards and two touchdowns and passed for 151 yards and another score Friday night to lead unbeaten Clarkston to a 38-14 victory over Dakota in the Division 1 Region 3 championship football game.

Scarlett, who sparked the Wolves to a victory over Romeo in a district final a week earlier, scored on a spectacular 78-yard run, during which he twice appeared to be stopped, as Clarkston outscored Dakota 13-0 in the third quarter to take a 30-14 lead over another Macomb Area Conference Red Division team.

Scarlett, a 6-foot, 190-pound senior, performed better in person than he looked on film, Dakota coach Mike Giannone said.

"I knew he was good, but I didn't realize how good he really was," Giannone said after the Cougars were blanked in the second half by the Oakland Activities Association Red Division champion.

"He's a great football player," Giannone said, continuing his praise of Scarlett. "He can throw it, he can run it. He looks like a competitor. If he sees a crack he makes it into something better. They all know he's their leader and he shows it.

"They've got offensive linemen that aren't huge, but they can get on you. They can do some things. I thought their defensive scheme was good."

Next up for 12-0 Clarkston is 12-0 Stevenson, the MAC Red Division champion, in a state semifinal game that will be played next Saturday at Troy Athens.

It's hard to imagine Scarlett being any better against the Titans than he was against Dakota, which was playing a team from outside the MAC for the first time this season as it fell to 9-3.

"He amazed me tonight," Wolves coach Kurt Richardson said after Clarkston reached a state semifinal for the first time in 10 years.

"That one run was just unbelievable," Richardson said. "His play tonight … running the ball and throwing the ball … he took it to a different level.

"His decision-making tonight was outstanding. He made passes that he had to. He did everything he had to do."

Clarkston held a modest 17-14 at halftime lead but there was a sense the third quarter was going the Wolves' way even before CHS kicked off to the Cougars.

Dakota was penalized 15 yards for arriving late to the field to start the third quarter, an infraction that Giannone blamed on Clarkston athletic director Dan Fife, who also is the school's boys basketball coach.

"I would have to say that that was the athletic director's fault from Clarkston," said Giannone, who also has been a part of the basketball coaching staff at Dakota. "That would never happen in a basketball game, I can tell you that much."

Clarkston went on long drives for all of its touchdowns. The Wolves' marches covered 80, 80, 83, 99 and 79 yards against a defense that allowed an average of 10.4 points per game through the first 11 contests.

Perhaps the most damaging Clarkston drive was the longest. Taking over at their own one and leading 24-14, the Wolves started with a three-yard run by Max Collins and a 19-yard run by Dakota Bender.

Then, after Scarlett was thrown for a two-yard loss on a run play and threw an incompletion on second down, the Clarkston quarterback took off on a tackle-breaking, field-reversing touchdown run that covered 78 yards and pushed the Wolves' lead to 30-14 with 2:21 left in the third quarter.

Earlier in the third, Scarlett and P.J. Lannon teamed on a 65-yard pass and run play to the Cougars' one, from which Scarlett scored on a sneak.

Scarlett threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Dustin Gamble, Bender ran three yards for a score and Brian Benway kicked a 33-yard field goal for Clarkston's first-half points.

Running back Brandon Hughes scored both of Dakota's touchdowns, on a 20-yard pass from junior quarterback Mark Morris and on a four-yard run. Morris, harassed much of the game by a variety of Clarkston blitz schemes, completed 14 of 23 passes for 160 yards.

The game drew a crowd of more than 5,000, a Clarkston athletic official said