Hastings 14, Jackson Lumen Christi 13
The Saxons finally topped the Titans Friday.
Hastings varsity football team scored its first ever victory over Jackson Lumen Christi by a score of 14-13 Friday night in Jackson.
The Saxons scored the only points of the second half to dig out of a 13-0 hole and earn the one-point victory.
Hastings went for the win following Keegan Olson's 24-yard touchdown run with 79 seconds to play in the fourth quarter Friday. Dan Harp ran in the two-point try to give the Saxons the lead.
Corbin Ulrich dashed the Titans' hopes of a hail Mary in the final minute by intercepting the first pass of their ensuing drive.
Lumen Christi scored two touchdowns in the second quarter, including one on an 85-yard run to build a 13-0 halftime lead.
Hastings took the second half kickoff, which TJ Russell returned 19 yards to the Titans' 43-yard line, and then went 43 yards on nine plays to the end zone. Mason Denton tossed a 16-yard touchdown pass to Kaiden Shumway for their team's first points of the evening.
Shumway's extra-point kick was no good, leaving the Saxons down 13-6.
The score stayed that way for the final 8:42 of the third quarter and the first 10:41 of the fourth quarter.
Lumen Christi only had two offensive possessions in the second half before the Saxons took the lead and the Saxon defense forced a punt both times. Ulrich had a big play on the Titans' third quarter possession too, a sack which pushed the Titans back after they'd driven as deep as the Saxon 37-yard-line.
Both teams were just shy of 300 yards of total offense.
Harp led the Saxon attack, rushing 15 times for 97 yards. Russell had 16 rushes for 87 yards and Olson ran 13 times for 64 yards.
Denton was 2-of-5 passing for 37 yards.
Robby Slaughter led the Saxon defense with 8.5 tackles and Ulrich had 8. Evan Eastman contributed 7.5 tackles. Ulrich, Eastman, Russell and Kyler Madden each had a sack.
The Saxons were 0-5 all-time against the Titans coming into the night, with the Lumen Christi team scoring a 31-0 win in 1975 and then winning the two program's four Interstate-8 Athletic Conference match-ups the last four years by an average of 26 points.
The Saxons host Pennfield for Senior Night Oct. 2.
Delton Kellogg 46, Galesburg-Augusta 6
The first bounce went to the Rams, but the rest of them went the Panthers' way Friday night.
The Galesburg-Augusta varsity football team recovered an on-side kick and marched down to the Delton Kellogg goal-line before a fourth-and-goal pass fell incomplete. The Panthers took over on downs and soon running back Bradley Bunch was busting through the middle for a 78-yard touchdown.
Bunch also picked off a tipped pass at the goal-line to prevent a Ram score in the second quarter, and the Panthers benefitted from three other Galesburg-Augusta turnovers. The Panthers went on to a 46-6 victory over the host Rams to open play in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Valley Division.
The Rams did march back down the field on their second drive of the game as well, tying up the ballgame at 6-6, but G-A never found an answer to the Panthers' Wing-T attack.
Vincent Quick put the Panthers back in front 12-6 with a four-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter and the route was on. Quick added a six-yard touchdown run after the Delton Kellogg defense got a stop.
Bunch's interception ended the next Galesburg-Augusta scoring threat. The first drive of the second half for the Rams was thwarted on its first play, an interception by the Panthers' Ricky Ramsey. Delton Kellogg also recovered two Ram fumbles in the second half.
Bunch added a 32-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, a touchdown followed by a two-point pass from Belew to Cole Pape. Richard Doorlag also scored on a 30-yard run, Corey Moore scored on a 45-yard run and Philip Holcomb on an 8-yard run in the second half for the Panthers.
As a team the Panthers totaled 533 yards rushing on the evening, with Bunch carrying the ball 12 times for 202 yards. Moore had five rushes for 81 yards and Quick carried it eight time for 61 yard. Four other guys had at least 30 yards rushing for Delton Kellogg. Quarterback Payton Smoczynski was 1-of-2 passing for 12 yards to Pape.
Bunch also had a team-high four solo tackles.
Maple Valley 44, Gobles 8
“It has been a good day,” said Maple Valley varsity football coach Marty Martin a few times as the stadium at Maple Valley High School cleared out Friday evening.
Winning will make you feel that way.
The Maple Valley varsity 8-player football team scored its first victory of the season, 44-8 over visiting Gobles. The Lions putting the running clock in motion against the Tigers with a 21-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Blaze Sensiba a few minuets into the second half.
Sensiba rushed for two touchdowns, Hugheston Heckathorn ran for three touchdowns, David Hosack-Frizzell added a short TD run on the opening play of the fourth quarter, and Heckathorn also teamed up with fellow defender Reese Proctor-Burhans to score a safety for the Lions in the opening quarter.
“I was really proud of how our kids responded. Last week was a week of adversity and we just did not respond well when we got down (against Whittemore-Prescott) even though we came out really well at the beginning of the game last week.
“Tonight you could tell we had energy. You could tell we had drive. You could tell the kids were having fun. When we are having fun, these kids really enjoy each other's company. You could see that tonight. That is what we need to do. That is how we need to play the rest of our season.”
The Tigers appeared to have less and less energy as the evening wore on. The Lion lines pushed the short-handed Gobles team around. Gobles is playing its first season of 8-player football, a program which had success similar to the Lions' before some lean years. Between 1998 and 2016 the Tigers qualified for the state playoffs 15 times.
Gobles only had 11 available players Friday, and at times it seemed the defense could have have used those three extra guys to help bring down Heckathorn. He rushed the ball 16 times for 124 yards. He had touchdown runs of three, two and 33 yards. All three came in the first half, with the 33-yarder one of the highlights of the night as he ran through tackler after tackler and eventually shrugged off the the final Gobles defender with a strong right arm at about the 15-yard-line.
“They were getting off the ball,” Martin said of his linemen. “Last week we didn't get off the ball on both sides of the ball. Tonight you could see we got off the ball on both sides. Dillon Jorgenson did an awesome job of not just blocking for Hugheston, but popping those traps, catching passes out of the backfield and really had a good night. [Quarterback] Blaze [Sensiba] agin did a tremendous job of leading us and making good decisions. Our offensive line really did a nice job tonight early in the game of getting off the ball and making sure they were on their double-teams.”
Jorgenson rushed 12 times for 88 yards and Sensiba had 11 rushes for 45 yards. Sensiba completed 2-of-4 passes for 34 yards, with Jorgenson catching one 13-yard reception and Proctor-Burhans hauling in a 21-yard catch.
Sensiba's pass to Proctor-Burhans put the Lions at the Tigers' one-yard-line with a little over four minutes to play in the opening quarter and the Lion quarterback plowed into the end zone from there to finish off his team's first offensive drive of the night.
With a year of running the Lions' offense on the varsity level under his belt, Sensiba is being asked to do more by the coaching staff this fall.
“When we're at the line of scrimmage he not only is calling an offensive play, but he is also calling which way we're running it depending on how the defense aligns,” coach Martin said. “If the defense shifts and we're still early in our count he is flipping it to another play. Really he is making good decisions, but also you have to give credit to the rest of our kids. This is the first time we're able to think like that, where we're able to make adjustments mid-play.”
The Lion head coach said offensive coordinator Jeff Fisher and and Sensiba did a great job of working together in the offseason to create some symmetry in their way of thinking.
As a team, the Lions rushed for 291 yards on the night, and outgained the Tigers 325 yards to 98.
Gobles managed 81 yards on the ground and just 17 through the air, but Gobles quarterback Kevin Heard did have some open receivers throughout the evening but just had trouble connecting. He was just 2-of-15 passing.
Heard led the Tigers on the ground with 17 rushes for 53 yards.
The Lion defense got eight tackles from Jessy Deppe, who had three sacks on the night.
A penalty on the kick return for the Tigers following Sensiba's opening touchdown pushed them back near their own goal-line, and Heckathorn and Proctor-Burhans met at Heard in the backfield on the Tigers' very next play from scrimmage – bringing him down for the safety that put the Lions up 10-0 at the time.
It was 16-0 at the end of one quarter and 30-0 at the half.
Heckathorn added two two-point runs on the night and Owen Bailey booted two extra-point kicks for the Lions.
The Lions are now 1-1 this season. They will be on the road at Martin Friday.
Grand Rapids Catholic Central 50, Thornapple Kellogg 7
The Trojans can look forward to a game on their turf now.
Back-to-back road contests against Cedar Springs and Grand Rapids Catholic Central were a tough way to open the season for the Thornapple Kellogg varsity football team. The Trojans fell to 0-2 on the season with a 50-7 loss at the home of the Catholic Central Cougars Friday.
The Cougars, the defending Division 4 State Champions, got three touchdown passes from quarterback Joey Silveri, scored two defensive touchdowns and got a pair of touchdown runs by Nick Hollern to earn the win.
The Trojans turned the ball over four times in the ballgame, losing four fumbles two of which were returned for Cougar touchdowns.
TK's lone score came on a seven-yard touchdown run by quarterback Reese Garbrecht with 3:20 to play before the half. The touchdown pulled TK to within 15-7 at the time after Mitchell Middleton's extra-point kick.
Catholic Central tacked on two more touchdowns in the final two minutes of the first half to push its lead to 29-7 though.
Middleton led the TK offense with 17 rushes for 44 yards. Dylan Jousma chipped in three carries for 23 yards. Jake DeJong had one 15-yard reception for TK, on the lone pass attempt by Garbrecht.
Ryan Holmes led thE TK defense with 6.5 tackles and Alex Bonnema had six.
Silveri was 11-of-17 passing for 197 yards and rushed seven times for 53 yards. Hollern scored his two touchdowns while rushing nine times for 22 yards. Catholic Central receiver Jace Williams had five catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns and John Passinault hauled in three receptions for 45 yards and a touchdown for the Cougars.
The 0-2 Trojans will host Wayland Union Friday (Oct. 2).
Madison Heights Bishop Foley Catholic 21, Lakewood 6
The Vikings are going to work on putting two full halves together in the week ahead.
A strong start powered the Lakewood varsity football team to a win at Perry in week one. The Vikings finished well in week two, but didn't do enough early on to keep pace with Madison Heights Bishop Foley Catholic in the first game on Unity Field at Lakewood High School this season.
The Ventures bested the Lakewood varsity football team 21-6 Friday night (Sept. 25).
“We put the ball on the ground a couple times. We won the turnover battle this week, but we're not finishing our drives right now,” Lakewood head coach Matt Markwart said. “We've just got to finish. We're making some mental errors. The first half we didn't come out and play. The second half we came out and played. It is a totally different game at that point.”
The Lakewood offense had a couple miscues in the backfield. The Lakewood defense took a little too long to adapt to the Ventures' no-huddle attack.
Lakewood led the ballgame 6-0 after a three-yard touchdown run by Denny Sauers on its first drive of the ballgame, but Bishop Foley answered right back to take a 7-6 lead in the first quarter and then tacked on two more touchdowns before the half.
An interception ended one Lakewood drive in the first half and the Vikings fumbled the ball away inside the Bishop Foley 20-yard-line once early in the second half.
Lakewood managed to get three take aways with Sauers intercepting two Bishop Foley passes and Garrett Stank picking off one.
Lakewood quarterback Jayce Hanson was 5-of-15 passing for 62 yards and rushed nine times for 57 yards. Sauers had 11 rushes for 57 yards, Stank rushed 12 times for 48 yards and Sawyer Stoepker had nine carries for 43 yards.
Nick Helt added two receptions for 44 yards for the Vikings and Miseal Mendez had three catches for 18 yards.
While the rushing load was balanced among the backs, so were the tackles among the Viking defensive front. Markwart said he had a handful of guys with four or five tackles in the ballgame. Tackling was an issue for the Vikings in the first half.
“They probably, in the first three quarters of the game, only ran the ball maybe four times. They were just flinging it all over, running screens and running different things. We were playing it well. They found a mismatch and took advantage of it on the first touchdown that they had. We weren't over the top like we were supposed to, so they found that and got us on the first one. They were just flinging the ball around and making us chase and we were missing when we were tackling. We'd hit them for losses and we'd miss them and wouldn't take them down and then they'd get five yard gains after the caught it. They just threw their little screens behind the line and made us chase all over the place and we weren't tackling that well.”
“They had some elusive players. They had some kids that could cut and juke and do some things who were a little more athletic than the kids we played last week. That is still not an excuse for not tackling well. We can fix that, and we did. We fixed it in the second half. We shut them down in the second half.”
The Vikings will be home again next Friday to face Greater Lansing Activities Conference foe Stockbridge.
Rockford 49, Caledonia 7
Caledonia had three turnovers Friday, the last of which was an interception that Rockford defender Caleb Beach returned 24 yards for a touchdown to seal the Rams' 49-7 win over the Fighting Scots.
Caledonia falls to 1-1 in the OK Red Conference with the defeat.
Rockford quarterback Zak Ahern rushed seven times for 52 yards and a touchdown and threw for 187 yards and three more scores as his team improved to 2-0 on the season.
The Rams scored a one-point win over Jenison in week one of the 2020 season. The Caledonia varsity will be at Jenison Oct. 2 to play its first road game of the season.
The Caledonia offense couldn't get much going against the Rams. Rockford held all-state running back Carson VanderHoff to 66 yards on 19 rushes. The Scots had just 76 yards rushing as a team.
Sophomore quarterback Mason McKenzie was 11-of-23 passing for 95 yards, one touchdown and one interception for the Scots.
Caledonia got its lone touchdown late in the first quarter on an 18-yard pass from McKenzie to Justice Reed. Paul Voegler's extra-point kick tied the game at seven, but that score didn't stand for long.
Rockford took the lead back on a 74-yard touchdown pass from Ahern to Calvin Kibbe 15 seconds later. Ahern also had touchdown passes of 26 and ten yards on the night. The 26-yarder was to Caden Currie eight minutes into the ballgame.
Rockford also got a 35-yard touchdown run from Ethan Nash and a three-yard touchdown run by Jacob Vega.