Hastings 37, Pennfield 14
The Saxon offense compiled over 400 yard rushing and the Saxon defense shut out the Pennfield Panthers in the second half Friday.
The Hastings varsity football team improved to 2-1 on the season with a 37-14 win over visiting Pennfield in Interstate-8 Athletic Conference play.
Saxon backs TJ Russell and Keegan Olson each surpassed the 100-yard mark. Russel had 19 rushes for 177 yards and three touchdowns. Olson carried the ball 14 times for 11 yards. The Saxons also got 12 carries for 84 yards from Dan Harp.
Hastings quarterback Mason Denton added two rushing touchdowns of his own.
Denton had two short touchdown runs in the second quarter to turn an 8-6 Saxon lead into a 22-6 advantage.
Russell scored the game's opening points on an eight-yard touchdown run, and then added the two-point conversion himself.
Pennfield answered with a three-yard touchdown run by Cody Hultink before the end of the quarter to get within 8-6.
The Panthers managed to answer the two Denton touchdowns with one of their own in the final minute of the first half. Ryne Petersen scored on a four-yard run to make it an eight-point ballgame at the half with the help of a two point pass from Petersen to Luke Davis.
Russell touchdown runs of 13 yards and 28 yards were the only touchdowns of the second half. Harp added a two-point run after Russell's third quarter TD run, and Kaiden Shumway followed Russell's final score with an extra-point kick.
Robby Slaughter led the Saxon defense with nine total tackles. Russell had 6.5 tackles and Zach Perry and Drew Gleeson had 3.5 tackles each. Russell made three tackles in the Panther backfield in the contest.
Hastings' Matt Thompson and Collin Livingston each intercepted a Petersen pass in the fourth quarter.
Petersen was 12-of-25 passing for 196 yards, and he also led the Pennfield defense with ten tackles. Hultink was Pennfield's leading rusher, carrying the ball eight times for 23 yards. Luke Davis had five receptions for 69 yards for Pennfield and Shawn Gardner hauled in two grabs for 54 yards.
Hastings goes on the road to face Jackson Northwest next Friday.
Thornapple Kellogg 42, Wayland 28
There were times when things looked better on the scoreboard than they did on the field, but the Thornapple Kellogg varsity football team scored its first victory of the season in its first home game Friday.
The Trojans improved to 1-2 in the OK Gold Conference this fall with a 42-28 win over visiting Wayland, their third consecutive victory over the Wildcats.
Thornapple Kellogg scored a touchdown at the end of each of its first four possessions. The Trojan defense forced two punts, a turnover on downs and Matthew Middleton picked off a Wildcat pass on Wayland's first four offensive possessions.
On the Trojans' first snap after Middleton's interception, Trojan senior quarterback Reese Garbrecht connected with senior Alex Bonnema on a 45-yard touchdown pass to push the Trojan lead to 28-0.
The Wildcats got within two touchdowns a couple of times in the second half as the Trojans lost a pair of fumbles and were flagged 11 times for 115 yards including a handful of 15-yard personal foul infractions. That was the difference between playing with a running clock and playing under a little pressure.
Garbrecht completed his only two pass attempts for 54 yards and the one touchdown and also did a masterful job of running his team's triple option offense on the night. He rushed for one score himself. Mitchell
Middleton, the Trojan fullback, had a team high 15 rushes for 203 yards and a touchdown. Ryan Holmes added ten carries for 123 yards and three scores. Samuel McKeown chipped in seven rushes for 88 yards.
Garbrecht drew some gasps from the sideline and the parents in the stands when he fired a pitch to his left after charging a few yards upfield on the first play of a Trojan drive that started at their own 19-yard-line with a little over six minutes to go in the game. The ball fluttered into the arms of McKeown who kept charging ahead for a 24-yard gain. After a couple Garbrect runs and a handful by Mitchell Middleton the Trojans were in the end zone for the final time on the night – extending their lead to 42-21 on a one-yard run by the Trojan fullback.
Garbrecht said confidence in the pitch was key to his own success this week.
“He is growing every week,” TK head coach Jeff Dock said of Garbrecht. “We ran all three phases of it. When you can run all three phases of the triple, that's good stuff. I was proud of all of them on how they competed, even when it started getting a little edgy, everyone kind of regrouped and got back to execution. That was good.”
TK got a five-yard touchdown run from Holmes and a one-yard TD run from Garbrecht in the opening quarter to take a 14-0 lead. Holmes added a 12-yard touchdown run a minute and a half into the second quarter to extend the Trojan lead to 21-0.
Bonnema's touchdown made it a four touchdown lead for TK, but the Wildcats got some life on their final drive. A pass interference penalty and three personal foul penalties against the Trojans helped the Wildcats put together a 65-yard drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Justin Holtz with two seconds to go in the first half.
Holtz also finsihed off the Wildcats' first drive of the second half with a 15-yard touchdown run after a Trojan fumble gave his team the ball at midfield.
Holmes answered for TK three plays alter with a 55-yard touchdown run. He took his time following McKeown up the right side. McKeown leveled one defender with a block and Holmes stepped through the tackle of another as he crossed over the 20-yard-line on his way in for the score.
Wayland back-up quarterback Dustin Loomans filled in for a shaken up Holtz momentarily on the Wildcats' ensuing drive, scoring on a one-yard run up the middle to get his team within 35-21 with 2:43 to go in the third quarter.
The Wildcats blocked a Mitchell Middleton field goal attempt after a long drive early in the fourth quarter, but the Trojan defense forced a quick punt and the TK offense went back the other way quickly thanks to Middleton who broke loose for a 45 yard run to the Wildcat one-yard-line and then scored from a yard out on the next play with 3:16 to go in the fourth quarter.
Wayland tacked on a six-yard touchdown pass from Holtz to Dustin Simmons with 1:49 to go in the game, but the Wildcats narrowly missed recovering an on-side kick and the Trojans were kneeled out the victory.
“It was great to get us back on track to what we want the season to be,” Garbrecht said. “We already have the automatic spot in the playoffs, but we'd like to get a little further than we have been in recent years.”
The Wildcat quarterback, Holtz, found a little more room to run in the second half against the Trojan defense. He finished the night with 24 rushes for 93 yards and two touchdowns. He also connected on 15-of-28 pass attempts for 188 yards and a touchdown. Simmons had five receptions for 93 yards.
Holmes led the TK defense with 8.5 tackles. Bonnema had seven and Carsen Burbridge had five tackles.
Lakewood 42, Stockbridge 26
Nick Helt returned the opening kickoff 72 yards for a touchdown and things kept going right for the Lakewood varsity football team Friday night at Stockbridge.
The Lakewood team improved to 2-1 overall this season and 2-0 in the Greater Lansing Activities Conference with a 42-26 win over the host Panthers.
The Vikings built a 22-0 lead and had a 22-6 advantage at the half. Lakewood had a double digit advantage throughout the entire second half.
“We finished drives tonight,” Lakewood head coach Matt Markwart said. “In the past we didn't. We did have two early on we didn't finish, inside the 20, after that we started finishing drives. We responded after they scored. We'd score right away on the next play. Our kids stepped up to the adversity.”
Garrett Stank rushed 15 times for 173 yards and two touchdowns in the ballgame. He scored on a 50-yard run quickly after Stockbridge scored the opening touchdown of the second half.
The Vikings also got touchdown runs from Sawyer Stoepker, Brent Sweet and Denny Sauers. Stoepker had six rushes for 62 yards in the game. Sweet rushed nine times for 58 yards. Sauers had seven carries for 43 yards.
“We started opening the holes, getting to our assignments, didn't make the little mistakes when we were moving the ball,” Markwart said of the offensive improvements Friday. “We started getting to our blocks and started getting to the backers.”
Defensively, things went pretty much as planned for the Vikings. The defensive ends were able to contain the Panther QB for much of the evening. Lakewood wanted him to throw and and paid off to the tune of five interceptions.
Stoepker led the way with three of them. He also forced a fumble. Stank and Helt had the Vikings' other interceptions. Sweet picked up the fumble Stoepker forced. Markwart thought his team could have had as many as nine interceptions.
Markwart said most of his defensive backs who have had him as a high school football coach now for four years hear it a lot, “if you get deep they throw you presents.”
“They had a good running quarterback and we wanted to keep him in the box and make him throw the ball. We knew we had a good chance of picking him off,” Markwart said.
He added, “our guys are fast, can close on the ball and they do their jobs really well. That's the biggest thing.
They're in position. They still make mistakes, but there are very few of them. They really do their jobs.”
Nathan Willette had a team-high eight tackles for the Viking defense.
Next up for the Vikings is the annual battle for the Greater Lansing Activities Conference lead with rival Olivet. The Eagles play host Oct. 9. They are currently 2-0 in the GLAC as well, and 3-0 overall after a 28-14 non-conference win over visiting Charlotte Friday (Oct. 2).
Martin 64, Maple Valley 18
The Lions were six inches short at the end of the first half, and wound up suffering through a long second half.
The Martin varsity 8-player football team scored a 64-18 win over visiting Maple Valley Friday night, dropping the Lions' record to 1-2 on the season.
Maple Valley led the ball game 6-0 and a after a few big plays by the Clippers still had the chance to go into the half tied at 20-20, but had a fourth-and-goal run come up just shy of the goal-line. As injuries mounted in the second half the Lions couldn't slow down the Martin attack.
The Clippers outscored the Lions 44-6 over the final two quarters.
Even missing time because of an injury, Lion running back Hugheston Heckathorn managed 27 carries for 123 yards and two touchdowns. Those touchdowns both came in the first half, on runs of five and nine yards.
Heckathorn's five-yard touchdown run capped a nice, long opening drive for the Lions and put his team ahead 6-0 five minutes into the ballgame.
The lead didn't last. Martin's Karter Ribble returned the Lions' ensuing kick 73 yards for a touchdown and then the Clippers got another quick score on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Gabe Meyers to Charley Martin.
Heckathorn's second touchdown run, fourth minutes into the second quarter, pulled the Lions within 13-12 at the time.
Martin had an answer again though, getting a 20-yard touchdown run by Brayden Eckman minutes later go to ahead 20-12 – a lead that lasted into the third quarter.
“We were picking blitzes and getting off the ball,” Lion head coach Marty Martin said of the first half effort. “Blaze did a masterful job of doing what he is supposed to do and Hugheston was doing what he was supposed to do. We did a nice job of keeping them off balance. We were wearing on them. There were times in the first half where they were subbing people in because we were wearing on them.”
In the end it was the Lions who were worn down. Martin said his team lost a defensive end to an injury, then a linebacker, then the back-up linebacker, and then another end.
The Clippers got a 63-yard touchdown pass form Meyers to JR Hildebrandt, a 10-yard touchdown run by Eckman, a 62-yard touchdown run by Meyers, a 35-yard touchdown run by Tuinstra and a 15-yard touchdown run by Bryce Robinson in the second half.
Jessy Deppe picked up a Martin fumble to start the second half, but the Lions couldn't cut into the Clipper lead at the time. Deppe also picked up a Lion fumble later in that third quarter. Tyler Rose broke loose on a 21-yard run only to lose his grip on the football. Deppe scooped it up and ran 55 yards for a touchdown – his team's only touchdown of the second half.
Martin outgained the Lions 530 yards to 300 in the ballgame. Meyers had eight rushes for 102 yards to go with 83 yards passing. The Clippers also had Tuinstra rush four times for 93 yards and three times for 87 yards.
The Lions got four carries for 46 yards from Amon Smith and 14 rushes by quarterback Blaze Sensiba for 46 yards. Deppe led the Lion defense with eight tackles. Smith and Sensiba had three each.
“I was proud of the kids,” coach Martin said. “They didn't ever stop fighting.”
The Lions will play host to another tough foe, Merrill, Oct. 9. Coach Martin sees Merrill as a big, physical ball club, kind of like the Whittemore-Prescott team the Lions faced in the first weekend of the season.
Jenison 28, Caledonia 14
Jenison outgained the Caledonia varsity football team by more than 200 yards on the ground and ground its way to a 28-14 win over the visiting Fighting Scots Friday.
The Wildcats had three guys go over 60 yards rushing on the night, including Kaden Bucholz who had 16 carries for 90 yards and Caleb Dean who had six carries for 64 yards and two touchdowns.
Jenison quarterback Jaden Vandalsen also rushed 22 times for 67 yards and a touchdown while completing two passes for 71 total yards and another touchdown.
The Wildcats never trailed in the ballgame. They built a 21-7 lead midway through the third quarter on Vandalsen's 64-yard touchdown pass to Dean. Dean already had a 21-yard touchdown run in the closing minutes of the first half, and he added a seven-yard touchdown run with 7:34 to go in the ballgame.
Vandalsen scored the first points of the game on a three-yard touchdown run ten minutes into the contest.
Caledonia sophomore pulled his team back to even with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Nicholas Fox with 5:33 to go in the first half, but Jenison answered right back with Dean's first TD run to go into the half up 14-7.
Jenison kicker Nate Ross was a perfect four-for-four on his extra-point kicks. Caledonia kicker Paul Voegler hit both of his P.A.T.s.
Carson VanderHoff got the Scots back within a touchdown by scoring on an eight-yard run with 1:28 to go in the third quarter.
VanderHoff finished the night with 21 rushes for 74 yards. McKenzie was 15-of-29 passing for 176 yards. He was intercepted once. Justice Reed had a team-high six receptions for 25 yards. Fox had four catches for 81 yards.
Caledonia will play host to Hudsonville Oct. 9.
Lawton 31, Delton Kellogg 7
Lawton intercepted the Panthers twice in the second half as it shut out the Delton Kellogg varsity football team over the final two quarters Friday to score a 31-7 Southwestern Athletic Conference Valley Division win in Delton.
Carter Cosby had touchdown runs of four and 13 yards for the Blue Devils, and Landon Motter and Jake Rueff each had a short touchdown run as their team dropped the Delton Kellogg team to 1-2 overall this season.
Lawton got the first big bounce of the game, recovering an on-side kick on the opening kickoff, but the Panthers' Vinnie Quick managed to thwart that Blue Devil drive with an interception.
The game was scoreless until the two teams began trading touchdowns late in the half. Hunter Belew pulled the Panthers back even with a four-yard touchdown run that was accompanied by an extra-point kick from Gavin Houtkooper.
The Lawton defense ended two Delton Kellogg drives with interceptions in the second half, forced the Panthers to punt once and got a turnover on downs. DK had five possessions in the second half. The last one ended in the clock running out.
Blue Devil kicker Ethan O'Donnel was a perfect 4-of-4 on extra-point kicks and added a 23-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter.
Belew and Caden Ferris had three tackles each for Delton Kellogg, with each guy recording a sack.