 Tiger tourney trophy won’t travel far; Zerlaut collects 3rd MVP
The Tigers hosted the Grant Invitation Saturday. After a delay of over an hour due to wet courts, the hosts got things going quickly and finished the day with 36 points to win the tournament. The doubles teams were all 3-0 on the day taking home the championship medals. Carter Chase and Jed Vanderweide dominated at 1 Dubs while Dustin Slachter and Payton Swinehart served strong to claim the 2 doubles flight and Trent Patton and Diego Krepps vollied their way to gold at 3 doubles. Kyle Bay and Isaac Higgins fired big shots to win the 4 doubles flight. For the second straight year and the third time in his four year career, the top player of the tournament was senior Karlton Zerlaut. Only losing 3 games on the day and winning all 3 matches, Karlton is now 22-1 on the year. Comstock Park finished with 35 points, Coopersville with 29 and Hastings was 4th. Top singles, doubles teams cruise; Hautamaki provides heroics Grant 5 Big Rapids 3. The Grant tennis squad hosted Big Rapids on Thursday. The Tigers dominated the top singles and doubles flights without dropping a single game (6-0 6-0) as Zerlaut and the team of Chase and Vanderweide put up wins. Slachter and Swinehart won at 2 Dubs and Trent and Diego got the point at 3rd doubles. The balance of the match hung on the shoulders of 3rd singles player, Matt Hautamaki. The match was 4-3, with Big Rapids winning at 2 and 4 singles as well as 4 doubles. Hautamaki had won the first set 6-4 and got up a break of serve early in the second set. His opponent fought back to take a 4-3 lead before the senior fought back to go up 5-4 and served out the match at 6-4 to put the deciding point on ice for the Tiger netters.
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 Football Results N3 Sports Team Photos by Alexis Mercer Newaygo 46 Fremont 14 Fremont traveled to Newaygo to face off for their Homecoming game with an early start at 5:00. Braden Benjamin started the scoring for the Lions followed by a fumble recovery by Jacob Jibson to go up 14-0 in the 1st quarter. Benjamin scored again in the 2nd quarter, but Fremont blocked the extra point attempt putting the Lions up 20-0. Cody Andree, Fremont's quarterback kept the ball to run in for a score and the Packers followed with a successful 2 point conversion. Christian Kennedy caught a long pass with only 7 seconds left in the first half to score again but they missed the 2 point conversion this time so went into the locker room with the Lions up 20-14. After crowning the homecoming royalty at half, with Newaygo's Jacob Jibson getting crowned Homecoming King, the Lions had speed in their legs and fire in the QB's arm. It was all Lions the remaining half, scoring 26 more points and not allowing the Packers another chance in the end zone. Fremont's stats show Carter Dunbar with 79 yards rushing, Cody Andree completed 7 passes for 98 yards and a TD, Christian Kennedy caught 3 receptions for 96 yards, and Payten Mansfield and Dennis Zachariah led in tackles.  Grant 33 Tri County 6 Grant’s defense continues to shine. They held Tri-County’s high powered offense to six points on Tri-County’s homecoming. Leading the defensive charge was Jarrett Railling with 12 tackles, including four tackles for loss. The Tri-County’s aerial attack was stymied by an aggressive defensive backfield for the Tigers. Tiger defensive backs tallied five interceptions versus the Vikings. Isiah Powell had two interceptions and seven tackles. Orion Evans also had two interceptions and four tackles. Billy Ostyn had the fifth interception of the night. Brett Long tallied three tackles, including two for loss and a fumble recovery. Offensively the Tigers used the ground and pound philosophy to control the game clock. The offensive line (Reid Williams, Caleb Thompson, Robert Rose, Jarrett Railling, Colin Scholtens) paved the way as the Tigers gained 265 yards rushing. Orion Evans had 99 yards rushing on 19 carries and one touchdown. Brendan Keelan managed the offense contributing 74 yards and a touchdown pass to senior Billy Osytn. Coach Geraghty was proud of the way the Tigers responded in a hostile environment. “The Vikings are a well-coached team, with the potential to beat any given opponent on any Friday night. I was proud of the way the boys responded to adversity. They showed grit tonight”. The Tigers were able to successfully maintain possession of the Hammer, the traveling trophy with Tri-County. The Tigers travel to Fremont to take on the Packers on their Homecoming next Friday night. Reed City 52 Chippewa Hills 24 The Coyotes continued their decade long dominance over the Warriors with a decisive win at home. Central Montcalm 34 Big Rapids 6 The Hornets continue to roll as they took down the Cardinals at home. The win keeps CM on top of the Gold and leaves them a win away from qualifying for the postseason. The Hornets host Chippewa Hills next week. Silver Morley Stanwood 34 Kent City 14 The Mohawks jumped to an early lead only to see the Eagles climb back on top by halftime 16-14. The second half was a different story as MS rolled up 20 points and handed Kent City their second loss of the season. Kent City will play at home next week welcoming in the Hesperia Panthers while the Mohawks face an undefeated Flint Hamady team. The Hawks of FH have outscored opponents 198-12 thus far this season. Lakeview 24 Hesperia 8 Hesperia had to wait until Saturday afternoon to travel to Lakeview for their Homecoming face-off. At halftime Lakeview was up 12-8 but Hesperia couldn't make the second half work in their favor. Trayton McKinnon led the Panthers with 10 tackles. Kaiden Robbins had 3 receptions for 21 yards. Johnny Majersky went 6 for 15 passing with 51 yards and 1 interception. The team ended with 179 yards of total offense, 120 rushing and 59 passing. "Key to the game is when Logan Balkema our four year starter was knocked out of the game, late in the 1st quarter with an ankle injury! Without his presence on BOTH sides of the ball, hurt us tremendously. Our team leader, our leading tackler and our catalyst, lost that early. We played hard and with grit, but not making any excuses, him being out is a HUGE loss for us!" - Hesperia Head Coach Bolles Hesperia moves to 2-3 overall, 2-1 in the CSAA Silver and heads to Kent City to play next Friday. 
Soccer
Late Rios goal knots match Newaygo 1 Fremont 1 The Lions traveled to Fremont Thursday afternoon for a battle between two unbeaten teams in the conference. It was a tight contest throughout with the teams scrapping to a 0-0 tie at the intermission. Fremont finally broke the tie with 5 minutes to play on a David Wachter penalty kick. Newaygo answered with just 2 minutes left in the match on a goal from Francisco Rios and the match ended in a 1-1 deadlock. Newaygo outshot the Packers 8-6. Joe Kortge made 7 saves for the Packers while Matthew Richardson made 5 saves for Newaygo. Fremont moved to 10-3-4 overall and 5-0-2 in the conference while Newaygo moved to 13-1-1 overall and 6-0-1 in the conference giving them first place for the regular season. The conference tournament begins next Monday. Tennis Grant doubles dominance helps deliver win Grant 7 Fremont 1 The Tigers traveled to Fremont and brought home a victory. The Tiger doubles teams swept the host Packers. Dustin Slachter and Payton won at 2D 6-0 6-0. Trent Patton and Diego Krepps got the third doubles win and Kyle Bay and Isaac Higgins were victorious at 4 dubs. The Grant top doubles team, Jed VanderWeide and Carter Chase, won 6-1 6-0. Karlton Zerlaut took the #1 singles match 6-0 6-0. The last two matches on court went almost 2 and 1/2 hours. Riley Holmberg at #2 singles and Matt Hautamaki at #3 singles each went the full 3 sets to outlast Packers Finn Giberson and Parker Vandenberg and both claimed the hard fought victories 6-4 in the final set. Packer netter Joey DeLong remains undefeated in conference play after a 6-1, 6-3 win over Eli Bradley. Volleyball Down to their last point the Pack comes back Fremont 3 Central Montcalm 2 The Packers showed up with heart to grab a huge comeback win over Central Montcalm in conference play. After winning the first set 25-21, Fremont dropped the next two 14-25 and 25-27. Down 16-24 and on the cusp of defeat, the team battled back point by point to win the 4th set 26-24 and force a 5th. With the support of an energetic crowd, the Pack kept the momentum to seal the win at 15-10. The seniors played a huge role with their leadership on and off the court. The setters led in serving and assists with Calla Miller serving 12 points and 17 assists and Carle Bruggema serving 13 points and 16 assists. Rhi Pafford and Natalie Jamieson led in kills with 18 and 12 kills respectively. Defensively Kennedy Christoffersen had a career high of 30 digs and Kaitlynn Bennett pulled up 21 digs. This win brings FPV to a conference record of 2-1. Next home game? Newaygo, October 1st.  By Ken DeLaat Friday is the midway mark of the regular season and the games on tap should give a glimpse at which teams might be heading for a tenth game. Fremont (0-3, 0-4) at Newaygo (2-1, 2-2) The Packers have been vulnerable to early scoring giving up chunks of points before getting on track and the Lions have the kind of buzz in their backfield to make it happen again Friday night. Fremont might be a different team if they didn’t dig quite so big a hole right away, generally on big plays from scrimmage. The past 3 games they’ve watched teams put up 91 points by intermission while scoring just 14. They don’t have an offense designed for coming back from that far behind and in reality unless you have an accurate gunslinger under center and a couple of receiving corps members with sticky hands and acrobatic moves, few teams do. Newaygo is at home and this is one of those rivalries that runs pretty deep. It’s not Newaygo/Grant, mind you. Few in the region come close to that one, but it can get pretty heated whether it’s football, softball, basketball or even tiddlywinks if they each had a tiddlywink team. And they’re playing in Lion country. On homecoming. Grant (1-2, 2-2) at Tri County (1-2, 2-2) The Viking defense held down Lakeview in their opener but so has everyone else. TC rose to the occasion to contain a high octane Cardinal offense but then got pounded by RC and CH yielding 42 and 50 points. The Tigers are not likely to score like the Coyotes and Warriors. They lit up the scoreboard with 37 in the opener against Shelby, a team who in the three games since have yielded 196 points That's 65 points per game. Grant’s offense is better than what they showed last week when the only points on the scoreboard came from the defense. If The Tigers hit on some early big plays like Keelean finding an open Ostyn for a chunk of yardage,it could be a long night for the Vikes. Then, of course there’s the Tiger D. The Grant defense has been stalwart and showed some serious mettle when they shut down Reed City. But the Vikings know how to score and they won’t be afraid to go right at Grant. Both need the win to help with playoff hopes. Chip Hills (2-1, 2-2) at Reed City (2-1, 2-2) The Coyotes have literally owned the Warriors this decade with 10 wins in a row and whether one of the regular season blowouts or the heartbreaking last minute losses in the postseason Chippewa Hills has been unable to solve Reed City. But it’s a new year CH has a new coach and this Warrior team is looking to not only end the streak but also stay in the race for the conference crown and inch a bit closer to the coveted playoff berth. The ‘Yotes have other ideas. They’ve lost a pair of games and don’t possess the firepower of recent years but this team took apart a pretty good Tri County team last week and are not willing to yield the crown yet. Reed City is always a tough trip for visitors. The Canis latrans the school unleashes every season seem to guard their home turf with tenacity year after year and there is a strong fan base who usually turn out in droves. Could be a dogfight. Big Rapids (1-2, 1-3) at Central Montcalm (3-0, 4-0) The Cards are going to put up points so the Hornets will have to put up more. CM seems to be able to rise to the occasion with some tight wins in their first three before cruising to their 4th over the Pack. Might be a bit of track meet here and that could go either way but they’re playing at Stanton and there is some serious spirit surging through the CM area. Formula for win number 5? Stop Maurice Camphor. The Hornets know this and they have a lot of talent on defense. If the Bees win again they are definitely the rabbit in the Gold and would be one win from their first playoff spot since 2014. The Cards win and there will be a logjam atop the conference with 6 teams within a game of each other. Likely to be a fun one to watch. Hesperia (1-0, 2-2) at Lakeview (0-2, 0-4) The Panthers put up the points last time out and have had two weeks of rest with WC off the schedule. They face a Wildcat team that doesn’t score much and gives up points at a rate that reminds one of the current Miami Dolphins. Coach Bolles has players who can get it into the endzone and barring mistakes they should be able to do this more than once or twice on the road Friday night. Holton (0-2, 1-4) Over WC-forfeit Morley Stanwood (2-0, 2-2) at Kent City (1-0, 3-1) Kent City has played two tough games. They beat a good Newaygo team and got stifled by a good Orchard View team. The ‘Hawks two losses came against teams who are thus far, undefeated, including CM’s Hornets and perennial powerhouse Hopkins. They both beat Lakeview but the Eagles cruised and the Mohawks held off a determined Wildcat team to escape with the win A leg up on the Silver chase and a win closer to extended play for the winner. A rougher road for the loser. The Eagles are at home. Definite edge.   Lily Swinehart denies the Big Rapids middle hitter at the net Lions Volleyball Goes To 5 With Big Rapids Story and photos by Alexis Mercer Five games and 205 points scored. The Newaygo Lions faced off against the Big Rapids Cardinals in a CSAA match. It was a hard fought battle from the first whistle. Points were traded back and forth but the Lions lost the first game 25-19. They came back out with a vengeance in the 2nd, going up 12-8, then 20-15 and winning 25-18. The table turned once again in the 3rd, with the Cardinals going up by 5, but then the Lions pulled within one point, only down 9-10. Though down 19-23, the Lions pushed hard in the final moments of the 3rd game to tie it at 23s, but lost 24-26. Newaygo meant business in the 4th game, winning 25-16. The 5th game was as intense as the rest of the night with both teams showing great pride and team effort. The Cardinals prevailed by 3 points, winning 15-12 to claim the overall victory for Big Rapids.      Fremont 7 Tri County: 2 Wachter collects hat trick The Packers hosted the Vikings Tuesday afternoon in a conference matchup. Fremontgot on the board first on a goal from David Wachter. Tri County's Brian Corbett answered just minutes later to knot the game at 1 apiece. The Vikes grabbed the lead on a goal from Caleb Nave but right before the half Riccardo Lapertosa got the equalizer on a pass from Wachter and the teams reached intermission tied at 2. The Packers came out firing in the second half with 5 unanswered goals. Wachter added two more while Carter Moon, Jaxx Miller, Ed Hallberg added single tallies. Unus Opgard and Lapertosa also added single assists. The Packers outshot the Vikings 18-6. Fremont moves to 10-3-3 overall and 6-0-1 in the conference. Tri County dropped to 5-8 overall and 4-3 in the conference. Fremont hosts Newaygo (13-1 overall and 7-0 in conference) on Thursday for the conference regular season title. Fremont 2 Kenowa Hills 2 Long shot by Vissia salvages tie The Packers traveled to Kenowa Hills Monday evening to face the Knights in a non-conference match-up. The game was evenly played throughout and the score at halftime was 0-0. The Knights got on the board first when Elvin Mendez knocked a ball past Packer keeper Joe Kortge. Fremont answered just a few minutes later on a corner kick. Braiden McDonald flicked the ball to Jaxx Miller who dropped it on to Yunus Opgard's foot for the goal. Mendez answered right back with his second goal of the match making it 2-1 in favor of Kenowa Hills. The final goal of the match came off a set play for Fremont. Grant Vissia hit the set play from 40 yards out and it skipped by the keeper and the match ended in a 2-2 tie. Fremont outshot Kenowa 14-7 on the night. Joe Kortge made 5 saves in net for Fremont while Ryan Bart made 12 saves for the Knights. Fremont moves to 9-3-3 on the year and the Knights moved to 5-6-2.
By N3 Sports Soccer Defense helps Pack take Hart Tourney; Velazco, Opgard each net a pair The Fremont boys' soccer team traveled to Hart on Saturday morning to participate in the Hart Soccer Tournament. Fremont went 2-0-1 on the day and ended up winning the tournament. Their first match was against the host school Hart. Fremont won the match 4-0. Anselmo Velazco scored two goals while Jaxx Miller and Riccardo Lapertosa netted one each. Ed Hallberg, Carter Moon and Lane Converse had the three assists. Fremont outshot Hart 6-0. Joe Kortge made the shutout for the Packers. The Packers second match was against the Ravenna Bulldogs. Ravenna went up on Fremont 1-0 in the first half but with five minutes remaining David Wachter scored the equalizer and tied the game 1-1. The game ended 1-1 with Fremont managing 6 shots on frame and the Bulldogs having 1. The tie was enough to move the Packers into the finals against the Shelby Tigers. Fremont took on the Tigers of Shelby in the finals Saturday afternoon. The match was tight at the beginning and at the end of the first half it was knotted at 0-0. The Packers came out strong in the second half netting 3 goals in the final 30 minutes of play. Yunus Opgard scored two goals while Lane Converse added one of his own. Riccard Lapertosa, Carter Moon and David Wachter all assisted on goals. The Packers outshot Shelby 5-1. Joe Kortge made 1 saves for the Packers and claimed the shutout. Fremont moves to 9-3-2 on the season and 5-0-1 in the conference. Tennis Zerlaut sets school mark at Sailor Invite The Tiger tennis team competed in the Sailor Invite Saturday. The Grant squad squared off against mostly D1 and D2 schools in an 8 team tournament finishing with 5 points despite being without their top doubles team. Karlton Zerlaut was the top player in the tournament as the champion at #1 singles flight. He beat Lowell 6-0 6-1, Zeeland West 6-1 6-0 and Byron Center in the finals 6-4 6-4. Karlton now has 77 wins in his high school career, becoming the winningest player in school history. The team got wins from Dustin Slachter and Payton Swinehart at #2 doubles and Kyle and Isaac Higgins at 4 doubles. Trent Patton and Diego Krepps went 3 sets in their final match pushing Lowell to the limit. The other Tigers played well gaining valuable tough match experience. Golf Packers take 3rd at Jamboree and hold onto 2nd place The girls' golf team not only battled a tough Whitefish Lake Golf Course but also sickness as they competed in the 4th of 5 CSAA League Jamborees. The team finished in 3rd place in the event behind Big Rapids and Chippewa Hills. Overall, the Pack is still hanging on to 2nd place in the conference with 3 girls (Katelynne Gerth, Taylor Mulder and Haley Zerlaut) in the running for 1st team all-conference honors. The final CSAA Jamboree will be held October 1st at the Falls of Barber Creek golf club.   CSAA Gold:The Hornets keep buzzing with the Warriors, Lions, and Coyotes close behind. CSAA Silver: Two forfeits and a win for Kent City Central Montcalm 33 Fremont 8 After a pair of first quarter touchdowns by the Hornets, the Packers got on the board when Cody Andree took it in from a yard out then Carter Dunbar followed the TD up by blasting in for the 2 point conversion and Fremont trailed by just 5 at 13-8. But they couldn’t find a way to stop Teague Donazzola. The CM senior followed up his 65 yard run for the opening score with touchdown rushes from 56 and 91 yards out to give the hosts a 27-8 lead at intermission and after a back and forth second half the Hornets emerged with their 4th win of the season to remain atop the standings in the Gold. Donazzola piled up 252 yards on the night while the Packers struggled to move the ball on the ground. Andree took to the air completing 6 passes but the visitors were unable to generate enough offense to get into the endzone again. Christian Kennedy was the recipient of 2 Andree passes for 36 yards while Tristan Marfia gained 42 yards on the ground and Adam Halisinski added 41 more. Payten Mansfield and Denns Zacharias led the defense in tackles. The Packers (0-3, 0-4) will travel to Newaygo (2-1, 2-2) next Friday to face the Lions while the Hornets(3-0, 4-0) host Big Rapids (1-2, 1-3). Chippewa Hills 7 Grant 2 The Tiger defense continues to shine as they held the host Warriors to a single touchdown in Remus Friday night, Unfortunately the defense also provided the visitors with all their scoring putting up a pair of points on a safety, the only time Grant got on the board in a real grinder of a game that went the way of CH. Grant (1-2, 2-2) will be looking to generate a little more offense next Friday when they hit the road again to face Tri County, CH (2-1, 2-2) Reed City 50 Tri County 20 The Coyotes shook off the loss to Grant last week in a big fashion and sent a message that they were not willing to give up the conference crown they have worn for the past 8 years. Reed City put together a dominant performance as they piled on the points against the Vikings with some rugged play in the trenches. Reed City (2-1, 2-2) hosts Chip Hills on Friday while the Vikes (1-2, 2-2) welcome in Grant Kent City 40 Lakeview 0 Hesperia over White Cloud (forfeit) Morley Stanwood over Holton (forfeit)  Photos by Alexis Mercer The Newaygo Lions traveled to Big Rapids to face the Cardinals on Ferris State University's field Friday, September 20. Though the first half lead was back and forth, the Lions took the 6 point advantage going into the locker room and ran with it in the second half, coming out victorious with a score of 49-28.      By N3 sports
What's up in the Gold? The Hornets alone at the top and every other team at 1-1 except for the 0-2 Pack. Holton shows why the numbers game is crucial these days with enough players sidelined with injuries to make it implausible to say nothing of downright impractical to field a competitive team. Kudos to the school for pulling the plug this week and allowing their kids to get a little healthier before, hopefully, taking the field again. The Lions ‘Yotes and Vikes are coming off losses while the Warriors and Cards are finding new life and the Tigers look to build on their takedown of RC in a bruiser of a contest Newaygo at Big Rapids The Lions were the latest to feel the sting of the Hornets last week while the Cards got into the win column and showed some offensive explosiveness with a first quarter outburst against Fremont. Both teams stand at 1-1 in the Gold and a second loss would likely fade away any title aspirations as well as leaving a rough road ahead when it comes to the playoffs. The Lion running game will need to exploit some of the defensive struggles BR has shown while the defense will have to find a way to contain Cardinal Maurice Camphor who had his way in Fremont last week. Oh, and it’s homecoming in Cardinal country. Fremont at Central Montcalm The Hornets have some serious mo going in the early part of the season coming off a winless season and have taken the lead in the Gold as the only undefeated team. They aren’t dominating anyone with a victory margin of just 14 points over all three games but they do enough to win. The Pack finally showed some firepower on offense and played a decent game after the first quarter but they are playing in Stanton and the Bees aways are tough at home. Difference this year is they’re on a roll that isn’t likely to stop just yet. CM has a rugged stretch ahead on the schedule and they don’t need a stumble going into it. The ackers will likely have their hands full here but they could very well make a game of it if they don’t get buried early on. Grant at Chippewa Hills Wow, two teams coming off big wins in a game that has title implications written all over it. Probably the game of the week in the Gold. The Tigers stifled the always potent Reed City squad while the Warriors shook off some early season offensive struggles by finding the end zone 6 times against the Vikings. It’s homecoming in Remus, a time that brings a lot of spirit to the school and headaches for the coach with all the distractions during the week. Coach Geraghty’s team could be forgiven a letdown after the emotional win last week but he will have them ready when they get pile out of the bus after that lengthy ride. The Warriors are looking at a pair of rugged road games after this one. Holton forfeit to Morley Stanwood The Devils are just too banged up to field a team this week. Injuries have decimated Coach Jados’ team and they will try to recover enough to finish the season.They’ll get another week off with White Cloud next on the schedule and see what they can put on the field in two weeks when they will travel to Lakeview. White Cloud forfeit to Hesperia The Panthers will head to Lakeview next week to face the Wildcats and with this forfeit will have the potential of going 3-0 in the Silver should they pull off a road win there. Tri County at Reed City The Vikes fell to a surging CH team last week after a pair of wins to open the season. The Coyotes will not be the best of hosts coming off their first conference loss since their seniors were 7th graders. If TC is indeed a contender they will need to show it here but the points are going to be hard to come by and while the offense of the Yotes is not what it has been in recent years they could do some serious damage if the Viking defense yields the kind of yardage they did last week. Lakeview at Kent City The Cats are 0-3 and are playing in the Eagle aerie this week. Kent City is well rested after a home loss to OV two weeks ago and a forfeit over the Cloud last week. Got a feeling the Eagles will fly to a big win here. |
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