Lions. Pack, Cloud, Tigers go down; Panthers ice Devils Comstock Park 43 Newaygo 12 After a potential scoring drive came to an end deep in Panther territory the visitors pushed into Lion territory and booted a field goal to open the scoring. The teams then exchanged touchdowns before the half and hit intermission with the Panthers holding a 9-3 edge. The second half saw Park take charge as they followed up a score with a pick 6. A Lion fumble gave CP good field position for another score but Isaiah Lopez snared an interception to get the ball back. Unfortunately they turned it over on the next play and Park was able to spin the turnover into another score and suddenly it was 37-6. Comstock Park wrapped up the scoring with a 4th quarter TD and the Lions finished the season with their 4th loss in a row. Blake Kerr led the team with 65 rushing yards 95 passing yards and a passing TD while Dylan Bazzett had 9 catches for 85 yards and two TDs, one from Kerr and the other from Harkness. Defensively the Lions were led by Grant Harkness with 7 tackles and Isaiah Lopez had 6 tackles with an interception, forced fumble, and a pass break up. Newaygo ended the season with a 2-7 mark. Manistee 35 Fremont 6
The season finale with a shot at finishing with a winning record and Homecoming to boot. But the playoff bound Chips came in with other ideas. The visitors doubled up the Packers in total yardage and offensive plays while tripling their hosts in time of possession. They controlled the game from kickoff to final gun and it took a 60 yard TD pass from Kyler DeKuiper to Gabe Curtice in the 4th quarter to keep the Pack from being shut out for the third time this season. DeKuiper connected on both of his pass attempts while pulling in 3 passes from Talen Reichert-Slater for 43 yards. Reichert-Slater finished with 7 completions for 83 yards.Justin Dirheimer led the Packers in rushing with 51 yards on 12 attempts. On defense Michael Romero once again led the team in tackles followed by Gabe VanVleet and Comnnor Pettis. THe Packers finish the season 4-5 with 4 of the 5 losses coming against playoff teams. White Pigeon 55 White Cloud 0 The Cloud will know Sunday if they are to play a game 10 but their trip to White Pigeon didn’t help their cause. The Chiefs romped past their visitors holding the potent WC offense scoreless for the first time this season. White Cloud finishes their regular season with a 6-3 mark. Kent City 52 Grant 14 It was over after 12 minutes. The Eagles scored 24 points in the first quarter and never looked back as they prepared for the second season with a dominating performance over the Tigers. Grant lost for the 7th time in a row to finish the season 1-8.. Hesperia 38 Holton 0 The Red Devils handed the Golden Football back to the Panthers in this rivalry matchup. Hesperia ends the season on a high note despite a 2-7 record while Holton’s youthful team finishes 0-9.
0 Comments
Packers Take Advantage, Finish 1st, 3rd
By Michael Paige Photos by Cari Taylor Conference competition in the WMC Lakes and Rivers divisions concluded Tuesday with the Mega Jamboree. The event was originally scheduled to be held at the Mason County Fairgrounds in Ludington but was moved due to flooding. Having already hosted a conference meet at the Branstrom Park course, the meet was held on the Fremont Middle School Hill and Bale course (without bales). The weather was windy, chilly and wet and both divisions ran together through the muddy and sloppy course although the scoring was separate by division. The Fremont boys adapted well to the weather and ran a solid race to finish first in the Lakes Division with 35 points, their best score in the five conference races. Whitehall seniors Andre Richmond and Carter McIlroy continued their fine seasons finishing 1st and 2nd. Fremont placed their five scoring runners in the next 11 spots to win the meet. Junior Sean Pettis finished 3rd with a time of 17:56 just seconds ahead of Sophomore Carter Sherman (17:59 - 4th) and junior Johnny Christensen (18:03 – 6th). Senior Henrik Quist (18:55 – 11th) and sophomore Cole Lowery (19:20 – 13th) finished out the scoring for the Packers. Freshman Isaac Romero (19:49 – 18th), sophomore Blake Taylor (20:06 – 20th), sophomore Gabriel Jones (20:20 – 24th), senior Gary Springstead (20:32 – 26th) and freshman Mikael Thomas (26:43 – 55th) also competed. Whitehall finished second with 50 points followed by Ludington - 59, Montague - 103 and Manistee - 121. The girls adapted well and did not let the course conditions interfere with their races. Freshman Linnea Paige worked her way through the pack in the first mile and took the lead amongst the Lakes Division runners by the two-mile mark. She never relinquished her lead and finished first in the Lakes Division girls race with a time of 21:02, 40 seconds better than her time on the same course at the Hill and Bale race in September (with bales). Linnea finished not far ahead of some names that have become quite familiar in WMC – Lakes competition this season. Ariana Treat of Whitehall finished second with a time of 21:11 followed by Ludington runners Summer Brower (21:21) and Christina Theis (21:28), Manistee’s Cecilia Postma (21:31) and Ludington’s Nadia Grierson (21:56). Except for the first conference meet way back in early September which was won by Whitehall’s Cami Kraai, the girls mentioned above have only beaten each other with the six of them finishing in some combination of 1-5 or 1-6 in every race. Paige and Theis each missed a race mid-season. Treat is the only graduating senior of the group, so stay tuned next year for some exciting conference action. Strong performances were also turned in by Fremont’s Ariana Tanner who finished in 15th place with a time of 23:46, Joelle Patten (24:18 - 18th), Elise Pfeiffer (24:48 – 21st), Rachel Maddox (25:02 – 22nd) and Rocquel Richards (25:25 – 24th). Pfeiffer even lost a shoe during the race but didn’t miss a step. Fremont finished third in the team scoring with 71 points behind Ludington (30 points) and Whitehall (56) and ahead of Manistee (90) and Montague (118). The Pack race again Saturday at Chippewa Hills. By Ken DeLaat N3 Sports It’s the final week of regular season football and with few local teams likely to get a game 10 we salute the many seniors who will be putting on the pads for their school one last time. Whether a starter or a member of the team who not only helps prepare the starters but stands ready to enter the game on a moment’s notice, these student athletes put in a lot of hard work during the season. Whether basking in a win or feeling the sense of exhaustion that accompanies a loss they leave it all on the field and play for the love of the game. Manistee (2-3, 4-4) at Fremont (1-4, 5-3) A win over the Chips isn't likely to earn the Packers a playoff ticket with 8 teams standing between them and the final slot, but it would put an exclamation point on the success of their first winning season since 2013. ‘13 was also the last time Fremont earned a postseason game since all schools participated after the discombobulating 2020 season. But back to the present. Both of these teams lost to Whitehall. Oakridge and Ludington (as did many others). Both defeated OV and both won a couple of non league matchups. The biggest difference would be their matchups with Montague. The week after the Packer offense got stymied in a 20-0 loss to the Wildcats the Chips lit the scoreboard up, slapping down 50 points in a decisive win over the visiting Montague squad. Fremont’s defense won’t give up 50, but the offense will need to stay on the field as long as possible and halt their recent turnover tendency. The Packer backfield has a lot of talent but their success is dependent on an o-line that has taken some lumps the past couple games. Still, it’s homecoming in Packerville and the fans will be pumped to see their team finish with a win. I like their chances. Comstock Park (1-5, 3-5) at Newaygo (1-5, 2-6) Between these two teams they have 5 wins. The 4 teams they beat (both were victorious over Grant) have a combined record of 2-29. The Lions lost a heartbreaker to CM last week and handed Chip Hills a win on turnovers and penalties the week before. They have played well in spots but putting it all together for a full game has been elusive. They don’t need to play a great game to beat the Panthers but they have to tone down the mistakes to finish on a high note. White Cloud (2-1, 6-2) at White Pigeon (2-2, 5-3) Our favorite D8 team is likely to be in the playoffs. They currently sit 23rd in the payoff point average rankings (the top 32 get in) and a win over the Chiefs would improve their seeding and open the remote possibility of a home game. Going into last week’s game WP ( like WC) had not beaten a team with a winning record Then they took apart Kent City 44-19. In Kent City. Coach Gorman’s team will have to come up big on the road and that potent offense will need to shine if they are to outscore a White Pigeon team that puts up points in bunches. Go Cloud! Muskegon Catholic (6-2) at Tri County (5-1, 7-1) A good postseason prep game for both teams. The rugged Crusader defense facing the point- a-minute offense of the Vikes. Both teams can use a win to help their seeding. The game is in TC and it will be a boisterous crowd (who are also prepping for the playoffs) supporting their Vikings. But MCC travels well going 4-0 on the road and 3 of those teams are also playoff bound. Grant (1-5, 1-7) at Kent City (3-0, 6-2) For whatever reason the Tigers don’t seem to have progressed as the season has moved forward. They cannot keep defenders from setting up shop in their backfield and the defense has yielded 162 points in the last 3 games, an average of 54 per game. The Eagles have been knocked around 2 weeks in a row after 6 straight wins. They need this one to improve their playoff spot and hopefully avoid a first round rematch with the Reed City team that trounced them 2 weeks ago. Holton (0-5, 0-8) at Hesperia (0-5, 1-7) When these teams began their gridiron rivalry back in the 50’s the Red Devils won the first four games. Then the Panthers won 24 of the next 26. In recent years the rivalry game has been more of a back and forth affair with the Golden Football changing hands frequently. Hesperia is playing at home for the first time since losing the game and their starting QB a month ago. The Devils are low in numbers and can’t seem to find the endzone having visited it but 3 times all season. Last season Hesperia brought the Golden Football to the home of the Red Devils and had to leave it behind. This year Holton will be bringing the traveling trophy up Maple Island and into Panther territory. They aren’t likely to be bringing it home. Cloud makes if 4 in a row, #1 Whitehall too much for Pack, Lions lose late, TC wins share of title
Photos by Bobbie Sue Cruzan White Cloud 37 Lakeview 32. The Cloud built a 19 point lead then held off a late surge by the Wildcats to capture their 4th win in a row and more than likely sew up a spot in the postseason. Jace Silverthron had a monster night pounding out 190 yards and a pair of TDs on the ground while sending a pass into the arms of Nate Compeau for another. But that was just on offense. Silverthorn added 17 tackles and an interception from the other side of the line. Mason Reuther also tossed a scoring pass to Compeau and ran one it as well.. Carlos Brown who has excelled on defense all season led the team with 18 tackles including a sack while Lloyd Sebright-Johnson collected 9. “It was a great team effort,” said Coach Gorman White Cloud (1-1, 6-2) will head to White Pigeon (2-2, 5-3) Friday to finish up their regular season. Whitehall 49 Fremont 8 They got one in. It may have taken over 45 minutes of clock to get there but the Pack put points on the board against the vaunted Whitehall defense A late 4th quarter 10 yard run by Justin Dirheimer followed by a 2 point conversion run by Kyler DeKuiper kept the Packers from being shut out by the WMC Lakes champion Vikings who clinched the title and an undefeated regular season with the win. Orchard View forfeited their game against Whitehall next week, their third forfeit in a row due to lack of personnel. The visitors took over early and never let go, scoring twice in the first and four more times in the second to reach intermission with a 42-0 lead. The yards were hard to come by for the hosts and the Viking secondary picked off 3 Packer passes including 2 for TDs. Dirheimer finished with 74 hard fought yards while DeKuiper tossed 3 completions as well as being on the receiving end of 6 Talen Reichert-Slater passes. Michael Romero led the defense with 6 solo tackles with Gabe Van Vleet, Daniel Romero and Hayden Threatt tallying 3 apiece. Fremont (1-4, 4-4) finish their regular season with a homecoming matchup against Manistee (2-3, 5-3). Central Montcalm 21 Newaygo 17 The host Hornets got on the board in the first quarter and the teams exchanged blows for the rest of the half with CM holding a 7-0 halftime edge. Soon after intermission the Hornets scored again to go up 14-0 before Blake Kerr broke free for a 59 yard TD. Josiah Long converted and later in the half hit a 39 yard field goal to put the Lions down by just 4 at 14-10. In the 4th the Lions drove to the Hornet 1 yard line and on 4th down Kerr hit the endzone again. After the Long conversion the visitors from Newaygo were up 17-14 giving them their first lead of the game and a shot at the win. But it was the Hornets who sent their fans home happy as they came back with a game winning score late in the game to take the conference finale for both teams. Kerr finished with 155 yards rushing while tossing for 101 yards. Grant Harness piled up 69 yards receiving, added 60 on the ground and finished with 9 tackles and a sack on defense. Dyllan Bazzett led the Lions in tackles with 11 and Isaiah Lopez tallied 10 along with grabbing an interception. Logan Klomp and Remy Wells also picked off passes from the Hornet QB In their final game of the season Newaygo (1-5, 2-6) will host Comstock Park (1-5, 3-5) on Friday. Tri County 52 Chippewa Hills 14 David Sheehan put on an air show tossing for 221 yards and a quartet of TD passes to Stuart Gould as TC wrapped up their share of the Gold title with an impressive road win in Remus. Gould finished with 9 catches for 178 yards while adding a 60 yard score on a punt return. Trent Behrenwald also found the endzone as he piled up 90 yards rushing averaging over 6 yards a carry. Coach Butler: “Proud of our guys. One of our goals was to win a league title and we did that tonight. These guys have put in the work that it takes to be successful and their coaches are extremely happy for them.” Tri County (5-1, 7-1) will finish the regular season at home hosting Muskegon Catholic Central (6-2) Reed City 62 Grant 8 It was over quickly. The Coyotes could have been getting mail in the Tiger endzone with the amount of time they spent there in the first quarter. 6 times in the first 12 minutes Reed City punctuated a TD with a 2 point conversion jumping out to a 48-0 advantage then added one in the second. The Tigers finally got on the board in the 4th but by then their 6th loss in a row was already in the books. Grant (1-5, 1-7) will finish their season on the road Friday when they visit Kent City ( 3-0, 6-2) the Silver Division champs. Hart 44 Hesperia 6 Ian Fox tucked in a pass from Brock Bolles in the second quarter for the lone Panther score. Photos by Brent Foondle and Ed Canning
From Coach Strait: Tuesday night, the Lady Indians closed out their home matches with a win against Newaygo. We also celebrated three seniors, Gaby Reeve, Kiara Edwards, and Lilly Holmes. After a tough first set 16-25, we rallied back to win 27-25, 25-21, and 25-22. Gaby had a great night serving with 14 points and 2 aces, followed by Hannah Cruzan with 9 points and 2 aces. Hailee Brown and Jaden Gomez had a great night running the offense with 15 and 16 assists, respectively. Jayla Perrin led the offense with 12 kills, followed by Gaby with 10 and Hannah with 9. Defensively we were led by Jaden Gomez with 18 digs, while Jayla dug up 14 and Hailee added 13. Great win ladies! By Ken DeLaat, N3 Sports Whitehall (4-0, 7-0) at Fremont (1-3, 4-3) As I’ve said before I like this Fremont team. They are a resilient group of athletes who have put to bed the years of frustration felt by the Packer faithful during some struggling seasons. This fall they have won four games which equals the number of wins collected from 2015-2021. Two of their losses came against teams who will be playing a game 10 and while the loss to Montague surprised me it shows the depth of the talent in the WMC. The good news is that Friday after four straight road games they will play in front of their fans on their home field. The bad news is they will face a Whitehall team that has had a monster season. The Vikings, ranked #1 in the state in Division 4 won their first two against other current top ten teams. Then they proceeded to mow through the next five games on their schedule by a combined score of 264-20 including a decisive win over a really good Oakridge team. The chances of the Packers pulling an upset are long indeed. Even scoring on the stifling Whitehall defense won’t come easy. Coach Hudson and his assistants will need to be creative if they are to keep the offense on the field as long as possible. On defense they can only hope that a team that has minimized turnovers all season stumbles a bit and makes a few. At any rate a truly steep hill to climb here. But this team has a great deal of heart and if they play like they have all season the numbers on the scoreboard are not likely to affect the effort put forth on the field right up to the final gun. Win or lose, these guys go the distance. Newaygo (1-4, 2-5) at Central Montcalm (1-4, 2-5) The Hornets haven’t done much this season. They won their opener against a Morley team that can’t find the endzone and then last week they ran away from a Grant team that can’t seem to keep people out of the endzone The Lions have two wins over the same teams CM has beaten. They lost by 13 last week to a young Chip Hills team that has come on strong as the season has progressed. In their other losses the score was far from being what one might call close. Toss up game. The Hornets have the home field but it hasn’t been much of an advantage this year. The Lions have a tendency to allow penalties to slow their momentum so minimizing them would be a huge plus. So would a Bazzette pick or two with a couple of Harkness tosses to Long and Wells. White Cloud (1-1, 5-2) at Lakeview (1-1, 3-4) The Cloud has a chance to make it 4 in a row and punch their playoff ticket with a win but before making plans for a game 10 they need to take care of business on the road against the Wildcats. This one doesn’t look to be easy. White Cloud has 5 wins but their opponents have a combined record of just 3-32. Coach Gorman’s team shouldn’t have trouble scoring with Silverthorn, McGowen and Reuther while Compeau seems able to catch the ball on both sides of the line but if this one is still close in the 4th it could spell trouble for the visitors. Tri County (4-1, 6-1) at Chippewa Hills (2-3, 3-4) The Vikings can wrap up what looks to be a three way share of the Gold crown here. But watch out. The Warriors youth movement is beginning to pay off as they have collected 3 wins in their last 4 games with underclassmen at all their skilled positions, Not saying TC shouldn’t be able to take this one home but this isn’t the easy mark on the schedule it might have looked like in the early part of the season.. Grant (1-1, 1-6) at Reed City (4-1, 6-1) The Yotes are looking to wrap up their likely to be ⅓ share of the Gold crown and unless the dominating linemen of Reed City have all opted for early graduation,,, They will do so. Hesperia (0-4, 1-6) at Hart (3-1, 5-2) The Panthers season has not gone as well as expected and the Pirates need a win to make it into the postseason. And the game is in Pirate territory Holton forfeited to North Muskegon White Cloud photos By Cassie Rickert
White Cloud 30 Morley Stanwood 8 The Cloud celebrated homecoming in style as they hammered out a decisive victory and snapped a 14 game losing streak to the ‘Hawks in the process. The win gives the team a 3 game winning streak and keeps alive the playoff hopes for Coach Gorman’s squad. Once again the WC offense kicked into high gear led by Jace Silverthiorn who had a monster night passing for 69 yards and a TD while running for 104 and finding the endzone twice. Silverthorn also returned a kick for 75 yards,collected 13 tackles and recovered a fumble. He likely would have also driven the bus home had they been on the road. Landyn McGowen also tallied a TD and Nate Compeau pulled in TD passes from Siverthorn and Mason Reuther. Carlos Brown led the defensive effort with 16 tackles and Lloyd Seebright-Johnson added 10. Reuter snared an interception and Compeau showed he could catch the ball from either side of the line as he picked off two. White Cloud (1-1, 5-2) will look to punch their playoff ticket when they visit Lakeview (1-1, 3-4) on Friday. Montague 20 Fremont 0 The Packers struggled with finishing drives and the Wildcat defense put their team in position to generate the offense needed to capture the conference win. Turnovers had a huge impact on the game as they always do and the Wildcats picked off three passes intended for Packer receivers. Justin Dirheimer provided the bulk of the offense as he grinded out 168 tough yards on the ground but the visitors failed to find their way into the endzone. Montague QB Chase Gowell tossed a perfect 8 for 8 including a TD strike to Isaiah Atkinson that opened the scoring in the second quarter. The hosts took a 13-0 lead into intermission after a 1 yard run by Austin Cook and added another score in the third with Cook again plunging in from a yard out. The Good news is Fremont (1-3, 4-3) will finally play at home this Friday for the first time since the week after Labor Day. The less good news is that undefeated and top ranked Whitehall (4-0, 7-0) is coming to town. Big Rapids 27 Tri County 26 In their past 8 of their 9 games since TC joined the CSAA games between these two have been decided by no more than a single score. 5 have been decided by 3 points or less. So there should not have been a surprise when this one ended up being a classic close contest with the Cardinals forcing their way into the title share with a win on the Viking home turf. After a rally by the Cards to take the lead a late score by Tri County along with a 2 point conversion put them in the driver's seat with a 26-19 lead and just 2 minutes on the clock. BR began a furious drive getting to the Viking 10 with just 39 ticks left. Enter Cardinal QB Wil Strickler. After leading the drive into the red zone he took matters into his own hands with a keeper play that saw him find paydirt. The score left BR a point short. Going for the 2 point conversion s Strickler found an open Garret Foster and connected for the deuce ,and the win while clinching a share of the Gold title. Tri County (4-1, 6-1) can capture their own share of the title next week when they visit Chippewa Hills. Big Rapids (5-1, 5-2) will visit Morley Stanwood where they can sew up a playoff spot with a win. Central Montcalm 53 Grant 28 Grant (1-4, 1-6) visits Reed City (4-1, 6-1) Friday Hart 53 Holton 0 Too much Trayce Tate. The Pirates sailed past the Red Devils. Holton (0-4, 0-7) will host North Muskegon (4-0, 6-1) Friday. Mason County Central 50 Hesperia 0 After a scoreless first quarter the Spartans gave their homecoming crowd plenty to cheer about as they ran off 29 unanswered points in the second to take control of the game by intermission. Hesperia (0-4, 1-6) visits Hart (3-1, 5-2) Friday Portage Invitational
Full Results can be found here - https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/206937/results From Fremont Coach Somers: Both teams had a solid performance today with several PR’s recorded. It was a day that reinforced why I love to coach, and how much I enjoy this team. In the early morning dark of the bus ride I looked behind me to see a swam of glow sticks silently waving back and forth. Was this a bus ride or a Rave? As the varsity boys were doing their drills just before their race, an official drove his golf cart directly at them causing them to swerve. Sean Pettis (Jr) swerved into Johnny Christensen (Jr) and picked up a nasty spike to the foot, tearing his shoe. Initially flustered, we had a quick conversation about whether he was going to let it impact his race or not. He decided it wasn’t and went out and ran a 19 second PR running 16:41 to place 46th and earn a medal. Henrik Quist (Sr), Carter Sherman (So), and Blake Taylor (So) all ran PR’s, but were in agreement that they can be faster. It was cool to watch Johnny and Carter run strong, struggle, then run strong again as they flip flopped positions with each other a couple time during the race. It was nice to see each be able to recover from a bad patch. Issac Romero (Fr) ran the strongest final mile of the group, passing 22 in the last mile and finishing as our 5th man. The girls demonstrated strong running over the final mile, with almost all of them improving their placing over the last mile. The biggest PR on the day belonged to Ariana Tanner (Fr), running 1:30 faster than her previous best. Joelle Patten (Fr), Elise Pfeiffer (Jr), and Rachel Maddox (So) all recorded PRs of 30-50 seconds with a strong last mile. Linnea Paige (Fr) placed 39th to earn a medal. The JV boys put Chase Lowery (Fr) 3rd, and Gary Springstead (Sr) 18th in the medals while Brandon Rasmussen (So) recorded a good PR run. This group is always looking to improve. They work hard, make errors and learn from them, and are pretty good at honestly assessing their performances. The boys placed 12th and the girls placed 29th. From Newaygo Coach Mercer: The boys team started the day off for the Lions at 12:30 on this crisp, cool fall day. Getting used to a meet of this caliber is new for our younger runners, so the goal was to find a race within the race and go for it. Many of the boys did just that. Freshman Caleb Bays had the boys race of the day for the team, running his PR of 20:20. Senior Bryce Grugett finished strong for his season best time of 21:32. The varsity girls took their turn an hour later then the JV girls another two hours after that as the wind was starting to bluster. That didn't deter them from racing strong in a very quick Division 2 girls field this season and after a round of fall colds had been plaguing the team the last two weeks. Of the 12 girls who ran today, 6 earned lifetime PRs and an additional 3 earned season bests. Leading the Lady Lions was Remington Arney who earned herself a place on the awards stage in 40th with a season best time of 19:58, improving upon her time from this meet last year by 13 seconds. Also with season bests were Aamori Paz and Sydney Biegalle. Earning PRs on the day were Sofia Briggs, Luiza Corso, Connelly Hefferan-Nordlund, Thalia Pineda, Christina Schifino and Zoey Walerczyk. Chippewa Hills 32 Newaygo 19 It could have been worse. There were three times the visiting Warriors drove into the red zone poised to score only to be stymied by turnovers. Three times they were on the cusp of breaking the game open. The Lions D came up big on those occasions but the Warriors outlasted their hosts and came away with their third win in the last four games after an 0-3 start A youth driven Warrior team with just 2 seniors on their squad (both linemen) has improved markedly since the season began. On Friday they exchanged punches with a game Lions team before pulling away in the second half by winning the battle in the trenches. The Lions took advantage of a Blake Kerr runback into Warrior territory on the opening kickoff and after a couple of stops Grant Harkness found an open Dyllan Bazzette who moved the ball inside the five, Harkness took it in on the next play and after Josiah Long’s boot it was 7-0 Lions. Chip Hills engineered an effective drive on the next possession mixing in some play action passes with a running game buoyed by the performance of the CH Oline and answered when Jon Koepf put up 6. The onside kick by the visitors and soon after the Warriors took a 12-7 lead. The Lions responded with a quick drive of their own capped off when Harkness lofted a floater that Long tucked in and scored 65 yards later to put Newaygo up 13-12 after one. The second quarter saw the teams battle back and forth before Koepf put the exclamation point on another CH drive to send the teams to intermission with the visitor holding an 18-13 edge. The second half saw CH muff the kickoff and stay pinned inside the ten due to penalties. On 3rd and long a potential breakaway pass was broken up by Kerr and CH had to punt. The punt was fumbled giving the visitors the ball and they marched downfield before Remy Wells picked off a potential scoring pass and the Lions took over. They couldn’t move the ball and the punt after 3 downs was taken by Austin Humphrey who wove his way through the Lion defenders to make it 24-13. After the ensuing kickoff the Lions were hit by penalties and an inability to keep the Warriors out of their backfield. The punt that followed this futility was touched by the receiving team and the Lions recovered to retake possession. After Harkness found Kerr twice to drive Newaygo into CH territory Harkness hit again, this time to Bazzette and after a failed conversion the Lions had cut the lead to 24-19. CH would add another TD while the Lions could not mount a drive and the youthful Warriors captured the road win. Defensively Aaron Garza led the way for Newaygo with 11 tackles while Dyllan Bazzette notched 10. Harkness tossed for 219 yards and a couple of TDs and added another on the ground while Bazzette, Long and Kerr finished with 83, 65, and 63 receiving yards respectively.
Newaygo (1-4, 2-5) will travel to Stanton to face Central Montcalm (1-4, 2-5). Chippewa Hills (2-3, 3-4) will host Tri County (4-1, 6-1). Chippewa Hills (1-3, 2-4) at Newaygo (1-2, 2-4) The Lions haven’t beaten a team with a winning record. They also haven’t lost to a team with a losing record. Their final three games have them facing teams with losing records starting with Friday's game with Chip Hills.But it won’t be easy since the Warriors can put up points and are coming off a 48-0 performance at Lakeview, the type of rout that can build a team’s confidence. Newaygo was dominated by the ‘Yotes last week and will need to shake that one off. They also need to get out in front early because letting the Warriors hang around is likely to be trouble. Central Montcalm (0-4, 1-5) at Grant (1-3, 1-5) If Obenauf gets protection and a couple of Tigers show some soft hands we’re likely to see some impressive passing stats on the night. Grant has struggled of late but they can halt that 4 game skid against the Hornets who will have a tough time with the Tiger defense. Big Rapids (4-1, 4-2) at Tri County (4-0, 6-0) Game of the week. The prolific scoring of the Vikings comes up against a Cardinal team that held opponents to 14 points in their 4 wins. Of course they also yielded 94 in their 2 losses against the only 2 teams on the schedule with winning records. Tri County is riding high with a playoff spot in the bank, a shot at an undefeated regular season and a conference crown. The Cardinals are a good team but TC is a team on a mission and I would be surprised if they got derailed at home. Fremont (1-2, 4-2) at Montague (1-2, 2-4) The Packers are having a great season and I like their chances here. The addition of Reichert- Slater to signal calling has opened a new dimension for the offense and behind a line that has excelled this season Dirheimer is leading the conference in rushing. By over 200 yards, mind you. This would be a good one to put in the pocket because when the Pack returns home next Friday the will face the top ranked D4 team in the state and those Whitehall Vikings are really, really good. I mean REALLY good. Morley Stanwood (0-2, 0-6) at White Cloud (0-1, 4-2) An old rivalry that has been one sided for…well, for a long time. MS has won the last 14 games dating back to 2004, but this year the streak looks like it could end. White Cloud has a potent offense and Morley has scored just twice all season. Though I doubt anyone with the team is saying it out loud, a win puts the Cloud closer to capturing a playoff spot with 2 winnable games left after Friday. Hesperia (0-3, 1-5) at Mason County Central (1-3, 1-5) The Spartans have lost a couple of close games to a pair of good teams following their dismantling of Holton. The Panthers put up some points against Ravenna but they’ve struggled to stop anyone lately. Both teams could use a win, but it’s homecoming in Scottville so… Holton (0-3, 0-6) at Hart (2-1, 4-2) The Devs have had a less than memorable season but to their credit they show up every Friday and give it their all. Their all isn't likely to be enough to take down a pretty talented Pirate crew on the road. |
Archives
April 2024
Categories |