 Coach Grimard:
The Lady Panthers continue to push for greater competition and ended the day with 3 wins 2 losses and a tie to state ranked Leland for their first appearance in the Traverse City Central Tournament. The Panthers found themselves in the silver division after a 1-1-1 record in pool play competing against some very skilled opponents. In brackets, they moved on to beat Grayling and Glen Lake, bringing them into the final match against the Ludington Orioles. The Panthers came up short and could not defeat the Orioles , however,we are still happy with the hard work and effort of the hard work and effort of this team. The Panther record is 16-6-1, and 3-0 in the CSAA. The Panther offense was led by Emily Bayle with 28 kills, Rachel Romero had 15 kills, Isabelle Rumsey and Brooke Billings with 11 and 10 kills respectively. At the service line, Romero and Delaney Yates had 11 aces on the day, Rumsey and Billings 8 and 6 aces respectively. Rumsey also led with 5 blocks and Bayle added 3 blocks on the day. Romero led defensively, with 37 digs, Bayle had 29 digs, Billings 9 digs, and Adriana Escobedo, Sayer, and Sierra Cechura each added 6 digs for the Panthers. The Panthers take on the Kent City Eagles on Wednesday, September 18th in Kent City.
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For some reason on the second Friday in September, the weather is always stiflingly hot in East Lansing, Michigan. Some years it is hot and sunny, others it is cloudy with hot humidity that makes you feel like you're drowning. This Friday, September 13, it started out cooler and rainy, giving everyone attending the meet false hope the cycle may have been broken. Race officials for the Spartan Invite held at Michigan State University's Forest Akers golf course made last minute changes to the schedule in an attempt to steer clear of the severe thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon. JV races were cancelled, but 10 runners were allowed to toe the line for the varsity teams (normally that number is 7). The collegiate teams raced in the rain. Though soggy, the heat hadn't hit. But as the minutes ticked on, the heat index increased. This meant a lot of runners' days ended with golf cart rides to the ice baths in the medical tent. Those whose bodies held up to the extreme heat and humidity were thankful to have finished standing. All results can be found at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/156952/results From Coach Somers of Fremont: We dodged the storms. Course ran slower than last year. Wanted both teams to focus on moving up the second half of the race. Girls got out a little slow but moved up well. Boys ran well through 2-2.5 miles then faded a little. Finished 5th. Only 1 team in our division (Otsego) beat us. Was hot and humid. Solid efforts and a good learning experience. The rest of the team runs tomorrow at the Ludington invite. Boys were in the elite race, girls were in the bronze race. From Coach Mercer of Newaygo: We were happy to have been able to compete at this meet, since it is such a unique experience running with so many teams from all over the state and so many runners on the start line together. The competition is always fierce. Sophia Frisbie crossed the line first for the Lions, with a time of 23:04. Anna Brummel, Lyda Lathrop, Liza Nausadis and Amaya Nelson all ran their best times of the season. Freshman Tim Dosch led the boys team with a time of 20:02. Senior Dylan Heminger and sophomore Michael Murray both ran season best times despite the heat. Both boys and girls ran in the white race. Hesperia: Hesperia was led by Chris Stapel for the boys and Becci Castillo for the girls.   Leaping for the touchdown catch, Central Montcalm gains the lead in the CSAA Gold Friday Football Finals N3 Sports Team Photos by Alexis Mercer The Gold Division is indeed up for grabs this year but the road to the title runs through Stanton for now. The Hornets continue to roll with as many wins as they collected the past 3 seasons and they don’t appear to be letting up anytime soon. The Tigers corralled the Coyotes in what Coach Geraghty described as “a four quearter fistfight” and managed to convert a 2 pointer that made the difference. Hesperia flexed a little muscle in their rivalry game and the Pack found a little offense, albeit too little too late. Grant 8 Reed Cty 6 The Tigers won a four-quarter fistfight with Reed City snapping the Coyotes 32-game conference win streak. Quarterback Brendan Keelean was 4 for 8 for 98 yards and had 72 yards rushing. Keelean scored the Tiger’s only touchdown in the second quarter and then connected on the two-point conversion to Billy Ostyn to take the lead. Jarrett Railling led the defense with 10 tackles; including one for a loss. Brett Long also recorded 9 tackles including one for a loss. Coach Geraghty credits the defense for a well-played game. “Our players stood up to the league Giant and were equal to the task. I am so happy for these kids, this is four years of work paying off”. Hesperia 54 Holton 14 Holton recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff and couldn’t capitalize so Hesperia took over and Logan Pearson went to work. Pearson set a Hesperia school record with 370 yards on 25 carries for a 14.8 yard average while finding the endzone twice for TD’s and twice for 2 point conversions Logan Balkema chipped in with 79 yards on 9 carries and a TD! “Extremely proud of Balkema being a team player and going from QB to power back, where he was Pearson’s lead blocker,” said Coach Bolles. Leading the defense were, Cole Conkle, Logan Balkema and Brandon Quinn with 6 tackles each. “It’s a huge win for us against our biggest rival and getting our traveling trophy back was a big goal. We left no doubt tonight. “I give Coach Jados and his kids credit, they’ve been decimated with injuries and they still continue to battle. They never gave up.” Hesperia (1-2. 1-0) will sit next week out and Holton (0-3, 0-1) will travel to Morley Stanwood to face the Mohawks (1-2, 1-0). Big Rapids 39 Fremont 26 A disastrous first quarter that saw Cardinal Maurice Camphor take it home with two runs of more than 50 yards then a pair of safeties and another touchdown gave the visitors a 26-0 lead. The Cards struck again in the second before Matthew Halisinski broke free for a 45 yard sprint to paydirt and the half ended with R holding a 32-6 lead. The second half a different team took the field for Fremont. They held off the Cardinal offense and scored three times including a5 yard scoring toss from Cody Andree to Shawn Murphy, a 72 yard breakaway run by Tristen Marfia, and in the closing minutes Payten Mansfield scooped up a Cardinal fumble and took it to the house for another 6. Marfia finished with 189 yards and Kyler Kolk led the defense with 9 tackles. The Packers (0-3, 0-2) will head to Stanton to take on the Hornets (3-0, 2-0) while BR (1-2, 1-1) welcomes in Newaygo for homecoming. Central Montcalm 34 Newaygo 28 The Hornets stayed unbeaten with a tough road win over the Lions. The Lions came out hot in the first quarter and were up 14-0. The Hornets quickly started capitalizing on their speed and height on offense and the Lions didn’t adjust quickly enough. Central Montcalm made a crucial stop at the 2 yard line before going in at the half. Though the Lions never quit, Central Montcalm earned the ball back with 2 minutes left to go in the game, sealing the deal with a 6 point win to take the lead in the CSAA Gold. Chippewa Hills 42 Tri County 19 The Vikes lost at home giving first year Warrior Coach AJ Webly win number one and sending TC from the ranks of the unbeaten. The Vikings (2-1, 1-1) head to Reed City next week to take on the Coyotes. CH (1-2, 1-1) will host the Tigers of Grant. Morley Stanwood 20 Lakeview 12 Kent City over White Cloud (forfeit) Photos from the Newaygo vs. Central Montcalm game.   Hesperia stays undefeated in conference; Bayle, Rumsey lead in kills
The Lady Panthers win three straight sets 25-13, 25-16, and 25-17 to improve to 3-0 in conference play and 13-4 overall for the season. The Panthers were led offensively by Rachel Romero and Brooke Billings with 7 and 6 kills respectively. Emily Bayle and Isabelle Rumsey each added 4 kills for the Panther offense. Both Bayle and Romero served up 5 aces on the night. Kyra Sayer had 11 assists and Aria Thomas had 8 assists on the night. Defensively, Bayle had 2 solo blocks and 3 digs. Romero led the team with 6 digs and Rylee Gleason added 3 digs. The Panthers travel to Traverse City Central this weekend. Next Wednesday, September 18th the Panthers will travel to Kent City to take on the Eagles.  The Silver begins conference play (except for Kent City scheduled to play WC who cancelled their season) and the Gold moves into second week of legue competition. With 6 teams coming in at 0-2 and facing each other, three teams will win their first games this week. Three teams won't. Central Montcalm (2-0, 1-0) at Newaygo (1-1, 1-0) Are the Hornets for real? This is an intriguing matchup that will help determine the title hopes for both teams. Central Montcalm came into the season dragging along a 13 game losing streak but they have been impressive while notching a pair of tight wins, both coming in front of their hometown fans. Friday, however, they are on the road facing a Newaygo team that looked solid in their win over Chip Hills. These are obviously not the same squads that met last year when the Lions offense operated like a pinball machine racking up 62 points on the Bees in Stanton but lots of players on both teams remember it to be sure. The Lions likely have the edge here but we doubt the margin will be like the 48 point spread from last year. Reed City (1-1, 1-0) at Grant (1-1, 0-1) The Coyotes made a statement last week when they crushed the Packers by piling up 54 points. After being shut down by Montague. This week they should find the going a bit tougher when they face the Tiger defense. Grant grabbed a win over a struggling Shelby team then got edged by a spirited CM squad. Is the rumor of a wide open race for the title a myth to be nipped by the Yotes as they once again plow through the Gold? Does the 32 game conference winning streak continue Friday after their visit to the Tigers in Grant? Or do the hosts knock off the defending champs (x8) for the first time since joining the conference 5 years ago and turn the title race into a multi team competition. Friday should shake out a lot of info on both of these teams. Big Rapids (0-2, 0-1) at Fremont (0-2, 0-1) Both teams are 0-2 heading into this one but if the Cards put up the same 22 points they have each of their losses they will likely emerge as the team no longer searching for win number one. Maybe week three will see the Packer offense minimize the mistakes that have stalled drives and maybe an early score or two would ease up the pressure on a defense that has thus far been handled effectively by a pair of tough o-lines. The Packers are at home and they won’t be coming back until October so the stadium should be filled with fans hungry for a victory but again, they cannot fall behind early in the game or the Cards could fly out of range quickly Chippewa Hills(0-2, 0-1) at Tri County (2-0, 1-0) It has been a great turnaround for Coach Phil Butler’s program running off three in a row to make the school's first playoff appearance since 2004 then following up with a pair of wins to open the current campaign. There’s some Viking spirit simmering over Howard City (and Sand Lake, Coral, etc.) and a win here could provide some mo for their trip to Reed City next week. Chip Hills needs a win to avoid opening the season with 3 losses something they haven’t seen since 1994 or a few years prior to the current players even being considered much less conceived. Hesperia (0-2, 0-0) at Holton (0-2, 0-0) Somewhere near the beginnings of this rivalry Holton posted the first four wins on record For the next two decades the Panthers had a grip on the Devils winning 23 of 25 stretching from the late 1950’s to the mid 80’s. Since then the teams have played it almost even with an edge to Holton despite one of the wins ceded via forfeit in 2010 due to having a mistakenly ineligible player on the field. In present history (which sounds very oxymoronic) the Devs lost their opener to an unimpressive Hart team then could not stay with the visiting Eagles of C3 who were able to wear down the undermanned squad of Coach Janos particular after the inevitable injury or two. Hesperia has opened the season facing two teams who are looking for a return to the postseason and both showed why those aspirations have merit. Coach Bolles gets a lot out of his players but similar to the dilemma of Coach Jados there just aren’t enough of them. Both teams have put up points so they know how to get into the endzone when the opportunity presents itself. Who gets there the most often is probably up in the air. A rivalry game such as this one can go either way most years so look for a big play or two to shift the game toward one of these Silver squads Other CSAA games Morley Stanwood (0-2, 0-0) at Lakeview (0-2, 0-1) The Silver is 1-9 this season unless you count White Cloud’s forfeit to Kent City this week.. With conference play beginning the teams without a win (4) will be cut in half. The Mohawks lost to CM in the opener then faced perennial powerhouse Hopkins who handed them a decisive loss. The ‘Cats got shout out by TC then lost to Onsted who traveled from down near the border of that four letter state to the south. The ‘Hawks seem to have a bit more offensive capabilities and Lakeview has had trouble stopping anyone thus far so...   VBALL Packers sweep ‘Yotes; Pafford collects 8 kills Fremontdefeated Reed City in 3 sets,26-24, 25-21, and 25-19. In each set the team had to come from behind to win. The team played with lots of energy and celebrated the small things. Leading the team in serving was Kaitlynn Bennett and Kennedy Christoffersen with 2 aces each. Rhi Pafford came up big in serving a couple of big runs accumulating 12 points. Defensively Kennedy Christoffersen ended up with 8 digs and Calla Miller with 6. At the net Grace Hudson had 3 blocks. On the attack Rhi Pafford lead with 8 kills followed by Carle Bruggema and Natalie Jamieson with 6 each. This victory makes FPV 1-0 in conference. 10-3-1 overall. GOLF Fremont finishes #2; Gerth places 4th, Zerlaut 6th The Packer golfersTeam shot their best team round in the last 3 years yesterday at Brookside Golf Course finishing second behind state-ranked Big Rapids in the 9 team CSAA conference match. 3 players shot their personal best (PB) rounds as they battle both the rain and a tough course at Brookside. Katelynne Gerth shot a PB of 90 placing 4th out of 54 golfers, while Haley Zerlaut's PB of 101 was good for a tie for 6th place. Taylor Mulder came in 8th place with a 103 and Rhiannon Ziebke finished in the top 25 shooting 118. Sarah Ziebke, a first year player, dropped 25 strokes from her 1st conference match with a PB 126. SOCCER Pack blasts past ‘Cats 8-0; Moon gets hat trick The Fremont boys' soccer team traveled to Lakeview on Tuesday afternoon in a conference matchup. Fremont took and early lead and never looked back. Carter Moon had three goals while Lane Converse, Grant Vissia, Yunus Roenning, David Wachter and Riccardo Lapertosa all added goals. Wachter also had 3 assists, Jaxx Miller had 2 assists, and Waden Woods and Wyatt VanBoven had single assists. The Packers outshot Lakeview 17-5. Joe Kortge made 3 saves for the Packers and Ed Hallberg made 2 while splitting time in net. Lakeview's keeper, Riley McKenna, made 9 saves of his own. Fremont improves to 6-2 on the season and 4-0 in the conference while Lakeview falls to 2-6 overall and 0-3 in the conference Packers shut down Warriors; Vissia tallies twice Chippewa Hills traveled to Fremont Monday evening in a conference match for boys' soccer. Fremont defeated Chippewa Hills 8-0 and out shot them 21-0. Grant Vissia scored 2 goals for the Packers while Carter Moon, David Wachter, Joe Kortge, Braiden McDonald, Wyatt VanBoven, and Jaxx Miller all added single tallies. Kasidy Wright added 2 assists and Lane Converse, Isaiah Hansen, and Wachter also had single assists. Chippewa Hills goalkeeper Zachary Clark made 13 saves in net. Joe Kortge and Ed Hallberg combined for the shutout for Fremont. Fremont improves to 5-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference. Chippewa Hills falls to 0-7 overall and 0-6 in the conference.    N3 Sports Photos by Alexis Mercer In one of the more unique races of the season, teams raced not just their normal 5 kilometers, but also had to climb and jump over bales of hay in order to make it to the finish line. Fremont High School hosts the Hill and Bale race each year on the first Saturday in September. Twenty two schools sent participants to the race, splitting into large and small school divisions. Middle schools also participated in their own, shorter distance race to finish the day. Fremont, Grant, Hesperia, Newaygo and White Cloud teams all attended the meet. All race results for the day can be found here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/156500/results Coach Somers of Fremont: After losing a large portion of the team to graduation last year we had some questions as to where we would stack up. In our first race of the year girls answers some of those questions. They ran great to win the meet on a tie-breaker (best 6th runner) with Whitehall. The started at an intelligent pace. They then moved up throughout the race. Taylor Mater (So) did a great job hunting down the leaders in the 2nd mile and then running away from them to win. Leah Converse (Jr) also moved up well to be our 2nd finisher. We saw nice pack running from Morgan Best (Fr), Taava Johnson (So), and Erin Norton (Jr) as they moved up through the field as a group. Annika Tuls (Sr) chased that group and finished strong to give us 6 runners in the top 15, and to seal our win as she beat Whitehall’s 6th runner by 12 places. Alyssa Gustman (Sr) had a solid showing as our 7th runner, running over a minute faster than she did last year. Sophie Frisbie (9th) was the first Lion across the finish line with a time of 22:33 with Liza Nausadis (20th), Elizabeth Chaffee (21st)and Jennafer Lavette(23rd) also in the top 25 finishers. Elizabeth Gates led the Tiger team finishing 7th overall with a time of 22:05 with Gracie Bearup the next Grant Harrier to cross the line placing 26th and Paige Devos 31st. Becci Castillo ran an outstanding race for the Panthers, coming in 4th with a time of 23:07. Sydney Hasted was the next runner to cross the line in 28th. White Cloud was led by Alexus Richmond (20th) with a time of 25:01 and followed by Courtney LaClair (29th). Coach Somers: The boys had a dominant showing placing 4 in the top 5, 6 in the top 10 , and all 7 in the top 15. Nathan Walker (Jr) lead the way from start to finish in a course record 16:19. Conor Somers (So), Josh Zerfas (Jr), and Ben Paige (Jr) worked well together for the first half of the race. Adam Ward (Jr) battled hard to give us a sweep of the top 5 places but faded just a little over the last 800 to come in 6th. Gavin Orcutt (Sr) started his senior year off with a bang running over a minute faster than he did last year. Seven LaRoue (Sr) moved up well to round out the placing for us finishing 12th. This was a good start for the boy as they were eager for a race after a summer of training. The Lions were led by Mallaci Mayle who ran to 17th place with a time of 19:30 with Tim Dosch landing in the 22nd spot and Michael Murray finishing 35th. Reece Welsh paced the Grant runners coming in 13th with a time of 18:54 while Kyle Brege placed 23rd and Jaxon Gragg finished 25th. Chris Stapel (10th) led for the Panthers with a time of 19:37 and Mack Baird placed 26th. Reginald Richmond flew to lead the White Cloud team and also win the small school division with a time of 17:29 with Nathan Ciolk (9th), Kobe Canning (16th), Terry Trendel (27th) and Malachi Graves (38th) rounding out the scoring positions for the Indians.  Jed VanderWeide (L) and Carter Chase after taking top honors Tennis Chase, VandeWeide get the gold for Grant The Tiger tennis players traveled to the Caledonia Invite Saturday playing against bigger schools, facing Lowell and Caledonia. The guys played well bringing home 7 medals. Carter Chase and Jed VanderWeide won 6-1 6-0 in the final to take the gold medals at #1 doubles, improving to 11-3 on the year. The team's #1 singles as well as the team's 3 & 4 doubles took home runner-up medals. Singles No. 1 - Karlton Zerlaut, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL def. Collier Kaufman, LOWELL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, 6-3, 6-3, -; No. 2 - Miles Droski, LOWELL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL def. Riley Holmberg, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 6-0, 6-0, -; No. 3 - Will Devoest, LOWELL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL def. Matt Hautamaki, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 6-0, 6-0, -; No. 4 - Ty Knottnerus, LOWELL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL def. Eli Bradley, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 6-0, 6-0, -; No. 1 - Andrew Larson, CALEDONIA HIGH SCHOOL def. Karlton Zerlaut, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 6-4, 1-6, 10-5; No. 2 - Grant Peek, CALEDONIA HIGH SCHOOL def. Riley Holmberg, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 6-1, 6-0, -; No. 3 - Alec Bisterfeldt, CALEDONIA HIGH SCHOOL def. Matt Hautamaki, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 6-0, 6-3, -; No. 4 - Jordan Rundhaug, CALEDONIA HIGH SCHOOL def. Eli Bradley, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 6-0, 6-1, -; Doubles No. 1 - Jed Vanderweide - Carter Chase, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL def. Aiden Kelley - Winton Garrelts, LOWELL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, 6-0, 6-1, -; No. 2 - Patrick Devoest - Terrick Stewart, LOWELL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL def. Dustin Slachter - Payton Swinehart, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 5-7, 6-1, 10-7; No. 3 - Trent Patton - Diego Krepps, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL def. Max Del Rosario - Tyler Spinella, LOWELL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, 7-6 (4), 2-6, 10-4; No. 4 - Kyle Bay - Isaac Higgins, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL def. Connor Kleinedler - Alex Kleinedler, LOWELL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, 6-4, 6-4, -; No. 1 - Jed Vanderweide - Carter Chase, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL def. John Kotarski - Adam Morris, CALEDONIA HIGH SCHOOL, 6-1, 6-0, -; No. 2 - Anthony Oliver - Mathias Vanderelde, CALEDONIA HIGH SCHOOL def. Dustin Slachter - Payton Swinehart, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 7-5, 6-4, -; No. 3 - Aiden Sowerby - Evan Ries, CALEDONIA HIGH SCHOOL def. Trent Patton - Diego Krepps, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 7-6 (3), 6-0, -; No. 4 - Brayton Robertson - Landon Reynolds, CALEDONIA HIGH SCHOOL def. Kyle Bay - Isaac Higgins, GRANT HIGH SCHOOL, 6-4, 6-0, -;  Another team trophy for Hesperia VBall Panthers add to the trophy case Coach Grimard: Both JV and Varsity Lady Panthers brought home trophies today! The Varsity team went 3-0 in Pool Play, then moved on to defeat a tough Central Montcalm team in the semi-finals with the scores 25-21, 25-22. Followed by a 25-19, 25-20 win of Saranac in the finals, making them back to back champions of the Mustang Invitational. The Panthers were led offensively by Emily Bayle with 25 kills. Rachel Romero, Brooke Billings, and Isabelle Rumsey added 16,15,14 kills respectively for the Panther offense. Kyra Sayer led with 37 assists along with 24 assists from Aria Thomas. Sayer led at the serving line with 6 aces, Allison Homfeld and Bayle served up 5 and 4 aces respectively. Defensively, Bayle led with 19 digs, Romero 12, and Adriana Escobedo with 10 digs. Rumsey led the team with 7 blocks while Billings had 5 blocks on the day. The Panthers have a 12-4 record overall and are 2-0 in the CSAA. Cloud grabs third straight Zion title Coach Strait: This past weekend the Lady Indians traveled to Zion Christian in hopes of bringing the championship trophy home for the third year in a row. After coming out of pool undefeated, the ladies had to play tournament hosts Zion Christian. They carried on their undefeated record and made it to the semi-finals against Martin. Defeating Martin 25-13 and 25-11, they were looking to face Maple Valley in the finals. After a rough start, the Lady Indians battled back to win the first game 26-24. The second game was just as intense, but in the end, they came out on top with a score of 28-26. They had some great defense against a very tough Maple Valley offense. Alexis Strait led the team in serving with 67 points and 28 aces, followed by Olivia Bowman with 40 points and 13 aces, including the winning ace in the finals. Olivia also led in kills with 37 and Alexis with 23. We had a great day of blocking with Alexis earning 10, Emily Hodges with 7, and Cassie Watson with 4. Alexis did a nice job dishing out assists with 69. Emily Feldpausch had a great day in the back row with 40 digs followed by Alexis, Olivia, and Carsyn Scarlavai with 34, 30, and 30, respectively. We will be heading to Holton Wednesday to continue continue conference play. Pack shut out The Bulldogs swept past the Packers in a dual meet Thursday 3-0..Rhi Pafford led Fremont with 10 kills followed by Natalie Jamison with 5. Carle Bruggema finished with 11 assists while Calla Miller added 8. Soccer Moon scores 4 in Fremont win The Packers traveled to Grant Thursday afternoon for a non-conference match against the Tigers. Fremont's Carter Moon had a big match with four goals while Waden Woods added one of his own. Conner Roesler and Kasidy Wright tallied single assists for Fremont. Grant's Albert Macias scored Grant's lone goal off a corner kick directly. The halftime score was Fremont 2-Grant 0 and the final Fremont 5-Grant 1. Fremont outshot Grant 19-3. Joe Kortge made 2 saves for Fremont and Ed Hallberg also made 1. Logan Osborn made 14 saves for the Tigers. Fremont improved to 4-2 overall and 2-0 in the conference. Grant fell to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the conference.  Friday Football Scores: Lions Roar, Tigers Stung, Pack Stopped, Devils Denied & Panthers Caged9/7/2019  By N3 Sports Photo by Justice Long Interesting week 2 though once again our coverage schools went 1-4 with the Lions emerging with the only W on the night. The Gold has 2 undefeated teams but instead of RC and CH they are CM and TC and the Silver possesses just 1 win thus far among the 5 teams playing this season. Newaygo 28 Chippewa Hills 12 The Lions shook off last week's loss, avenged a tough defeat from last season, and gave their school their first win over the Warriors since 2013. And in doing so notched that all important first conference win in what should be a tight and wide open race for the league title. The Lions struck early when David Gonzales broke away and sprinted 25 yards for an early touchdown and after an Angel Guevera conversion the defense went to work holding the hosts scoreless to intermission. In the third, Brendan Brechting capped a Lion drive with a scoring run from 6 yards out and again Guevera converted to make it a 14-0 game but the Warriors answered and put up six with a 19 yard scoring strike by CH qb Dylan Sharp. The extra point failed so when Brechting found the end zone again on an 18 yard run the successful PAT gave Newaygo a 21-6 lead. CH scored again in the 4th when Sharp ran one in. Still down by 9 they went for the 2 point conversion but the Lion defense stopped them and another Brechting tally on a 26 yard run iced the game and sent the Lions home winners. Carlos Magana (8), Logan Heideman (8) and Cameron Goodin (7) led the team in tackles with Hudson Harkness (6) Gonzales (6) and Gavon Rake (5) close behind. Brechting finished with 126 yards on the ground and Gonzales gained 91 as the running game averaged over 6 yards a carry thanks to the o-line efforts in the trenches. Guevera was 4-4 in PATs. Newaygo (1-1, 1-0) hosts Central Montcalm (2-0, 1-0) next week while Chip Hills (0-2, 0-1) will be visiting the undefeated Vikes at Tri County (2-0, 1-0). Reed City 54 Fremont 6 Adam Halasinski punched it from 2 yards out to put the Pack on the board for the first time this season. Unfortunately the initial 2019 Fremont sojourn into the endzone came as time expired and after their hosts piled up 54 points including 32 before intermission. The Coyotes bounced back from a (Montague) Wildcat whipping last week to announce on the field of play that they were not going to be easily yielding the conference crown they have owned since 2011 except for sharing it with Newaygo in ‘14. Halasinski gained 88 yards on the ground to account for more than half of the 160 yards the Packer offense accumulated but the Yotes averaged 14 yards every time they put the ball in play and created three turnovers on defense to dominate the conference opener for both teams. Tristen Marfia ran for 34 yards Matthew Halasinski gained 27 and Carter Dunbar added 22. Kyler Kolk led the defensive effort with 6 tackles. Fremont (0-2, 0-1) welcomes in the Cards of Big Rapids (o-2, 0-1) next week and Reed City (1-1, 1-0) will visit Grant. Central Montcalm 26 Grant 20 The Tigers battled the Hornets to the final gun but fell short in the conference opener for both teams. Coach Geraghty:“We shot ourselves in the foot when it really mattered” The Tigers offense was led by a rushing attack that totaled 239 yards. Junior Orion Evans led the charge with 142 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries. Junior Trevor Lowery had 62 yards on the ground to go with his two touchdowns. The defensive effort was led by senior Jarrett Railling with 12 tackles. Junior Trevor Lowery and Sophomore Treyton Railling followed with seven tackles apiece. “I’ve got to do a better job getting these kids ready,” added Coach G. “They played their tails off and we will rebound from this”. Grant (1-1, 0-1) welcomes in Reed City (1-1, 1-0) on Friday. Carson City Crystal 38 Holton 0 The Eagles scored early and often while holding the Devil offense at bay most of the night and came away with the non conference win. “We came into the game without a few starters, did everything we could to try to move the ball but struggled most of the night,” said Coach Jados. “ Defensively we struggled to make tackles and it hurt us all night.” Kaleb Kitchka led the way on both sides of the with 64 yds rushing from the QB position and 9 tackles on defense, before leaving in the 3rd quarter with an injury. Aiden Poling played a tough game with 8 tackles. Holton (0-2, 0-0) will be the home team in the annual rivalry game with Hesperia next week. It will also open the conference season for both teams. Ludington 55 Hesperia 24 The Panthers put up a game effort on the road and managed to put up some points against a tough Ludington defense but the O’s can put up the points behind a dominant o-line and Friday night they most certainly did. Panther QB Logan Balkema had a solid game with a pair of TD’s and Logan Pearson added a score from the running back position. AJ Perysian ignited his teammates and the faithful fans who made the trip with a kickoff return for paydirt in the 2nd quarter to break the visitors into the scoring column. Hesperia suited just 16 players and lost 2 more to injuries during the game. “Proud of my guys, playing short handed again tonight,” said Cach Bolles.”We never quit and kept battling until the end. “We’ve played two quality opponents in our first two weeks of the season and we may be 0-2, but we’ve showed some spunk. I like that” The Panthers open Silver play next week with their annual rivalry game at Holton. Other CSAA Games Tri County 24 Big Rapids 22 Orchard View 28 Kent City 6 Hopkins 45 Morley Stanwood 12 Onsted 49 Lakeview 12   By N3 Sports Newaygo at Chippewa Hills For any of the players from last years Lions squad the previous matchup with CH might still sting a bit. The loss to the Warriors, marked by a controversial ending, put them in a 0-2 hole and it took winning 6 0f their last 7 to make it into the postseason. This time they’re heading for Remus to take on the Warriors and again enter the game having dropped the opener. And no one wants to be on that bus coming home with an 0-2 mark. It took the Lions a half to get going last week and they will likely need to score some points early to come out on top here. The Warriors are coming off a low scoring loss to Gaylord. If the Lions are to contend for what looks to be a pretty wide open title race they need this one and I like their chances even on the road. A long road. Grant at Central Montcalm The Tigers stomped Shelby last week and now they hit the highway again with a matchup against Central Montcalm. They controlled the trenches and stifled the Shelby offense while Brendan Keelean looked really good behind center and Jarrett Railling displayed a nose for the ball and some bone crunching tackles. The Hornets beat Morley last week. The victory gave them one more than all of last year but make no mistake, the Bees weren’t that bad last season they just seemed to not know how to win or even hold a lead. The Tigers should win but Stanton is a tough place to play and the win over the Mohawks likely won't be the last one the Hornets gather this season. Fremont at Reed City. Since joining the CSAA Gold Fremont has faced Reed City, an old WWAC foe, three times. The Coyotes have captured all three by a total score of 141-13. But this is not the Coyote team that has dominated the decade in the CSAA. There are schools that lose some key players to graduation and then there are programs that send off not one not two not three but 6 that’s s-i-x players to play college ball. A half dozen starters good enough to continue their football careers past the high school level leave a school the size of Reed City and there is major rebuilding to be done. Granted the 6 haven’t been there since the program started their 8 season playoff run but that is indeed a lot of talent to replace. Can the Packers compete with the Yotes? Well they didn’t get on the board last week but neither did Reed City. The Wildcats made certain the game was not going to be a repeat of last year and took care of business in that efficient Montague fashion by closing the door on RC. The Packers offense will have to move the sticks early and often and more importantly get the ball into the endzone when they get a chance. The Coyotes may be a bit tamer than the juggernaut of last season but they are always dangerous and rebuilding year or not they will be looking to show their fans they still have some bite. If Fremont falls behind early it could be something less than pretty. Hesperia at Ludington The Panthers are heading north to take on an Oriole defense that simply took apart the Packers last week. Ludington is in the Lakes 8 conference which no longer has 8 schools (5) but hey, the Big Ten has 14 teams and the Big 12 has 10 and those are colleges so despite the apparent lack of math majors making these decisions… Coming off a playoff season the O’s looked pretty polished in Fremont last week and their Friday visitors struggled a bit in the opener albeit against a likely playoff bound Norsemen squad. The Panthers got on the board in the 4th courtesy of Logan’s (Pearson) run, not to be confused with the mid 70’s sci-fi movie classic, and another Logan td when qb Balkema hit Majersky who took it home for 6, so they know how to score. Getting deep enough to make it happen looks to be a challenge so a big play here and there might help a lot. Of course the Orioles might be looking into next week when they face forever rival Manistee in Chippewa country. Last year the Chips pounded out a 3 touchdown win on the O’s home turf and no one has forgotten that. But this is a good team playing on their beloved turf so a lot will have to go Hesperia’s way for Coach Bolles and his team to enjoy their bus ride home. Carson City Crystal at Holton Now that was indeed a heartbreaker last week. The upside? This team is peppered with players who recall last season’s rise from disappointment so having the Pirates pilfer the win will not likely stay with them. The C3 Eagles lost their raptor rivalry opener to the Eagles of perennial powerhouse Fowler (a school known for graduating such notables as Newaygo Superintendent Peg Mathis as well as the recently retired RN who oversees day to day operations at N3 World Headquarters and Butterfly Sanctuary and allows this reporter to live there as well). The Red Devils will be ready and so will their fans who are waiting to see this years version of the team that ignited a town’s spirit last year. This team wants another shot at the post season and with a tough schedule ahead to win at home would be a great start down that road. And also number one for Coach Jados.  |
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