Football Preview Week II: No One Wants To Start 0-2

Mystery ref worked the WC/Shelby game last week.

By Ken De Laat

Local teams went 2-5 in their season openers. This week the Lions, Tigers, Packers and Vikings kick off the quest for a conference crown against their Gold opponents while the Panthers and Devils tune up for the start of Silver play with a second non-con matchup.
White Cloud has already moved to 2-0 by virtue of a forfeit by Wyoming Lee. They will open league play with a visit to Hesperia next week.

Central Montcalm (1-0) at Newaygo (0-1) Thursday
In a game that saw the unheralded 12th  player known as  Momentum switch teams at the half, Kent City’s talent for capitalizing on mistakes helped them christen their new field with a win.
The Hornets looked strong in taking down Morley at home last week.
It looks to be a tight conference race with a few teams likely to emerge as prime contenders in the next couple of weeks. Whoever wins this one is likely to be in that conversation.

Big Rapids (0-1) at Fremont (0-1) Friday
One of two Friday games this week. 
The loss The Cards couldn’t stop Dylann Merlo as he and the rest of the Broncos galloped past their visitors dropping 42 points on BR.
But the Cardinals did score 30 so there is that.
The youthful Packers put up a good fight against a tough Oriole team and less a few turnovers they might have made the score a bit tighter. They’ll get better under Coach Carpenter and this would be a good game to start that climb. 

Reed City (0-1) at Grant (0-1) Thursday
The Coyotes lost a tight game to Cadillac in a clash between two  of the state's powerhouse programs. 
The Tigers were blasted by Comstock Park as the Panthers put up double nickels on the Tiger home field.
Yeah, it doesn't get any easier this week for Coach Stephan and his team, but if, as Gandhi once said, adversity is the mother of progress ... 

Hesperia (0-1) at St Louis (1-0) Thursday
The Panthers fell to the Manton Rangers last week and face the Sharks who won a 49-30 shootout against Calvin Christian a team that hasn’t beaten anyone not named Lee since 2016.
Coach Smith’s team will be taking about a 2 hour bus ride to get there.
Here’s hoping the ride back is something other than dead silent.


Chippewa Hills (0-1) at Tri County (1-0) Friday
I got a feeling Coach Butler has a pretty good team over there in Howard City. We will know how good after they tangle with Reed City next week. Lakeview lacked the talent and depth to stay with the Vikings in their first win  and the Warriors couldn’t score and couldn’t keep  the Gladwin team out of the end zone.


Coleman (1-0) at Holton (0-1) Thursday
The Red Devils exchanged blows with Hart early but the Pirates prevailed.
The Comets won their opener 61-0. Maybe their opponent Farwell didn’t have the horses to put up much of a fight but man, 61 points.
That's a lot of points.

Jace Silverthorn rounds the corner for some yardage vs. Shelby. The Cloud won 33-6 and Lee forfeited this week's game so WC is 2-0 for the first time since 2007- Photo by Bobbie Cruzan