Football Roundup: Lions, Packers, Vikes and Devs Fall Short; CH Forfeits To Grant

Photo by Alexis Mercer

There are now 3 teams sitting at 2-0 in the Gold race as the Cards, Yotes, and Buzz Bugs moved to 2-0 with TC and the Tigers (thanks to a forfeit) sitting at 1-1. The Lions, Pack and Warriors remain winless thus far in league play (and in all games).
The race for the Silver crown got underway as Kent City, Morley and the Cloud notched wins to go 1-0.

Central Montcalm 28 Fremont 14
Hornet Fisher Wells caught three TD passes in the first half, 2 from his QB Kaleb Crooks and one courtesy of the Packers resulting in a pick 6 early in the contest and the hosts held a 21-0 lead when the teams hit the locker rooms for halftime.
The Packers battled back in the second half with Justin Dirheimer punching it in for a 3 yard score followed by a successful PAT by David WachterLate in the period Kyler DeKuiper found Wei Chen and delivered a pass that resulted in a 66 yard TD. Another Wachter boot and the Pack were within a score.
The host Hornets responded quickly and after a kickoff run into Fremont territory Mitchell Herald broke free on first down finding paydirt 39 yards later to stretch the lead to 14 where it stayed for the remainder of the game.
DeKuiper finished with 14 completions for 196 yards but was picked off 3 times in the process. Chen caught 3 passes including the TD grab, Daniel Romero pulled in 4 and Michael Romero notched 3.Dirheimer led the ground game with a tough 62 yards against a formidable Hornet defense.
Michael Romero led the team in tackles with 6 solo stops and 6 assists while Garret Hanshue finished with 5 solos and 5 assists.
Fremont (0-3, 0-2) will head to Newaygo Friday to face the Lions while CM (3-0,2-0) will host the BR Cardinals.

Big Rapids 34 Newaygo 14
After a scoreless first quarter the Lions took the lead early in the second courtesy of a Grant Harkness 30 yard toss to Amaree James that gave them the ball inside the Cardinal 10 yard line. Two plays later Harkness found the endzone and after a Remy Walls kick the visitors were up 7-0
The Cards answered with the Strickler to Strickland combo resulting in a 22 yard TD strike and after a Lion turnover the two combined again for a 6 yard score and BR was up 14-7.
Late in the first half Harkness found Jayden Joseph who sped down the field for a 66 yard TD reception and after another conversion by Wells the teams went to intermission locked at 14.
In the third the Cardinals went ahead 21-14 on yet another TD pass from Strickler to Strickland.
Turnovers and penalties stalled the Lion offense and the hosts pushed across 2 more scores to finish on top in the conference clash.
Big Rapids (2-1,2-0) will travel to Central Montcalm next week while Newaygo (0-3,0-2) will host Fremont.  

Grant 1 Chippewa Hills 0 (Forfeit)
Well, we thought this might be Grant’s shot at getting into the win column and they did indeed notch a victory this week
But it was a 1-0 forfeit that got them off the schneid  as the Chippewa Hills squad was hit by COVID-19 issues leaving them short of players and resulting in a 1-0 loss to the Tigers.
Grant (1-2, 1-1) will look to even their record and grab a W on the field next Friday when they travel to Tri County (2-1,1-1) to face off with the Vikings

Reed City 18 Tri County 12
In a battle of conference contenders the host Coyotes needed to hold back a late Viking run to escape with the win 
The two teams played field possession for most of the first half as the defenses took center stage. Halfway through the second quarter the Coyotes broke the scoreless tie on a 33 yard pass reception.
Minutes later the Viking possession stalled and they yielded the ball. The Reed City offense jumped on the opportunity and looked to enter intermission with a 2 score lead.
Not so fast. The Vikings responded and pushed the ball in with seconds remaining and after an unsuccessful conversion hit halftime down 12-6.
The teams came out in the second half and battled in the trenches once again before trading touchdowns in the 4th. As they had all ight conversion attempts fell short and the score gave the Yotes an 18-12 edge
The Vikings had one more shot at scoring taking possession with just under 3 minutes left but a 4th and 12 attempt came up short and the hosts hung on for the win.
Tri County (2-1, 1-1) will host Grant on Friday while Reed City (2-1, 2-0)  will host Chip Hills (0-3, 0-2)

Morley Stanwood 30 Holton 28
The host ‘Hawks held a 22-8 lead at the half but the Devs made a spirited comeback to pull within a 2 point conversion of tying the game in the final minutes.
That 2 pointer was stopped by the MS defense and despite an impressive effort the Red Devils would be tacking on a loss in their conference opener.
Austin Fowler hit on 12 of 20 passes including a TD toss to Rice Robins who finished with 50 yards. Bret Hosmer tallied 56 receiving yards, Kevin Erickson gained 35 and Cameron Edgerton added 16. Kaleb Nichols led the rushing game for Holton grinding out 57 yards and a touchdown. Fowler also ran for a 6 pointer.
Dylan Cartwright paced the defense with 11 tackles followed by Robins with 7 and Fowler and Nichols finishing with a half dozen each. 
Holton (1-2, 0-1) will visit White Cloud while Morley Stanwood (1-2, 1-0) will take on Kent City in Eagle country.

Kent City 48 Lakeview 6

​