Line Play Lifts 'Yotes Over Lions

Damone Moore cuts to then find an open field for a TD

Senior Mathew Miedema charges ahead

Line Play Lifts ‘Yotes Over Lions 
Story by Ken De Laat
Photos by Alexis Mercer

Reed City 44 Newaygo 14
It turned out to be one of those epic early autumn evenings with a harvest moon gracing the field for Newaygo’s homecoming. The floats were in place for halftime, the crowd filled the stands and lined the fences, the student section in the endzone had a ripple of excitement running through it and the anticipation for the game was high.
Then came the kickoff.
The Coyotes received and began play on their own 25. 6 plays and 75 yards later they were in the endzone and after a 2 point conversion led 8-0.
The Lions mishandled the kickoff but were able to recover the ball putting them inside the 20. On their first play from scrimmage a fumble gave the ball back to the visitors who tossed a 21 yard pass to a wide open receiver and after another 2 point conversion the score was 16-0 with the game not yet 3 minutes old.

A physical run by Aaron Garza

Finding space, Jaxon duChemin wait for his blockers

Quarterback Blake Kerr plants to throw downfield

Newaygo fought back, assisted by a pass interference call that took them just inside Coyote territory. Then Damone Moore busted one loose, bouncing off tacklers and battling his way to the endzone to put the Lions on the board. The conversion failed and the score sat at 16-6.
On the next Reed City drive the Lions had an opportunity for a stop with a 4th and 4 but the ‘Yotes converted the first down then scored on the next play to go up 24-6. 
Newaygo began with a penalty on the return and were pushed back to start on their own 12. The Lions put together a solid drive that was ended by a fumble giving Reed City another chance to drive down and score. The Lions were unable to move the ball on their next possession and with less than 2 minutes on the clock RC scored again and by the time the teams hit the locker rooms it was 38-6.

Josiah Long for the extra point

Kerr waits for his receivers to be in position

Each team scored once in the second half with the Lions getting a 9 yard TD run from Aaron Garza and Moore putting 2 more points on the board with his conversion run to make the final 44-14.
Though a couple of crucial mistakes and untimely penalties hurt Newaygo the game was decided by the line play of Reed City with Lion players giving up a good deal of size in their one to one matchups. Combine this with a boatload of speed coming out of the backfield and the Coyote offense proved to be tough to contain.
The Lions (1-3, 2-4) will ride to Remus Friday to take on Chip Hills (1-3, 3-3) while Reed City (3-2, 3-3) will visit Silver champ Kent City (3-0, 5-1).

Homecoming Court (l to r): Tyson Holden, Kylee Denboer, Logan Westgate, Dakota Rahe, Wesley Manning, Emily Aishe, Maria Riddering, Caris Nelson, Mercedes Melle, Alexander Crandall, Belen Torres, Logan Klomp