Ready For Some Football?

H.S. Season kicks off with Pack, Cloud posting wins

N3 Sports- Of the 6 teams N3 endeavors to cover 5 are starting their seasons with new head coaches calling the shots. Joe Gorman, who guided his WC team to their most wins in a season since 2003, is the only returnee to the local coaching fraternity.
It should be an interesting year.
Fremont, Hesperia and Holton have joined the WMC leaving just 4 teams in the Silver Division of the CSAA and 7 in the Gold. The Packers will be competing in the Lakes Division while the Devils and Panthers will do battle in the Rivers Division.
We will begin posting our football preview articles this week so stay tuned...

Fremont 22 Hart 8
The last time the Packers won their season opener was 2014 when most of  the players on the current  team were tackling 4th grade math or 3rd grade science at Daisy Brook.
And speaking of history they were opening against Hart, a team they faced in the first game of the season for 16  straight years back in the  50’s and 60’s .
It was also the first game for new Packer Head Coach Jared Hudson who will be bringing his team into the rugged West Michigan Conference Lakes Division this season.
The homefield Pirates tallied first after a scoreless first quarter going up 8-0 and it appeared they would carry that lead into halftime before a drive in the closing minutes culminated with quarterback Kyler DeKuiper taking it in from 2 yards out just before intermission. He repeated the feat on the conversion and the teams went to the locker rooms knotted at 8.
In the second half the Packer defense came up big starting with a pick 6 by Michael Romero early in the third that gave Fremont the 14-6 lead after a failed conversion.
The 4th saw the defense continuing to hold off the Pirates while Justin Dirheimer kept piling up the yards including a 4 yard rumble into the endzone to cap the scoring for the evening.
Dirheimer led all rushers collecting 168 yards on 31 carries and DeKuiper kept the defense honest with a 6 pack of short passes  and a 21 yard strike to Carl Vliem.
Romero added 6 solo tackles to his interception and Owen Hertel added 4.
The Packers play their home opener this Thursday when they host Beaverton. The Beavers dropped their Friday road game to Evart 34-20.
​
We caught up with Coach Hudson to pose a few questions.

This is the first time Fremont has won an opener since 2014. What does this mean to the players and fans?
Our players were very excited after the game.  We have talked a lot this fall camp about legacy and how they want to be remembered, and this is a definite step in the right directions. 

Looks like the defense played pretty steady and even put up points. Got any comments on their play?
Our defensive game plan was very solid this week.  Our kids did an awesome job of sticking to their keys and making plays when they had opportunities.  Michael Romero making a great pick six and Briar Hambrock forcing and recovering a fumble are the type of plays we need out of our seniors.

Your o-line must have opened up some nice holes for Dirheimer. New players, returnees, or a combo?
We were lucky to be returning 3 guys from the previous year (Andrew Steger, Kyle Nagel, and Preston Hunt).  Chance Crawford (SO) and Gabe Van Vleet (SR) are our new additions that really sure up the line for us.  Justin is a dynamic runner, but the play up front helped us control the game and led to Hart having only 11 plays on offense in the 2nd half.

Any surprises?
Junior Owen Hertel played a great game defensively for us.  He had to set the edge for us all night and did a nice job, including a huge TFL on one of their trick plays.
  
White Cloud 40 Shelby 20
The White Cloud Varsity football team came out of week 1 with a win over a tough Shelby team. Leading the defense was Jace Silverthorn and Lloyd Sebright-Johnson with 11 tackles each while Carlos Brown added 10 tackles, a sack, and an interception. Other defensive contributors were Alex Cruzan with 7 tackles, Xander Traynor with 6 and a forced fumble, and Landyn McGowen added 4 with a fumble recovery.
 Offensively the Indians were led by a strong O-line that aided in Mason Ruether throwing for 37 yards including a toss to Nate Compeau for a touchdown, Landyn McGowen rushing for 110 yards and a TD, and Jace Silverthorn rushing for 315 yards and 4 touchdowns. 
The team is back in action Thursday, September 1st, at home against Hart.

Manistee 54 Holton 6
The Chips started scoring early when Max Miles took the opening kickoff 87 yards and just like that the hosts were on the board.
Not for the last time.
Manistee built a 35-0 halftime advantage and coasted to the non-con win in the debut game of Red Devil Head Coach Tom Moore. The imposing o-line of the Chippewas opened holes for a quintet of runners who amassed 338 yards with each tallying a TD.
Mistakes hurt the Devs as their hosts twice followed up touchdowns by recovering the ensuing squib kicks and forcing another pair of turnovers.
Chase Albright hit Hunter Zang for a 13 yard scoring strike to account for the lone RD  score. Holton managed just 83 yards on 42 plays.
Coach Moore: “The game didn’t go as planned for sure, we came out a little flat. For a lot of our guys it was their first varsity experience. We faced a bigger team, but that doesn’t matter. Every school is bigger to us, we just need to focus and regroup for next week.”
The Red Devils will look to turn things around Thursday when they host Perry in a noncon matchup. The Ramblers defeated Clawson in their season opener

Manton 37 Hesperia 34
The Panthers will host St. Louis on Thursday. The Sharks lost 20-14 to Calvin Christian in their opener.

Thursday

Comstock Park 24 Grant 14
For the second year in a row the Tigers opened against the Panthers of Comstock Park.
And while the results were better than last year's shellacking, the visitors fell short in the noncon  matchup.
“We made some big plays and I loved my team’s toughness,” said First Year Head Coach Jason Hill. 
Tiger fans will get a chance to see how the ‘22 version of Grant Tigers football looks Thursday when they begin a three game homestand with a conference opener against Chippewa Hills.
The Warriors were manhandled by Gladwin in their debut game, falling 66-0.

Other games of interest:

Reed City 64 Orchard View 16
Coopersville 42 Big Rapids 19
Central Montcalm 38 Morley Stanwood 0
Tri County 50 Lakeview 19
Gladwin 62 Chippewa Hills 0
Ludington 37 Petoskey 31
Oakridge 30 Sparta 14
Whitehall 54 Unity Christian 26
Montague 20 Spring Lake 17
Catholic Central 24 N.Muskegon 22
Frankfort 33 Mason County Central 16
Beal City 22 Ravenna 21

​

By popular demand the mystery ref will be back on our preview stories once again this season.