MUSKEGON – It wasn’t pretty, but an opening win is a win for the Muskegon football team, which defeated East Kentwood 20-14 at home on Friday night.
“We’re willing to fight,” said head coach Shane Fairfield about what he learned about his squad in the narrow victory. “We didn’t give up. We’re resilient. To play that close of a game in Week 1 says a lot about their growth. That’s a great team down there (East Kentwood), they returned nine guys on defense.”
After facing a 14-6 halftime deficit, the tide began to change for the Big Reds in the third quarter.
After forcing a punt to begin the second half, Muskegon took possession with 8:55 left in the quarter – at its own 1-yard line. But the Big Reds made the most of it, going 98 yards on 14 plays and scoring on a one-yard run by Adrian Rankin to cut their deficit to 14-12.
[1]“That was key for us,” Fairfield said about the extended drive. “Our offense has a nine-minute drive. That was a great defense for us. The great thing is our offense controlled the ball.”
Three plays later, sophomore Darekeo Speech recovered a fumble to set the Big Reds up at the Falcon 20-yard line.
On the first offensive snap, quarterback M’Khi Guy broke loose for a 20-yard touchdown run. A successful two-point conversion run by Julian Neely gave Muskegon a 20-14 lead with 10:59 remaining.
Neely intercepted passes on two of the final three East Kentwood possession to help nail down the victory.
[2]“It’s great,” Neely said about being in the right spot to make big defensive plays. “But any of us could’ve gotten them. It’s just practice, and coach put me in the right spot. It’s just business.”
The Big Reds looked strong on their first offensive possession of the night, going 53-yards over 12 plays and taking a 6-0 lead when junior Destin Piggee scored on a six-yard run with 5:01 left in the quarter.
East Kentwood took a 7-6 lead on the following possession with a four-yard touchdown run by Jaiden Woodson, who scored with 2:54 remaining in the quarter.
The lone score in the second quarter came on a 32-yard touchdown pass from East Kentwood’s Casey Joppie to Nathan Cobbs with 10:51 left in the first half.
[3]The two first half touchdowns were all East Kentwood scored on the night. The Big Reds shut out the Falcons over the final 34:51.
“Our guys kept at it,” said Fairfield about the impressive defensive effort which limited East Kentwood to 217 total yards. “I could feel the energy change. I thought we came out a little flat, but I don’t want to take anything from East Kentwood.”
Guy paced the Big Reds with 91 yards rushing and one touchdown on 16 carries while Rankin totaled 61 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries.
Piggee finished with 56 yards and one touchdown on seven carries.
Speech totaled nine tackles for the Big Reds defense while Mason Hunter and Princeton Blackman each had four.
Muskegon will look to start the season 2-0 next week when it travels to Lawrence Technological University to play Warren De La Salle Collegiate.
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