SPRING LAKE – The Montague football team showed bits and pieces of the type of explosiveness it displayed in previous years, and it was just enough to claim a hard-earned victory over Spring Lake.

The Wildcats trailed the Lakers by three points with just under four minutes remaining in the contest.

Then Montague forced a turnover on an interception by junior Paul Olson and drove the ball 70 yards in three plays to take the lead with two minutes left.

The Lakers drove all the way to the Montague 25-yard line and thought they won the game late, but an illegal motion penalty negated the potential game-winning score.

Spring Lake tried to force overtime on the last play of the contest, but the potential game-tying 48-yard field goal attempt was a couple yards short, allowing Montague to escape with a tight 20-17 victory on opening night.

The Wildcats will travel to play Ravenna next weekend while Spring Lake will face Zeeland East on the road.

“It wasn’t the prettiest game, but our guys tightened up and made plays when they needed to,” said Montague coach Justin Dennett. “They (Spring Lake) had a great game plan in the second half, but we made some adjustments and slowed them down and stopped them when we needed to.”

The two biggest plays down the stretch were by Olson, who picked off a pass by Spring Lake QB Reid Grimmer, then caught a 68-yard toss from Chase Gowell to put the Wildcats inside the five-yard line.

The Wildcats then scored the game-winning touchdown with 2:07 left in the game on a two-yard run by Adam Baird.

“I wasn’t even supposed to be in the game when I made the interception,” Olson said. “That was quite lucky, and I will take it for sure. Then the coaches drew up a perfect deep pass and it worked out great.”

The game started off slow offensively, with no scoring in the first five possessions.

The Lakers finally got on the scoreboard with 5:42 left in the second quarter on a 42-yard field goal by Carter Ball.

Montague quickly responded on the ensuing kickoff with an 88-yard touchdown return by Owen Peterson. The PAT gave the Wildcats a 7-3 lead.

Spring Lake regained the advantage with a two-yard touchdown run by Grimmer on a QB keeper, but the Wildcats closed out the first half with some offensive fireworks on a 43-yard touchdown pass from Gowell to Baird with 28 seconds left.

Montague led 14-10 at halftime.

The Lakers scored the lone touchdown in the third quarter on a 70-yard run by Alex Lee and led 17-14 lead with 7:20 left.

Spring Lake held on to its advantage late in the game and was threatening to score again with the ball near the red zone. But the Wildcats stole the momentum with Olson’s interception and catch that set up the game-winning touchdown.

The Lakers scored what they thought was the game-winning touchdown with just seconds left in the game, but a penalty forced them to settle for the field goal attempt, which fell just short of the crossbar.

“I can’t fault our kids at all for their effort or intensity,” said first-year Spring Lake coach Cody Mallory. “They have been doing all the stuff that we have been preaching. It just came down to we made more mistakes than they did.”

The Wildcats were paced by Gowell, who went 6-for-10 passing for 123 yards and a touchdown, while Baird rushed for 75 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown.

The Lakers were led by Lee with 133 rushing yards on 10 carries while Bryce Collins had 92 yards on nine rushes.