FRUITPORT – There’s no doubt that the Fruitport football team has been itching for another crack at Hudsonville Unity Christian.

That’s because the Crusaders showed no mercy the past two seasons, beating the Trojans 55-13 last year and 51-0 in 2020.

Unity Christian had done that sort of thing to a lot of teams over the past few seasons. The Crusaders were state champions in 2018, state finalists last season and have dominated the O-K Blue conference the past two years.

But now the tables have turned a bit and Friday night’s matchup at Unity Christian seems a bit more even.

The Trojans are 2-1 following last week’s impressive 50-35 victory over Allendale, while the Crusaders are in a bit of a rebuilding mode with a 1-2 record.

Unity Christian lost its first two games, 54-26 to Whitehall and 41-28 to St. Joseph before sneaking past Coopersville last week 28-27.

But anyone on the Fruitport side who is counting on an easy win is barking up the wrong tree, according to Trojans head coach Nate Smith.

“Not even a little bit,” Smith said when asked if he sensed that Unity Christian is a weakened opponent. “They are a different team than they were last year, but they are still incredibly disciplined with a great coaching staff. There has been a notable increase in their execution each week, and that’s a little scary. They were not the same team in Week 2 as they were in Week 1, and they weren’t the same team last week as they were in Week 2.

“We know we’re going to get the best version of them.”

While Smith is preaching caution about assuming victory, he also says the Trojans are not intimidated by the Crusaders, despite the one-sided scores of the two previous games.

“The guys are not intimidated at all,” he said. “They look forward to playing quality teams. We’ve been watching film and looking for ways to beat them. The mentality at practice has been great this week. We know we can’t have a bad practice.”

A victory on Friday over the defending O-K Blue champs would be a big step toward the Trojans’ goal of winning the conference title this season – but it would only be one step, Smith noted.

“To be somewhere near the top we have to get through some great teams,” he said. “There is West Catholic and Unity Christian, and then there’s Spring Lake. I don’t care about records, that will be a physical football game.

“We are trying not to look down the road. The beautiful thing about the O-K Blue is that it demands your entire focus each week. You cannot blink for a minute.”

The Trojans are feeling much better than they were a week ago, when they were coming off a stunning 41-34 loss to Grand Rapids Christian. They literally let that game get away, building a 34-7 lead before watching it melt in the second half.

The Trojans made sure they kept their foot on the gas against Allendale last Friday at Hope College.

They led 22-7 at halftime and 36-14 at the end of three quarters. Allendale kept fighting back, narrowing the score to 36-21 early in the fourth, but Fruitport scored two late touchdowns that made Allendale’s two late scores meaningless.

“We tried to stay aggressive in play calling and execution,” Smith said. “Even with the subs in we were aggressive in what they were trying to do.”

Several Trojans had big games last week, starting with running back Paschal Jolman, who exploded for 238 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterback Collin Jolman also scored three touchdowns and passed for 99 yards. Slot receiver Cody Nash returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown.

Defensively, Andrew J. Fielstra led the way with nine tackles, Brock Dornbos added five while Caiden Bell and Payton Flores both had four. Ricky Wiggins and Andrew B. Fielstra both recovered bumbles and Nash had an interception.

Despite the final outcome, Smith said the Trojans still have lots of things to work on.

“We have to clean up the mental penalties, like offside penalties,” the coach said. “We can’t give teams second opportunities and unearned first downs. We also had a lot of dropped passes. We didn’t execute some of the fundamentals very well, and that’s been one of our focuses this week.”