GRAND RAPIDS — For a quarter and a half, it looked like the Fruitport football team might cruise to a 2-0 start to the new season.

The Trojans held a 34-7 lead and looked very good in the early stages against Grand Rapids Christian.

But mistakes piled up on both sides of the ball for Fruitport and the Trojans allowed the Eagles to rattle off 34 straight points, including a go-ahead touchdown with 28.5 seconds remaining and steal a 41-34 comeback win.

Fruitport coach Nate Smith said his team needs to “learn how to win” after giving up the big lead.

“We made a few mistakes and we started getting tight,” he said. “We had a controllable lead and we started making mistakes. All of a sudden doubt starts creeping in. That’s a dangerous thing and a dangerous place to be.

“Overall, there’s no reason we should have lost that game.”

Smith said the team and coaching staff might have gotten a bit overconfident after the 34-7 start, giving Grand Rapids Christian a window back into the game.

“Even as a coaching staff, I think we took our foot off the gas a little bit and didn’t come after it real hard,” Smith said. “We started talking about making subs and stuff like that, that’s just lazy coaching on my part. We’ve got to get better.

“We tell our guys to stay focused, stay locked in, don’t lose focus on what’s going on. Ultimately, I think that’s what happened. We lost focus on playing our game and doing what we needed to do.”

While the loss is tough to take, it could show what this Fruitport team is made of going forward.

“We’ll find out what kind of character we have,” Smith said. “If we’re going to start looking at each other and pointing fingers, or if we’re going to lock into each other and get after it. This crew, I believe, is going to do (the latter). They’re going to lock into each other, see the mistakes we made and we’re going to get better.”

The game got off to a wild start, with both teams scoring right away.

Fruitport found the end zone on the first play of the game on an 80-yard touchdown run by Paschal Jolman. Then Grand Rapids Christian’s Tayvarie Heard ran the ensuing kickoff back for a touchdown and the extra point was good to put the Eagles up 7-6.

Collin Jolman put the Trojans up 14-7 with an 8-yard TD run later in the first. In the second quarter, quarterback Collin Jolman tossed three touchdown passes, a 15-yarder to Cody Nash, a 19-yarder to Paschal Jolman and another 19-yarder to Nash Cooper, to extend the lead to 34-7.

Grand Rapids Christian forced a turnover on downs at midfield with 1:35 to play before halftime and scored on a 50-yard pass on the next play. Quarterback Alek Wickstrom connected with tight end Tyler Porte for the touchdown, cutting the Eagles’ halftime deficit to 34-14.

The second half was all Eagles, with Grand Rapids Christian scoring twice in each quarter.

Heard scored on a 13-yard run in the third, followed by a Wickstrom pass to Jude Klunder to make the score 34-28 after three.

The Trojans were driving with under four minutes to go but fumbled on a pitch play inside the Grand Rapids Christian 30-yard-line. The Eagles recovered and returned the ball to the Trojan 35. Minutes later, Zay Caviness ran in from three yards out to even the score with 1:57 to play.

A missed extra point left the score 34-34.

Fruitport went three-and-out on its next drive and punted the ball away with 58 seconds left. Then Wickstrom found Tyree Gamble for a 17-yard touchdown pass with 28.5 seconds remaining to complete the comeback.

Paschal Jolman totaled 191 rushing yards, 20 receiving yards and two touchdowns for Fruiport. Collin Jolman had 76 yards and three scores passing and 63 yards and a TD rushing.

Fruitport is now 1-1 on the season. The Trojans open conference play against Allendale next week. Originally scheduled as Fruitport’s home opener, the game has been moved to Hope College because the new turf field at Fruitport is not yet ready to play on.