FRUITPORT – Fruitport’s Brock Dornbos has been looking forward to the Grand Rapids West Catholic game for the past year.

Last season, in Week 5, he was playing offense and blocking for a runner when a would-be West Catholic tackler missed his mark and hit Dornbos’ right knee from behind.

He felt immediate pain, learned he had multiple tears in the ligaments in his knee, and his season was over.

To add insult to injury, West Catholic put a pretty good beating on the Trojans, 49-14.

“I had complete tears in my MCL and PCL,” Dornbos said. “He hit my knee and blew out both of those ligaments. It ended my season right there.”

For a football junkie like Dornbos, having to be on the sidelines watching his teammates play without him for the rest of the season was torture.

He also had to undergo surgery and months of rehab to be ready to play this season.

Needless to say, Dornbos is eager for another shot at West Catholic, which will happen on Friday at Fruitport in a huge O-K Blue conference matchup.

“I’ve definitely been looking forward to this game,” he said.

The last few weeks have been great for Dornbos and the Trojans.

As the team’s standout middle linebacker, he was tired of hearing all the talk about the powerful Fruitport offense that scored so many points, and the weak Fruitport defense that gave up so many points.

He and his defensive teammates got back to work with their coaches, corrected some mistakes they had been making, and performed very well over the past two games.

The Trojan D only allowed Coopersville two touchdowns in a 37-20 victory, and only gave up one score to Spring Lake in a 33-6 win.

“We just got tired of the headlines,” Dornbos said. “There was a lot of talk about the defense, and it starts to get to you.”

Dornbos was also eager for the Trojans to start building some momentum with a few wins in a row.

Fruitport won in Week 1, lost in Week 2, won in Week 3, lost in Week 4 and won in Week 5. That was a pattern that Dornbos wanted his team to break.

His goal was accomplished last week when Fruitport defeated Spring Lake in the annual “Battle of the Bayou,” giving the Trojans a 4-2 record and a two-game winning streak.

“It just builds confidence in the team to get a winning streak going as we head toward the playoffs,” Dornbos said.

Beating Spring Lake accomplished a huge goal, in and of itself, because the Trojans had not beaten the Lakers in five years. Dornbos and his fellow seniors didn’t want to graduate without defeating their rivals, and he said the experience was everything he hoped it would be.

“It felt good to win that game, especially beating a rival and beating them that bad, on their Homecoming night on their home field,” Dornbos said. “It felt great.”

Through all six weeks of the season, win or lose, Dornbos had been putting on quite a defensive performance.

He’s currently among the area’s tackling leaders with 45. That total includes six tackles in the season opener against Kenowa Hills, five tackles and a sack against Allendale, seven tackles against Hudsonville Unity Christian, seven tackles and a sack against Coopersville and eight tackles against Spring Lake.

Those numbers don’t surprise Fruitport head coach Nate Smith at all.

“He’s locked in,” the coach said. “He came up to varsity midway through his sophomore year, and we’ve just seen him grow and grow as a football player.

“Pound for pound he’s one of the strongest kids in the weight room. He eats right, sleeps right, and does all the little things that great players do. We’ve just been blown away by his progress. He’s been playing so well on the defensive side of the ball.”

After missing so much of his junior season, Dornbos is determined to make the most of his final year of varsity.

That determination wasn’t shattered by two earlier losses to Grand Rapids Christian and Unity Christian, two very good teams. He said he and his teammates have reached the point where they can learn and benefit from losses, rather than be mentally crushed.

“I think losses can teach you a lot,” Dornbos said. “They expose things about you and show things you need to work on. They are good for teams sometimes.

“We have a lot of guys who just got sick of losing. They don’t like it, and they’re willing to study film, learn and go out there and attack it.”

Dornbos knows the Trojans will have their hands full this week against the undefeated West Catholic squad, but he also believes his team is much better, and more confident, than the 2021 team that lost to the Falcons so badly.

“Not at all,” he said, when asked if the team would be intimidated by West Catholic. “We have a high level of confidence this year. It’s a really big game, and we really want to win it. We’re playing a good team, and we want to go out and show people what we can do.”