FRUITPORT — A pair of costly fourth-quarter penalties, followed by a crucial turnover, doomed the Fruitport football team as it fell to Grand Rapids Christian 36-22 on Thursday night.

Trailing by a touchdown halfway through the final quarter, the Trojans thought they tied the game on a 33-yard touchdown run by quarterback Bradon Dornbos, but the play was called back due to a block in the back. Two plays later, on fourth-and-10, Dornbos ran for a big gain and a first down, but another penalty forced the Trojans to replay the down.

On the next play, Dornbos scrambled while trying to convert the fourth down and threw a jump ball downfield that was intercepted by the Eagles and returned 80 yards for a touchdown.

That sequence put Fruitport down two scores with under five minutes remaining, and the Trojans couldn’t recover as they fell to 0-2 on the season.

“Obviously, we can’t put ourselves in those situations,” Fruitport coach Nate Smith said of the penalties. “You get a great play, it comes back. The guys rally themselves, get focused, make some more plays, then it happens again.

“The story there is the resiliency of our team. They did not let that shake them. In all honesty there’s part of me that’s (proud) we overcame that multiple times, but you can’t do that in a game against a good football team.”

While the Trojans have things to work on after the first two games, Smith saw positives on both sides of the ball.

“Our pass protection was excellent tonight, those guys did a really good job,” Smith said. “Bradon had a much-improved game in the pocket – we spent a lot of time this week working on his pocket presence. But the passing game is so intricate. We’ve just got to keep chipping away at the things we’re not doing right. There were some spacing issues.”

On the defensive side, Smith saw a lot of effort, but some mistakes that came from playing too aggressively.

“I’m really proud of our defensive effort but I don’t think our execution was great,” he said. “When we watch the film, we’re going to see a lot of aggressive mistakes. A lot of times we were in the backfield just playing too aggressive and over the top, not disciplined enough.”

Grand Rapids Christian scored first on a touchdown 20 seconds into the game to lead 7-0.

Later in the first, after a GRC fumble, Fruitport’s Kayden Beardsley ran in a 28-yard touchdown. Ricky Wiggins followed with a two-point conversion to put Fruitport ahead 8-7 with 3:24 left in the opening quarter.

A 42-yard field goal put the Eagles up 10-8 early in the second quarter. Fruitport, after another Eagle fumble, regained the lead on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Dornbos to Bobby Canfield. Beardsley ran in the conversion to put Fruitport up 16-10 with 1:43 left in the half.

GRC evened the score with a touchdown early in the third quarter, with Fruitport blocking the PAT attempt. Another GRC touchdown with 9:07 to play in the fourth gave the Eagles a 23-16 lead.

Fruitport’s next drive ended in the Eagles’ long interception return touchdown, making the score 30-16 with 4:57 to play.

Fruitport responded with a 67-yard TD pass from Dornbos to Canfield to make it 30-22 with 4:30 to play. GRC then ran three minutes off the clock before adding a final touchdown with 1:38 to play.

Dornbos was 10-for-24 through the air for 150 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also ran for 40 yards. Canfield was the top Trojan receiver with seven receptions for 146 yards and two scores.

Beardsley ran 18 times for 127 yards and led the defense with 10 tackles. Day Day Williams and Pierce Jolman had six tackles each, while Easton Fett had a handful of tackles including two for losses, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

Fruitport will be at home for the third straight game next week when Hamilton comes to town to start O-K Blue conference play. The Hawkeyes are 2-0 to start the season.

“We’ve got to keep improving. If we improve on this game like we did last game, I think we’re going to put ourselves in a better situation,” Smith said. “I think we need to play much more disciplined. Penalties hurt us, not breaking down on tackles hurt us. We’ve got to mop that stuff up.”