FRUITPORT – The Fruitport football team hoped to give its Homecoming crowd a win, particularly with a one-win Hudsonville Unity Christian team coming to town as the opposition.

But those hopes were dashed repeatedly as the Trojan defense struggled to get stops in a 58-20 O-K Blue conference loss on Friday.

In total, Unity Christian had nine possessions on the night and scored on seven of them, with the other two possessions ending in fumbles after big gains.

Giving up a lot of points to Unity Christian is something the Trojans have done frequently over the past few seasons, even in good times. But Fruitport Coach Nate Smith was frustrated with how his guys on the defensive side responded to the challenge on Friday.

“It’s our lack of discipline,” Smith said. “No disrespect to (Unity Christian), because they’re a good team and know what they’re doing. But it’s the same old story. We have guys in spots who just are not making plays and trusting themselves.”

While not much went right for Fruitport on Friday, the Trojans did start the game on a good note when they recovered a muffed Unity Christian punt and followed with a 19-yard touchdown run by Bradon Dornbos just 2:04 into the game.

But the lead quickly vanished as Unity Christian ended the quarter on a 22-0 run to make the score 22-7.

On the first possession of the second quarter, Fruitport’s Kayden Beardsley broke loose for a 56-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 22-13 with 10 minutes left in the first half.

But any hopes of catching the Crusaders ended when Unity Christian closed out the second quarter with 14 straight points, including a 44-yard touchdown run on the final play of the first half.

Unity Christian led 36-13 at halftime.

Two third quarter touchdowns extended the Crusader lead to 51-13 headed into the fourth.

A two-yard passing touchdown from Fruitport freshman quarterback Brady Hanson to DayDay Williams with 5:20 remaining cut the deficit to 51-20.

Unity Christian scored a touchdown on its final drive of the night to make the final score 58-20.

Dornbos totaled 99 yards on 21 carries while Beardsley added 88 yards and one touchdown on eight carries.

Smith believes that despite his team’s 0-6 record, the players will remain determined heading into next week’s road game at Coopersville.

“A lot of these guys are internally motivated,” Smith said. “A good chunk of our guys have been locked in since last Thanksgiving. We have a lot of good character guys who hate this. They want to come out and play for their teammates and themselves. I’m not too worried about that.”