SPRING LAKE — Opening the football season on the road is always a tough task.

Add in a major rivalry game against a state-ranked team and things get even tougher.

That’s the situation the Fruitport Trojans faced Thursday night as they opened the 2024 campaign with the Battle of the Bayou against Spring Lake, ranked No. 9 in Division 4 in a preseason coaches poll.

Spring Lake took control of the game early and used a potent rushing attack to run away from the Trojans, 40-7.

“We started off, our eyes were real big,” said Fruitport head coach Nate Smith. “We didn’t do our job and all of a sudden we’re behind 26-0. We played better in the second half. I thought guys settled down and did much better in the second half.”

The Lakers found success with an option running game, often finding big gains along the sidelines. Smith credited Spring Lake for taking advantage of mistakes.

“It’s just guys taking an inside angle versus an outside angle,” he said. “We’d do two or three plays right, then one play wrong and the one play wrong they’d take advantage of. That’s what good teams do. They took advantage of our mistakes, and for us to be a good team we’ve got to get rid of our mistakes.”

Despite the loss, Smith saw improvements in the second half that he hopes carry over into next week, when the Trojans will host Big Rapids in another non-conference game.

“The second half we made the adjustments and we played much better,” he said. “Once we calmed down and realized we can’t let all the surroundings and the rivalry and all that stuff get to us. If we can focus on what we’re going to be doing, I think we can be a good football team.

“The way our guys feel right now, I can see it in their eyes that we’re going to get better.”

Spring Lake jumped out to a 13-0 lead after one quarter on touchdown runs by Alex Batka (36 yards) and quarterback Reid Grimmer (1 yard). Grimmer added another 1-yard score in the second, followed by a 3-yard touchdown run by Darrel Lawrence, bringing the score to 26-0 at halftime.

Fruitport managed just 62 yards of net offense in the first half, but 54 came on its final drive, when the clock ran out after a Bradon Dornbos scramble to the Spring Lake eight-yard line.

The Trojans embarked on another long drive to start the third quarter, taking six minutes off the clock, but turned the ball over on downs at the Spring Lake seven-yard line.

Spring Lake added two touchdowns in the third quarter – a 5-yard run by Nick St. George and a 29-yard run by Lawrence, to make it 40-0.

Fruitport scored its lone touchdown on its first and only possession of the fourth quarter.

Dornbos, the Trojans’ senior quarterback, capped a seven-play drive with a 7-yard TD run. He ran for 53 yards on the drive, which covered 65 total yards.

Dornbos ran 11 times for 89 yards to lead the Trojans. He completed 8 of 11 passes for 68 yards. DayDay Williams was his top receiver, catching four passes for 31 yards. Williams also had 27 yards on seven rushes. Blair Zimmer had two catches for 21 yards.

David Johnson-Jimenez had eight tackles to lead the Fruitport defense, followed by Kalan Teeter with seven and Easton Fett with six.

Lawrence led the Laker attack with 131 yards on 18 rushing attempts, while Batka had 93 yards on just five carries.