FRUITPORT — For the second straight week, Fruitport’s football team put together a solid second half, showing growth and giving the Trojans something to build on.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, that solid second half again followed a tough first 24 minutes, and Fruitport dropped its home opener to Big Rapids 41-14 on Friday night.

Fruitport trailed 34-0 at halftime before outscoring the Cardinals 14-7 after the break.

The Trojans were without head coach Nate Smith, who is dealing with a medical issue. Assistant coach Mike Farley served as acting head coach for the game.

“I challenged them at half time. I told them the scoreboard doesn’t matter at this point,” Farley said of the team’s second half effort. “I don’t care what the score is, but our goal is to go out in the second half and play as hard as you can and as smart as you can.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these guys, and I know Coach Smith is going to be really proud of them, too.”

The key for the Trojans will be improving in practice and converting some of their second half success to the first two quarters in upcoming games.

“We just have to work on different things and get better at what we do,” Farley said. “We’ve got to block out all the other outside stuff and concentrate on us and getting better fundamentally.

“I feel like we’re going to be able to recover from this, bounce back and get ready for Comstock Park.”

Friday marked Fruitport’s first home game of the season – and its last until Week 7, because the Trojans have four consecutive road games coming up. Farley said the community support, which included celebrating the program’s youth teams and cheerleaders, was great on Friday.

“The community really loves its football program and really surrounds them and believes in them,” he said. “We’re going through a rough patch right now. We didn’t win a game last year and we’re 0-2 out of the gate. But I think we’re getting this thing ready to turn it around. I really do.”

Big Rapids started the game with a bang, returning the opening kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown. The Cardinals added a pair of touchdown runs in the first quarter to led 21-0 after one.

Two more touchdowns in the second quarter extended the Cardinal lead to 34-0 at halftime.

Fruitport got on the board on the first possession of the second half. The Trojans drove 31 yards on 14 plays, taking more than seven minutes off the clock. Quarterback Bradon Dornbos capped the drive with a one-yard touchdown run to make it 34-7.

Big Rapids responded minutes later with a touchdown of its own to make it 41-7, which was the score after three quarters.

The Trojans added their second score early in the fourth quarter when DayDay Williams ran in a 6-yard TD. The PAT from Riley King brought the score to 41-14, which held through the final whistle.

Dornbos was 4-for-13 passing for 75 yards and rushed 20 times for a team-high 105 yards. Williams carried the ball 14 times for 56 yards and led the team with two catches for 36 yards.

Kalan Teeter had 33 rushing yards while Blair Zimmer made one catch for 33 yards.

Zimmer was also the team’s leading tackler with seven stops. Teeter had five and Dornbos had four.

Fruitport (0-2) will travel to Comstock Park next week for its first game in the new O-K Silver conference. The Panthers (0-2) lost 37-8 against Holland Christian on Friday.