FRUITPORT – The Fruitport football team’s defense has taken a lot of criticism over the past two years for giving up a lot of big plays and allowing opponents to run up scores.

But the Trojan D did not deserve the blame on Friday night.

The defenders stayed strong against a bruising Hopkins running game and kept Fruitport within one point at halftime.

But they ended up being on the field for far too long, because the Fruitport offense couldn’t stay on the field for very long at all.

Over time the defense wore down, the visiting Vikings scored a few more touchdowns, and Fruitport came out on the short end of a 27-12 final score on Homecoming night.

The Trojans dropped to 2-5 on the season and 1-3 in O-K Silver conference play.

“We’re always going to try to find something we can build on, try to help these guys find positives, but it’s a difficult pill to swallow when we feel we’re on par with the other team, but just lack discipline.

“I am proud of our defense, but they were on the field a ton. They played physical. Hopkins walked away with some guys limping around. That was a testament to how physical our defense played. But you can’t give teams you are evenly matched with more opportunities. You just can’t.”

The Fruitport defense did not get off to a very good start. Hopkins took the opening kickoff and drove 68 yards on 11 plays and scored a touchdown.

But then the defenders tightened up and kept the Vikings from scoring again before halftime.

They forced Hopkins into six fourth-down situations in the first half, resulting in two punts and a turnover on downs.

That’s not bad for a unit that gave up 40 points to Spring Lake, 41 to Big Rapids and 58 to Belding earlier in the season.

Bute the Trojan offense did not hold up its end of the bargain.

It had two big plays that resulted in scores – a 45-yard touchdown run by Bradon Dornbos and a 65-yard touchdown pass from Brady Hanson to Blair Zimmer.  Other than that, there were a lot of drives that sputtered due to mistakes, penalties and turnovers.

One drive advanced to the Hopkins 26, then the Trojans had an offsides penalty on fourth-and-three and ended up turning the ball over on downs.

Another drive advanced to the 50-yard line before ending with an interception.

Another drive moved the ball to the Hopkins 43 but ended with a punt.

A second-half drive never really got started. The Trojans had the ball at their own 27 when they threw another interception that was returned for a touchdown.

All the failed drives allowed Hopkins to dominate the time of possession, sustain long drives, grind the Trojan defense down and eventually pull away.

“We’ve got to get those guys off the field and give them a break, but when they are on the field for 12- and 14-play drives, it’s hard to do,” Smith said about his defense.

The first half was actually pretty hopeful for the Trojans.

Hopkins scored on its first possession and took a 7-0 lead, then the Trojans took the ensuing kickoff, failed to move the ball, and had to punt.

But Dornbos’ punt rolled all the way to the Hopkins three, the Vikings had to punt from their own end zone, and Fruitport ended up with the ball at its own 42.

Four plays later Dornbos took a handoff from Hanson and broke down the sideline for his 45-yard touchdown run with 1:33 left in the first quarter.

The extra point attempt failed and Hopkins clung to a 7-6 lead.

The Trojans had a great chance to take the lead before halftime when a very bad Hopkins punt gave them the ball at the Viking 31.

But they had an illegal procedure penalty on the ensuing possession, only moved the ball to the 25 and ended up turning it over on downs.

Fruitport took the kickoff in the second half and moved the ball to the 50, then threw an interception that gave Hopkins the ball at its own 40.

The Vikings then drove 60 yards on 11 plays, scored on an 11-yard run by Justin VanWagner and took a 14-6 lead with 2:10 left in the third quarter.

Fruitport drove to the Hopkins 43 on its next possession, but ended up punting.

Hopkins then drove 75 yards on a very long 15-play drive and scored on a four-yard run by VanWagner. The PAT attempt failed and Hopkins led 20-6 with 3:35 left in the game.

Hopkins’ Austin Schaendorf added a 35-yard pick-six touchdown on Fruitport’s next possession, and the extra point made it 27-6.

Fruitport capped off the scoring when Hanson hit Zimmer with the 65-yard touchdown pass with 2:39 left on the clock.

“We’re going to go back to the drawing board and work on discipline,” Coach Smith said. “We’ve gotten better, but we’re still not where we need to be. Some of mistakes are aggressive mistakes and some are a lack of discipline. We’ve just got to get better.”