FRUITPORT – The annual Homecoming game always means a lot to alumni, who stream back to their alma mater to see old friends and teachers.

It’s also a highlight for students, who elect kings and queens and have fun all week.

This year Homecoming will mean a lot more than usual to the Fruitport football team, because the Trojans have not been home very much at all this season.

Fruitport has played five of its first six games on the road. The Trojans opened at Spring Lake, came home against Big Rapids, then traveled to Comstock Park, Muskegon Catholic, Belding and Godwin Heights.

On Friday they will finally get back to Doc Pierce Field when they host new conference rival Hopkins in front of what they expect to be a big crowd.

It will be the first of three straight home games for the Trojans, who will finish the season by hosting Holland and Kelloggsville.

“We have Homecoming, we’ve been gone four weeks in a row, and a lot of guys are excited,” said Fruitport head coach Nate Smith. “We still have an opportunity to keep a winning season in front of us, so this is big to the guys, the staff and the community.

“The guys will be playing in front of their classmates and families, and they need that. We’re looking forward to it.”

The Trojans are also looking forward to the chance to right the ship after last Friday, when they experienced their most disappointing loss of the season.

Losing to really good teams like Spring Lake, Big Rapids and Belding is one thing. Losing to Godwin Heights, which came into the game with just one victory, was something different.

The Trojans felt like it was a game they should have won – and they’re probably right.

What went wrong

The what-went-wrong analysis begins with the entire first half, when Fruitport committing four turnovers and trailed 7-0 at halftime.

The Trojans started moving the ball in the second half and made a game of it. One big highlight was a 90-yard kickoff return touchdown by DayDay Williams.

But they couldn’t complete the comeback at the end.

The Trojans trailed by three points in the closing minutes and had the ball on fourth down at the Godwin Heights 7-yard line.

They could have gone for a field goal in an attempt to tie the game, but instead lined up and went for the potential game-winning touchdown.

But the play resulted in an incomplete pass, Godwin Heights got the ball back and killed the clock, and Fruitport lost 15-12.

“It was a very executable play,” Smith said about the attempt to get the go-ahead touchdown. “They lined up correctly and did everything we hoped they would do, but when the ball was snapped a few guys did not do the right things. That’s high school football, I guess.

“We had stayed after practice on multiple days last week to work on that exact play and felt confident about it. But it’s hard to factor in the emotions and nerves of high school kids.”

While fans might wonder why the Trojans did not go for a seemingly easy field goal to tie the game, there were reasons.

Fruitport had already missed two extra point attempts in the game, and several players from the PAT/field goal unit were missing due to suspensions.

At that point, Smith thought it was a better bet to go for six points.

“We had missed PATs from that distance pretty consistently throughout the night,” the coach said. “We had multiple bad snaps, and we had to replace three guys on the field goal/PAT team before the game. If we would have had the normal group of guys, it would have been a no-brainer.”

Trojans have to win out for a winning record

The disappointing loss to Godwin Heights makes Friday’s game a pretty big one for the Trojans, who are 2-4 on the season.

They would love to finish the year with a winning record, after going 0-9 last season, but will have to win all three of their final games to do so.

Step one of that plan will be beating a pretty good Hopkins squad, which comes in with a 5-1 record.

The Vikings opened the season with a 34-20 win over Fremont, then lost 20-12 to Allendale in Week 2.

Since then they have won four straight, against Godwin Heights (35-14), Kelloggsville (35-0), Comstock Park (14-6) and Holland (48-21).

The Vikings did not make the playoffs last year, but did each of the previous five seasons.

“They’re good, for sure,” Smith said about Hopkins. “That’s a good traditional football school, they have run the same offense and defense for years, they come from a tough, hard-nosed community, and they win more than they lose. We knew they were going to be one of the measuring sticks in the O-K Silver.

“We obviously have to pull things together this week. We talked to the guys, and they know they have got to put everything they can into Friday night. We have to put a full game together and play our best game of the year in front of our home crowd.”