The Fruitport football team believes it’s significantly better than last year’s squad, which lost the first two games of the 2024 season by pretty big margins – 40-6 to Spring Lake and 41-14 to Big Rapids.

Because of that, the Trojans were hoping for more success against those same two opponents to start the 2025 season.

So far that plan is falling short, because the Trojans suffered a tough 42-14 loss to Spring Lake on Thursday, in front of a big crowd on their home field.

But they could right the ship, and gain a head of steam, by traveling north and beating a good Big Rapids squad on Friday.

The Trojans’ schedule gets a bit easier over the next few weeks, but a signature win over a perennial playoff team like Big Rapids would do wonders for their confidence.

“The guys know we have eight games left, and winning the conference and making the playoffs are still in front of us,” said Fruitport head coach Nate Smith. “It’s just going to be a matter of going up there and playing real well and getting a win, which would provide us with a tremendous ride home.”

Injuries and other factors

The Spring Lake game was pretty competitive in the first half, with no scoring in the first quarter and the Lakers holding a 14-0 lead at halftime.

The floodgates opened in the second half, when the Lakers added 14 more points in both the third and fourth quarters.

Fruitport’s touchdowns came on an exciting 95-yard kickoff return by junior Alan Jackson in the third quarter, and a five-yard touchdown run by senior Carsen Crow late in the game.

The Trojans had some handicaps in the game.

They played the entire game without one of their standout running backs, Kalan Teeter, who was injured in a scrimmage and won’t be back until Week 3.

Teeter is also a valuable defensive back and a leader on that side of the ball.

Meanwhile, sophomore Liam Campbell, the Trojans’ talented lead running back, injured an ankle during the game and was done for the night. He has yet to practice this week and is questionable for Friday.

As a result, the Trojans’ running game never really got going, producing only 177 total yards and one touchdown.

Crow, normally a defensive starter, was the leading rusher with 83 yards. Josh Eppard added 47 yards.

The passing game struggled as well. Fruitport quarterback Brady Hanson was 6 for 11 for 69 yards. Fifth of those yards came on a pair of 25-yard passes to DayDay Williams.

Another issue was depth. Spring Lake is one of those rare high school teams that has 22 unique starters – 11 different guys on both offense and defense. That keeps everyone fresh throughout the game.

The Trojans don’t have that luxury. Like most teams, they have numerous players starting on both sides of the ball, and they can get tired over the course of a game.

“We had a lot of guys going both ways and they had no two-way starters,” Smith said. “We’re not in that place.”

Exhaustion affected the Fruitport defense in the second half, when Spring Lake pulled away, according to Smith.

“Our defensive line was getting pushed around quite a bit,” he said. “They were bigger than us and wore us out, then we started making some mental mistakes. It was close for a while, then things started rolling downhill.”

Williams led the defense with six tackles, Eppard and Mason DeVries each added five while Blair Zimmer totaled four.

Another tough assignment on Friday

Beating Big Rapids will not be easy, because the Cardinals have a very successful program, and the team has qualified for the state playoffs for five straight years.

Last year the Cardinals were 8-1 in the regular season and advanced to the district finals in the postseason.

Big Rapids opened up the new season with a 19-7 victory over a very good Paw Paw team last Thursday.

Paw Paw led 7-6 at halftime, then the Cardinals got the victory with a pair of second-half touchdowns.

Big Rapids quarterback Cole Haist only completed 3 of 11 passes for 71 yards, but most of those yards came on two touchdown passes in the second half – 22 and 29 yards, respectively, to receiver Owen Craven.

It appears that the Cardinals won with very tough defense, holding Paw Paw to 131 yards of rushing, and only 38 passing, with two interceptions.

For the Trojans, last week’s results have no relevance. They are putting Week 1 behind them and going north in search of a win.

“I don’t think anybody expects us to do that,” Smith said about beating Big Rapids. “They are big and they are physical. We are going to have to have some more guys step up. But on Monday we had a great practice, and we talked about how winning comes from within, and starts with a belief in yourself.

“This team is a totally different team (than last year). They are a very close team and they love playing for each other. Thursday was gut-wrenching, but I think we will be much improved this week. In some ways Big Rapids is a tougher matchup for us (than Spring Lake), but we are locked in for the long haul.”