FRUITPORT — Last week, the Fruitport football team learned how valuable a fast offensive start can be.

The Trojans raced to a big early lead that they were able to ride to a big victory.

On Friday night, against reigning O-K Silver champion Belding, the Trojans were reminded of  how hard things can be when the offense does not get moving early against a high quality opponent.

Fruitport’s offense sputtered out of the gate and Belding, a team that eats up the clock with long, run-heavy drives, took an early lead and kept scoring.

The Black Knights routinely ran down the clock to limit Trojan possessions and handed Fruitport a 36-7 loss at Doc Pierce Field.

Fruitport, which had its three-game winning streak snapped, fell to 3-3 overall on the season and 2-1 in the O-K Silver standings. Belding improved to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the conference.

“When you get behind against a team like that, one that’s going to pound the ball, all of a sudden you know your possessions are going to be limited,” said Fruitport head coach Nate Smith. “It puts guys in a spot where they’re playing a little bit amped up, a little bit tight. It’s tough.”

After three weeks of scoring a lot of points, Fruitport was stuck in neutral against the Black Knights. The Trojan offense mustered only 138 yards of total offense — with most of that coming on a late touchdown run with under two minutes to play.

“It was poor execution,” Smith said, noting a costly penalty on his team’s first offensive drive, and the lack of blocking to open holes for ball carriers. “Just uncharacteristic things. I think we’ve got to get mentally tougher, get these guys prepared in different ways.”

Fruitport’s defense, which has been strong in recent weeks, played well early, but was eventually worn down by the physical Belding rushing attack that features the deceptive Wing-T formation. The Black Knights had around double the time of possession as the Trojans.

“We’re asking a lot of our guys to get out there, put their nose in the ground and be physical,” Smith said. “I think our defense played really tough. I don’t think the score is indicative of the effort they gave tonight.”

While Friday’s loss puts a damper on Fruitport’s hopes of winning the O-K Silver, Smith said there is still a lot to play for down the stretch run of the season.

Fruitport has three regular season games left, all in the conference, starting with a home game against Godwin Heights next Friday.

“We’ve got three games ahead of us, and we could finish with a much better record than we had last year, and the guys know that,” Smith said. “Right now, it feels like dirt. It feels like we got kicked in the gut.

“But the reality is, this team’s done a pretty good job, they’ve been pretty resilient. I think they’ll be able to frame this and look at the film, figure out how we can get better and try to finish the last three games on top.”

Belding struck first with 27 seconds left in the opening quarter on a two-yard touchdown run by Teegan VanDyken. A two-point run, also by VanDyken, made it 8-0 Black Knights.

After a Trojan three-and-out, Belding marched down the field before VanDyken scored again, this time from three yards out. Noah Ritenburgh added the two-point try to make it 16-0 with 8:30 left in the half.

Fruitport got a first down for the first time on a drive to end the half, but went into the locker room with no points.

A Trojan turnover on the second play of the second half set Belding up in scoring position. VanDyken scored his third TD of the night six plays later, making it 22-0 with 7:18 left in the third.

Following another Fruitport punt, Tyler Simon broke the first big play of the night for Belding, a 77-yard TD run, to make it 28-0.

A bad third down snap led to another punt on Fruitport’s next drive. That led to another Belding score, when Ethan King broke free for a 42-yard touchdown run with 8:29 left in the game. A two-point conversion pass made the score 36-0.

The teams traded punts before Fruitport’s Owen Doctor found a seam and outran the Belding defense for an 82-yard touchdown run, putting the Trojans on the board. Nathaniel Cribley-Cotto’s extra point brought the score to 36-7, which was the final tally.

Doctor was Fruitport’s leading rusher with 76 yards on two carries. Liam Campbell and Josh Eppard had 21 yards each. Brady Hanson completed two passes for 18 yards and threw one interception. DayDay Williams had a 14-yard catch.

Eppard led the defense with 10 tackles. Williams, Kalan Teeter, Easton Fett, Blair Zimmer and Angel Krueger each added a handful of stops for the Trojans.