FRUITPORT – So that was the Fruitport football team that head coach Nate Smith was so excited about, in the weeks leading up to the season.
His enthusiasm might have been hard to understand after Weeks 1 and 2, when his team was soundly beaten by strong opponents from Spring Lake and Big Rapids.
But the Trojans roared to life on Friday, bagged their first win of the season, and gave a glimpse of how well they can play in a 49-8 pummeling of previously unbeaten Kelloggsville.
“We needed it,” Smith said about the victory. “I think Kelloggsville is a good team, and it was a bigger win than people might have thought on the surface. We were excited, for sure. It was a big shot in the arm.”
Smith said the first two games were like experiments for the Trojans. They had a chance to see what worked, what didn’t, what adjustments were necessary and how they could play better.
The lessons were learned, according to the coach.
“I think the message was, after Big Rapids, OK, we’ve been exposed,” Smith said. “Our lack of physicality was exposed, our inability to execute and make adjustments was exposed, but all of those areas were very much improved on Friday night.”
Now the Trojans will try to conquer Napoleon.
Who?
The Napoleon Pirates, from Napoleon, Michigan, located in Jackson County in the southeast part of the state.
The Pirates were a late addition to Fruitport’s football schedule. The original Week 4 non-conference opponent was Wyoming Lee, but that school canceled because it did not have enough players to field a team.
Fruitport went shopping at the last minute to avoid a hole in the schedule, and found a quality opponent. The Pirates will visit Fruitport’s Doc Pierce Field on Friday night.
It’s true that Napoleon is a smaller school than Fruitport. The Pirates compete in Division 6 in the Michigan football playoff system while Fruitport is Division 3.
Before this season, Napoleon was Division 7 for several years.
But smaller school does not automatically mean bad team. The Pirates have qualified for the state playoffs seven out of the past nine years, including the last three in a row.
This year they are 2-1 so far. They beat Brooklyn Columbia Central 48-29 in their opener, lost to Hanover-Horton 28-8 in Week 2, then beat Jonesville 22-6 last week.
Coach Smith said Napoleon is a good team with a winning tradition, and his squad will have to play well to get its second victory in a row.
“The scouting report we got is that they are pretty physical,” Smith said about the Pirates. “They run a lot and like to hide the ball. You can tell they are a playoff team, a team that expects to win.
“We’re looking forward to it. We get to play at home and our guys are excited. Can we improve on the things we did last week? That’s kind of the message we are sharing in practice. I feel really good about our opportunity.”
Deep rushing attack, opportunistic defense
Coach Smith has reason to feel good going forward, after watching his team click on both sides of the ball on Friday.
Most of the offense was based on a very deep and balanced ground game. The Trojans piled up 322 yards of rushing, with 10 runs of at least 10 yards and five rushing touchdowns, from Dariyon Gatlin (13 yards), Kalan Teeter (19 yards), Liam Campbell (five yards) and Brady Hanson and Josh Eppard (one yard).
Fruitport’s other offensive touchdown came on a 31-yard pass from Hanson to Blair Zimmer.
Campbell was the leading rusher with 84 yards in the game, followed by Gatlin (62), Eppard (60) and Hanson (50).
In a way, Fruitport actually benefited a bit from earlier injuries to its two leading rushers from last year – Campbell and Teeter. Teeter missed the first two games, and Campbell only played the first half in Week 1.
The injuries forced the Trojans to give young ball-carriers like Eppard and Gatlin lots of carries in the first two weeks, and they gained a great deal of knowledge and confidence.
Now Fruitport has a deep running attack with lots of quality options.
“It’s going to help us, especially with so many guys playing two ways, to have so many who can carry the ball,” Smith said. “It opens a lot of things up. We have much more depth and many more options. They all bring a different skill set, and they are all capable of being 25-30 carry backs in some offenses. We will be able to keep guys fresh and the level of physicality up.”
The success of the ground game was only made possible by the success of the offensive line, which really flexed its muscle for the first time this season.
Credit for the great O-line play goes to Mackiel Williams, Evan LaGuire, Ashton Kemp, Bryson Cena and Chase Rosema.
“They won the battle up front,” Smith said. “That was huge. Physically they imposed their will, and they are starting to understand the adjustments that need to be made.”
The Fruitport defense also deserves a lot of credit for the success of the offense, because it was so opportunistic against Kelloggsville.
The Trojan defenders came up with six turnovers, including four interceptions, a muffed punt recovery and a fumble recovery in the end zone for a touchdown.
Angel Krueger recovered the muffed punt. Eppard recovered the fumble in the end zone. Zimmer, DayDay Williams, Teeter and Gideon Marksbury had the interceptions.
The defense gave up quite a few yards, but Smith said the majority of those yards came later in the game, when many starters were pulled and reserves were getting playing time.
Colton Smith led the Trojans with seven tackles, Zimmer and LaGuire had six apiece, Alan Jackson added five and Williams and Teeter each had four.
Overall the coach was thrilled with the defensive effort, which only allowed one touchdown after two weeks of giving up a lot of big plays.
“Our guys were flying around on defense,” Smith said. “That’s what impressed me the most. They were physical, fast and very athletic. They were laser focused, and it was fun to watch. They put a lot of pressure on the quarterback, which forced him to make throws faster than he wanted to.
“It’s cool to watch stuff you work on come to fruition during the game.”
Leave a comment
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.