THE HASTINGS
Thursday, October 13, 2022Saxons can clinch another I-8 title Friday
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Hastings can clinch its third consecutive
Interstate-8 Athletic Conference Championship
with a win at Jackson Northwest Friday night.
The Saxon varsity football team is the only
team left in the I-8 with an undefeated confer-
ence record at 5-0 and the only one-loss team
left in the league standings is the Jackson
Lumen Christi squad the Saxons beat by three
points in the conference opener last month.
The Mounties are 0-6 against Hastings since
the Saxons joined them in the Interstate-8 Ath-
letic Conference, but at 4-3 Northwest is hav-
ing its winningest season in a decade.
A conference championship is out of reach
for the rest of Barry County’s varsity football
teams at this point. Lakewood was bested by
rival Olivet in its final Greater Lansing Activ-
ities Conference contest last week and will go
on the road to face a Decatur team this Friday
night which just spoiled Delton Kellogg’s
homecoming last week.
Delton Kellogg returns to Southwestern
Athletic Conference Valley Division action
this week taking on Schoolcraft. Delton Kel-
logg is still chasing its first victory ever
against the Eagles who have an 18-0-1 record
all-time against the Panthers.
Both teams are looking to bounce back from
a tough stretch. Decatur rallied in the fourth
quarter to spoil Delton Kellogg’s homecoming
last week and Schoolcraft is coming off back-
to-back losses to Muskegon Catholic Central
and SAC Valley leading Lawton.
Maple Valley will host Blackhawk Chris-
tian from Fort Wayne, Ind., for homecoming
Friday night Oct. 14.
Thornapple Kellogg lost a homecoming
heart-breaker like the Delton Kellogg boys,
losing a lead in the closing seconds, a?d will go
on the road to finish off the OK Gold Confer-
ence schedule at Cedar Springs this week and
at Grand Rapids Catholic Central in week nine.
Cedar Springs is just 3-4 overall this season
but has played a brutal schedule with those four
losses coming against a River Rouge team
ranked third in the state in Division 3, a South
Christian team ranked second in the state in
Division 4, the Catholic Central team ranked
number one in Division 5 and the Zeeland West
team ranked second in the state in Division 3.
While the Tri-River 8-Man Football Con-
ference season is done for the Lions, this
coming weekend will see 7-0 North Pointe
Christian hosting Concord Friday with the
Tri-River lead on the line. The Mustangs are
3-0 in conference currently while the Yellow
Jackets head to Grand Rapids with a 4-0 con-
ference mark and a 4-3 overall record.
Local Standings (W-L, playoff points)
Hastings 6-1, 54.
Delton Kellogg 4-3, 35.
Lakewood 5-2, 34.
Thornapple Kellogg 2-5, 30.
Maple Valley (8-player) 2-5, NA
Conference Standings
(overall, conference)
Interstate 8 Athletic Conference
Hastings 6-1, 5-
Lumen Christi 4-3, 4-
Marshall 4-3, 3-
Parma Western 4-3, 3-
Northwest 4-3, 2-
Harper Creek 2-5, 2-
Coldwater 1-6, 1-
Pennfield 0-7, 0-
OK Gold Conference
South Christian 7-0, 5-
G.R. Catholic Central 6-1, 4-
Forest Hills Eastern 5-2, 3-
Cedar Springs 3-4, 3-
Wayland 4-3, 2-
Thornapple Kellogg 2-5, 2-
Kenowa Hills 1-6, 1-
Ottawa Hills 0-7, 0-
Southwestern Athletic Conference Valley
Lawton 6-1, 3-
Schoolcraft 4-3, 1-
Saugatuck 2-5, 0-
Delton Kellogg 4-3, 1-
Galesburg-Augusta 1-4, 0-
Greater Lansing Activities Conference
Olivet 6-1, 4-
Lakewood 5-2, 3-
Stockbridge 4-3, 1-
Perry 3-4, 1-
Leslie 1-6, 1-
Tri-River 8-Man
Concord 4-3, 4-
NorthPointe Christian 7-0, 3-
Britton-Deerfield 4-3, 3-
Maple Valley 2-5, 2-
Morenci 1-6, 1-
Vandercook Lake 0-6, 0-
Here is a round-up of last week’s local grid-
iron action.
Hastings 48, Parma Western 7
Hastings celebrated homecoming Friday
night with a 48-7 victory over Parma Western
inside Baum Stadium at Johnson Field.
At the end, it was the tightest ballgame the
Saxons have been in since the Friday after
Labor Day.
Hastings ran its Interstate-8 Athletic Con-
ference record to 5-0 with the victory and can
clinch at least a share of its third consecutive
conference championship with a victory at
Jackson Northwest next Friday night.
The Saxons had a 28-0 lead before West-
ern was able to find the end zone with 19
seconds remaining in the first half, and even
that was too much time for the Panthers to
leave the Saxons. Owen Carroll tossed a
50-yard touchdown pass to Jet Barnum with
six seconds to go in the half to give Hastings
a 34-7 advantage.
Isiah Wilson and Lanny Teunessen had
touchdown runs in the third quarter to close
out the scoring for Hastings. Wilson followed
his own 34-yard touchdown run with a two-
point run.
Wilson and Carroll had two touchdown runs
apiece. It was Robby Slaughter who go the
Saxons on the scoreboard first, giving his team
a 6-0 lead with a 72-yard TD run less than four
minutes in. Carroll scored on 10-yard and one-
yard runs in the second quarter, with Teunessen
and Carroll adding two-point runs to extend
the Saxon lead to 22-0 at the time.
Wilson got his first touchdown on a sev-
en-yard run with 1:29 to play in the opening
quarter – pushing the Saxon lead to 28-0.
Hastings racked up 389 yards of offense in
the ballgame. Slaughter closed the night with
13 rushes for 173 yards. Wilson had eight
carries for 67 yards and Teunessen seven
rushes for 51 yards. Carroll completed 2-of-
passes for 61 yards.
Slaughter surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing
mark on the season during the victory and
now has 1,075 yards on 100 carries this sea-son with 12 rushing touchdowns.
Teunessen had a team-high 5.5 tackles.
Slaughter, Landon Steward and Simmet had
four each.
The Saxon defense turned the Panthers
over six times. Layton Eastman had two
interceptions and recovered a fumble, and
Steward and Barnum had one interception
each. Gavin Tinkler recovered a fumble for
the Saxons as well.
Eastman now has four interceptions on the
season after having five a year ago.Decatur 37, Delton Kellogg 22
The homecoming king and queen were
crowned. Delton quarterback Torren Mapes
fired a 39-yard touchdown pass to Philip Hal-
comb down the middle for what would be a
22-15 Delton Kellogg lead after the extra
point kick by Mapes. The Delton Kellogg
defense forced a turnover on downs to get the
ball back.
Then the fourth quarter happened.
Decatur went on a 22-0 run in the fourth
quarter to wipe out a seven-point Delton Kel-
logg lead and win its non-conference ball-
game with the Panthers 37-22 on homecom-
ing night in Delton Friday.
The Panthers went three-and-out after tak-
ing over at the Decatur 46 three snaps into the
fourth quarter. Two plays later, Decatur was
in front thanks to a 69-yard touchdown run by
Cameron Cropsey who bounded through traf-
fic at the left side of the line and then ran past
the rest of the DK defense for the end zone.
The two-point try was no good and Delton
Kellogg still clung to a 22-21 lead.
Decatur got the bounce it needed to power
the rest of the comeback on the ensuing kick
off. The ball hit at the ten-yard-line and start-
ed rolling parallel to the goal-line inside the
three. The Delton Kellogg return man was
forced to pick the ball up at step in front of his
goal-line and he was taken down inside the
one.The left side of the Decatur defense blew
up the Panthers' first snap from inside the
one, taking Mapes down in the end zone for a
safety that pushed the Raiders in front 23-22.
Things went from bad to worse for DK
when the Raiders' Brenden Hunsberger
returned the ensuing kickoff 55 yards for a
touchdown and his team tacked on a two-
point pass for a 31-22 lead.
Delton Kellogg's next possession ended in
a fumble, giving the ball over to Decatur at
the Panthers' 34-yard-line. A couple plays
later Decatur quarterback Brandon Bruno
plowed into the end zone from a yard out for
the game's final points.
Cropsey opened the game's scoring with a
29-yard touchdown run in the first quarter on
a fourth-and-one carry. Decatur led 7-0 thanks
to the extra-point kick.
Delton Kellogg evened the score at 7-
early in the second quarter with a 27-yard
touchdown pass from Mapes to Halcomb,
with Mapes adding the extra-point kick.
Mapes somehow managed to avoid four
Decatur defenders in the backfield after a
play fake, and lofted the pass to the back of
the end zone where Halcomb came up with it
to tie the game.
Bruno tossed a six-yard TD pass to Cropsey
and Delton answered with a five-yard TD run
by Mapes before the second quarter was up,
and the two teams went into the half tied
15-15.
Mapes finished the game 5-of-8 passing
for 126 yards and the two touchdowns to
Halcomb. Halcomb had seven rushes for 21
yards to go with three receptions for 76 yards.
Ricky Ramsey led the DK ground game
with five carries for 31 yards.
Mason Nabozny and Jason Lundquist had
four tackles apiece for the DK defense, with
Lundquist making two behind the line of
scrimmage.Kenowa Hills 29,
Thornapple Kellogg 28
Coach Jeff Dock gave senior Logan Mason
a quiet moment then urged him up off a knee
on the sideline in front of where the Tro-zone
student section had cleared out and the Eric
C. DeGroote scoreboard had gone dark.
Senior Carsen Burbridge got a hug from his
father, Greg Burbridge, atop the orange and
black Trojan at midfield inside Bob White Sta-
dium as the last of the spectators were exiting.
Moments will flash like the fireworks that
exploded time and again south of the stadium
on homecoming night in Middleville Friday.
A fourth down stop. A flag. A pass interfer-
ence call. A lobbed pass to the front of the end
zone. Jet motion coming to the right and a
pass over the middle for a two-point conver-
sion. Kenowa Hills students in their pajamas
sliding down the grass hill on the visitor’s
sideline to celebrate their Knights’ first win
of the season.
The Kenowa Hills varsity football team
spoiled homecoming at Thornapple Kellogg
High School, scoring a 29-28 victory over the
Trojans. The Knights are now 1-6 overall this
season while TK falls to 2-5.
Thornapple Kellogg took a 28-14 lead with
nine and a half minutes to play in the fourth
quarter, but the Knights put together twoscoring drives in those final nine and a half
minutes and converted on a two-point con-
version with 19 seconds to go to nudge into
the lead by a point.
The game-winning drive for the Knights
started at their own 18-yard-line after a TK
punt with just under two minutes to go in the
fourth quarter. The TK offense had been able
to eat up two and a half minutes and force the
Knights to use all three of their time outs after
Kenowa Hills had pulled within 28-21 with
4:38 to go on a 29-yard touchdown run by
junior running back Giles Ansmits.
Kenowa Hills quarterback Jack Zegunis
connected on four straight passes to get his
team to the TK 36 with just over a minute
to play. An incomplete pass, a Trojan sack
and another incomplete pass had the
Knights facing a fourth-and-15 at the TK
41-yard-line with 31 seconds to play. Zegu-
nis heaved a pass up the left side for senior
wide receiver Andrew Bradley, who collid-
ed with TK corner Ethan Bonnema as the
pass flew well over their heads. A pass
interference penalty gave the Knights new
life with a first down at the TK 25-yard-line
with 26 seconds to go.
Zegunis lofted a pass on that first down play
high to the front right corner of the end zone.
Bradley rose up above TK corner Brody
Wiersma to snag the ball just outside the goal-
line and then twisted into the end zone for a
touchdown that got his team within 28-27.
Rather than a fourth extra-point kick from
Diego Rivera-Vazquez to tie the game with
19 seconds to go, the Knights chose to go for
two-points and the win. Kenowa Hills soph-
omore wide receiver Juliusz Andino came in
a jet sweep motion from left to right and then
cut to the center of the end zone at the snap
creating just enough space to haul in the pass
that came his way from Zegunis who was
rolling to his right.See FOOTBALL, page 10
Maple Valley's Cam Carpenter fends off Britton-Deerfield defensive back Asher
Wiser on a carry during the first half of their Tri-River 8-Man Football Conference
match-up at Maple Valley High School Saturday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Thornapple Kellogg's Tyler Bushman holds up Kenowa Hills wide receiver Nolan
Thayer short of the goal-line during their OK Gold Conference contest inside Bob
White Stadium in Middleville Friday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Delton Kellogg's Mason Nabozny finds
space out of the backfield during his
team's homecoming contest against visit-
ing Decatur Friday. (Photo by Perry
Hardin)The Saxons' Lanny Teunessen (2) and Zander Forbes (22) bring down Parma
Western's as teammates Gavin Tinkler (65) and Haiden Simmet (21) close in Friday
night. (Photo by Jason Slaughter)