THE HASTINGS
Thursday, October 7, 2021Saxons and Vikings chasing conference titles
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Thank you Beavers.
Sincerely, the Saxons.
Hastings is back on top of the Interstate-
Athletic Conference, sharing the top spot in
the conference with Harper Creek and
Jackson Lumen Christi thanks to a lopsided
Saxon victory over Pennfield last Friday
night and a Beaver victory over the Lumen
Christi Titans. All three teams are now 4-1 in
conference action, with the Saxons falling to
the Titans and the Beavers falling to the
Saxons in previous weeks.
The Saxons will be looking to stay on top of
the conference when they play host to Jackson
Northwest for homecoming inside Baum
Stadium at Johnson Field this Friday night.
Hastings is 5-0 against the Mounties since
joining the Interstate-8 Athletic Conference.
The Mounties are 0-5 in I-8 play this fall hav-
ing been bested by Marshall 49-14 last week.
The Saxons aren’t the only area team still
chasing a conference championship. The
Lakewood Vikings and Olivet Eagles are set
for their annual clash atop the Greater Lansing
Activities Conference.
The Vikings and Eagles are both 4-2 over-
all and 3-0 in the GLAC this fall. Lakewood
will host Olivet at Unity Field Friday.
Thornapple Kellogg is out of the frying
pan and into the fire, having fallen to Cedar
Springs on homecoming night in Middleville
only to get the defensing Division 5 state
champions from Grand Rapids Catholic
Central coming to town this Friday night.
The Cougars come to Middleville with a
perfect record so far this fall. They have won
a state championship in four of the past five
seasons, with Division 4 state championships
in 2016, 2017 and 2019 to go along with the
2020 title.
Maple Valley has Friday night off and will
make the long trek for its first Tri-River 8-Man
Football Conference contest with Britton-
Deerfield Saturday. The Lions snapped a two-
game losing skid with a non-conference win at
New Buffalo last week. That gives the Lions a
bit of momentum to take into the match-up
with the undefeated, conference-leading
Patriots who have outscored their opponents
292 to 36 over the past five weeks.
“They’re undefeated and well coached and
with a good quarterback. It’s a really good
football team and they have been scoring a
lot of points,” Lion head coach Marty Martin
said. “We’re going to take our turn and see
what we can do.”
Britton-Deerfield took a forfeit win in
week one. Delton Kellogg had to miss its
week six ballgame, but the Panthers are
looking to get back on the field this Friday
night when they host Saugatuck for home-
coming at DKHS. The Trailblazers from
Saugatuck come to Delton Kellogg having
won two in a row.
Local Standings (W-L, playoff points)
Hastings 5-1 (52.833)
Lakewood 4-2 (26.667)
Delton Kellogg 3-2 (29.667)
Maple Valley (8-player) 2-
Thornapple Kellogg 1-5 (25.833)
Conference Standings
(overall, conference)
Interstate 8 Athletic Conference
Lumen Christi 5-0, 4-
Hastings 4-1, 3-
Harper Creek 3-2, 3-
Coldwater 3-2, 3-
Parma Western 3-2, 2-
Pennfield 2-3, 1-
Marshall 1-4, 0-
Northwest 1-4, 0-
OK Gold Conference
G.R. Catholic Central 6-0, 4-
Cedar Springs 5-1, 4-
Kenowa Hills 2-4, 1-
South Christian 4-2, 3-
Forest Hills Eastern 3-3, 2-
Ottawa Hills 2-4, 1-
Thornapple Kellogg 1-5, 1-
Wayland 0-6, 0-
Southwestern Athletic Conference Valley
Saugatuck 4-2, 1-
Delton Kellogg 3-2, 1-
Lawton 6-0, 0-
Schoolcraft 1-4, 1-
Galesburg-Augusta 0-6, 0-
Greater Lansing Activities Conference
Olivet 4-2, 3-
Lakewood 4-2, 3-
Leslie 3-3, 2-
Stockbridge 2-4, 0-
Perry 1-5, 0-
Tri-River 8-Man Football Conference
Britton-Deerfield 6-0, 3-
NorthPointe Christian 4-2, 3-
Maple Valley 2-4, 1-
Concord 2-4, 1-
Vandercook Lake 2-4, 1-
Here is a round-up of last week’s local
gridiron action.
Hastings 55, Pennfield 6
Valerie Slaughter
Contributing Writer
The Hastings football team continued its
drive for an Interstate-8 Athletic Conference
title with a 52–6 win over Pennfield at Battle
Creek Pennfield High School Friday night.
The Saxons remain tied for the conference title
with Lumen Christi and Harper Creek, after
Lumen lost to Harper Creek Friday night.
Hastings senior defensive tackle, Jackson
Dubois, said “the game was a good chance
for everyone on the team to get a chance to
experience what they practice every week
and prepare for. All of the linemen were on
assignment and made things easier for the
fresh backs to hit their holes. I think this sea-
son will be one to remember. I feel like we
are finally working as a team. There’s no
tension between the upperclassmen and
underclassmen. We all just put our heads
down and get the work done.”
Hastings had defensive and offensive plays
from a multitude of Saxons in the game.
Twenty-three different players grabbed tack-
les for the night.
On offense, the Saxons made a couple
quick scores after shutting Pennfield down on
defense. Robby Slaughter ran in the first two
touchdowns of the night within the first five
minutes of the game on 48-yard and 60-yard
runs. Daniel Harp made the first two-pointconversion and Mason Denton completed a
pass to Tommy Hollars for the next two-point
conversion.
The Hastings defense again shut down
Pennfield before TJ Russell ran in a 51-yard
touchdown with 3:26 left in the first quarter.
Saxon defensive player, Layton Eastman,
picked off a pass on Pennfield’s next drive,
returning the ball to the Saxon offense and
giving Lanny Teunessen the chance to score a
28-yard run with only 2:58 left in the first
quarter. At the end of the first, the Saxons led
31–0.
Collin Fouty put another touchdown on the
board in the second quarter on a 35-yard run,
before Pennfield scored their first and only
touchdown of the game shortly before half-
time and a 3-yard run by Luke Davis, for a
38-6 Saxon lead at the half.
Teunessen put another two touchdowns on
the board in the third quarter on a 14-yard and
43-yard drive, and Victor Ramirez kicked the
extra points. Slaughter led the team in rush-
ing yards with 137 yards, Teunessen added
126 yards and Russell also carried the ball for
100 yards on the night.
The Saxon defense contained Pennfield to
only 113 yards rushing and 78 passing yards
for the night. Hastings’ defense was led by
Ramirez with 4.5 tackles, Eastman added twointerceptions for the night and Daniel
Weatherly added a quarterback sack.
Cedar Springs 44,
Thornapple Kellogg 10
Fireworks still exploded beyond the south-
west corner of Bob White Stadium. The
Trojans still raised their helmets to their
classmates in the student section. The
Thornapple Kellogg High School marching
band still played a raucous rendition of the
Trojan fight song.
Everything was right but the scoreboard at
the end of the Trojan varsity football team’s
2021 homecoming contest with visiting
Cedar Springs Friday. The Red Hawks
improved to 5-1 overall this season and 4-0 in
the OK Gold Conference with a 44-10 win in
Middleville over the now 1-5 Trojans.
The Red Hawks flew up and down the field
with their Wing-T offense led by senior quar-
terback Aiden Brunin. When asked if he
thought he had a lineman on either side of the
ball bigger than Brunin, TK head coach Jeff
Dock said, “nope,” (maybe tight end Jaxan
Sias.) But behind his massive offensive line,
Brunin didn’t look outsized.
Alex Harrington, a recently recruited var-
sity soccer player, notched TK’s lone points
of the first half on a 25-yard field goal,
which had his team within 8-3 at the time.Harrington then finished the scoring by
booting an extra-point kick following a
10-yard touchdown run by teammate Drake
Snyder in the final minute.
Brunin rushed for times for 52 yards.
Back Ryan Mitchell was the workhorse for
the Red Hawks, carrying the ball ten times
for 145 yards and three touchdowns – all in
the first half.
Mitchell scored on a 14-yard run three and
a half minutes into the ballgame, and then
Brunin and Mitchell connected on the two-
point conversion for an 8-0 Cedar Springs
lead. Mitchell scored on a two-yard run with
5:15 to play in the first half, a 60-yard run with
4:01 to go in the first half and a 24-yard and
then teammate Alex Ream scored on a 24-yard
run with 59 seconds left in the first half.
One more two-point conversion had the
Red Hawks up 28-3 at the half. Cedar Springs
added a seven-yard TD run by Carter Falan
and a 42-yard TD run by Logan Troupe in the
second half, with Falan following each of
those touchdowns up with a successful two-
point run.
The Cedar Springs offense racked up 411
total yards on the night, all on the ground.HHS forging itself versus tough foes
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Hastings moved the ball better in the
second half, but the Vikings finished better
in the second half.
Lakewood kept its undefeated varsity
boys’ soccer season rolling with a 3-0 win
over the Saxons at Lakewood High School
Saturday.
“We settled down in the second half and
we were able to get some team play going.
We have struggled all season with confi-
dence. I have zero seniors. I have three
juniors out for the season. I had four play-
ers coming in with varsity experience, and
two of them were on varsity last year but
they didn’t play.”
Lopez said a lot of effort has gone into
growing confidence this fall.
“They’re getting better. They’re just
going through a really rough patch. It is
what it is. Parma Western, Marshall, there
are no slouches, Coldwater. Our conference
is loaded.”
The Vikings might not quite stack up
with the best teams in the Interstate-
Athletic Conference, but the undefeated
Vikings who are ranked 14th in the state in
Division 3 certainly have confidence.
They’re eyeing a Greater Lansing ActivitiesSee FOOTBALL, page 14
See SOCCER, page 14 Junior captain Caleb Waller carries the ball through the midfield for the Saxons
at Lakewood Saturday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Thornapple Kellogg's Zack Gibson (1), Jonah Summerhays (left) and Logan Westcott (right) lead their team through a banner
onto the field before the Trojans' homecoming contest against visiting Cedar Springs inside Bob White Stadium in Middleville
Friday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Saxon defenders Victor Ramirez (28) and Layton Eastman (24) make the tackle on
Pennfield receiver BrianTomlinson during their I-8 contest in Battle Creek Friday night.
(Photo by Jason Slaughter)