Page 14 — Thursday, October 7, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
Conference championship, and will host the
conference tournament as the top seed this
Saturday (Oct. 9).
Both Hastings and Lakewood face a tough
postseason challenge. Lakewood will open its
Division 3 District Tournament against
Wellspring Prep at home Oct. 13. The winner
of that match moves on to the Oct. 19 district
semifinals at South Christian, likely to face
12th-ranked Grand Rapids Catholic Central,
with the fourth ranked South Christian Sailors
the heavy favorite to reach the finals from the
other half of the district bracket.
Hastings is set to be a part of a Division 2
District Tournament next week that includes
second ranked Gull Lake and tenth-ranked
Thornapple Kellogg. Hastings will host Battle
Creek Central Oct. 14 to open district play,
with the winner of that match heading to
Richland for a district semifinal match with
the Gull Lake Blue Devils. The Saxons also
have a district tune-up against No. 5 Plainwell
in Plainwell this Saturday.
For now, the Saxons are working their way
through the Interstate-8 Athletic Conference
postseason. Pennfield bested the Hastings
boys 4-3 Monday in Battle Creek to open the
conference tournament. The two teams tied
their regular season meeting 4-4.
The non-conference match at Lakewood
Saturday was a good ol’ neighborhood rivalry
match.
“They all know each other form club.
There was as little bit of animosity going into
this game, just a little bit of a chip on the
shoulder type of deal and a little bit of trash
talking,” Lopez said.
“It never got out of hand.”
“The guys were motivated today. They
grew up playing with a lot of these boys from
Hastings, whether it was club soccer or
AYSO back in the day, whatever it was,
Hastings F.C,” Lakewood head coach James
LeVeque said. “They all know each other.
They were all talking trash back and forth
throughout the year.”
The game was never out of hand for the
Saxons. Lakewood controlled much of theplay in the first half, but it wasn’t until the
39 th minute that the Vikings found the net.
Lakewood freshman midfielder Jackson
MacKenzie rolled a pass through the middle
of the Saxon defense and junior forward Alex
Russell beat Saxon keeper Zach Chipman to
the ball and shot it into the net. Russell cele-
brated his birthday Saturday with two goals.
Lakewood made it a two goal lead in the
third minute of the second half, when junior
forward Colby Carter finished of a corner
kick from senior teammate Gavin George.
That is where the score stood until the 78th
minute of play when George centered a ball from
the right corner that Russell tapped into the net.
“We played through our midfield more
today than we have been. We have been
working on it,” LeVeque said. “We were
looking to pass. We used our fullbacks a lot
more. We dropped the ball a lot more.”
“We were more patient on the ball than we
have been, which is good because they are
fast. They were athletic. They weren’t always
great on the ball, but they were fast. That is
something we have struggled with, being able
to trust our abilities against an athletic team,
guys that are pretty quick and hard to the ball
and they were.”He said his guys have been running scrim-
mages in the midfield with 20 guys playing
keep away, trying to work on positioning and
moving the ball through pressure and traffic.
“I have never seen a better passing
Lakewood team,” former Lakewood head
coach Paul Gonzalez said to no one in partic-
ular along the sideline during the second half.
Lopez liked the way his guys improved
their ball movement in the second half as
well. The Saxons were just sending the ball
ahead a little too often, in the first half espe-
cially, and just trying to push the play through
the middle of the field.
Zach Chipman and Zach Gole shared the
goaltending duties for the Saxons, with Gole
coming on in the second half. The Saxons
found the net more often against Gole, who
did a solid job of being aggressive in his box.
Ben Scobey earned the shut out in goal for
the Vikings, but threatening chances his way
were few and far between. The Saxons’
Sergynho Aris chipped a shot just over the goal
from about 25 yards out ten minutes into the
second half, and the Saxons’ Drew Thompson
had a chance on an indirect kick just inside the
top of the Viking box with a wall between him
and the net but that shot missed its mark.Alex Ream had a team-high 13 tackles for
the Red Hawks on defense. The Red Hawk
defense intercepted TK quarterback Carsen
Burbridge once.
Burbridge was 10-of-18 passing for 116
yards. TK backs Jayden Garcia, Drake
Snyder and Tyler Gavette each right around
30 yards rushing, and sophomore quarter-
back Grant Middleton led the TK scoring
drive while recording 27 yards rushing on
six carries and completing his only pass
attempt for nine yards.
TK receiver Zack Gibson had two catch-
es for 55 yards and tight end Sias had two
catches, including a leaping one-handed
grab up the left sideline, for 31 total yards.
Gibson recovered a Red Hawk fumble to
help keep his team within striking distance
early on in the ballgame. Jonah Summerhays
led the TK defense with six tackles.
Lakewood 41, Stockbridge 14
Lakewood’s varsity football team
improved to 3-0 in the conference with a
41-14 win at Stockbridge Friday night, Oct.
1, while Olivet was being bested 21-14 by
Pewamo-Westphalia in a non-conference
ballgame – leaving the Vikings and the
Eagles tied atop the conference heading
into their match-up this Friday night.
“We played really well tonight,”
Lakewood head coach Matt Markwart said.
“Really well. I am really proud of them. We
had our two and a half minutes of adversity
and let them score a couple times and then
turned it on.”
Lakewood took a 19-0 lead in the first
half, but the Panthers rallied to get within
19-14 with 2:10 left in the third quarter. The
Panthers were helped to their first touch-
down by a Viking fumble, then recovered
an on-side kick and scored again two plays
later to get within a single score. Jeremy
Pilsch scored both Stockbridge touch-
downs.
Lakewood answered with a five-play,
93-yard drive to get control of the ballgame
back, ahead 27-14, and then closed out the
victory with a second and then a third
fourth-quarter TD.
“We have seven guys that rotate in there
[on the offensive line],” Markwart said,
“seven offensive linemen, tackles, guards,
and centers and two tight ends. It was a
team effort. They all just did their jobs
tonight and worked really well. It didn’t
matter who we put in there. They drove
hard and got off the ball all game.
“Even the receivers blocked well.”
That wall up front allowed running back
Denny Sauers to rush for 167 yards and
four touchdowns on 17 carries. Quarterback
Nathan Willette had 14 rushes for 159 yards
and a score and Montreal Reid added six
carries for 32 yards and a touchdown.
Nathaniel Graham had the Vikings’ lone
reception, for 17 yards, from Willette.
Coach Markwart was very pleased his
team was able to keep Stockbridge star
Pilsch in check.
“For the most part we shut him down
tonight,” Markwart said. “We played real
well on the defensive side of the ball.”
“They move him around in different for-
mations quarterback, running back, receiv-
er, tight end,” Markwart added. “We talked
about how we had to recognize and point
out where he was at. There wasn’t a single
time when everybody on the field didn’t
know where he was at. We double covered
him. We harassed him, jammed him off the
ball and made him work for what he had to
get. We didn’t do anything cheap or dirty,
but kept harassing him until we got under
his skin.”
The Lakewood defense ended three
Stockbridge drives with interceptions, one
each for Charlie Everitt, Reid and Graham.
Maple Valley 36, New Buffalo 14
The Maple Valley defense stood firm
inside its ten yard line late in the first half
and then the Lion offense found its groove
in the second half to score a 36-14 win in a
non-conference ballgame at New Buffalo
Friday night.
Maple Valley improved to 2-5 overall
this season with the victory over the now
3-3 Bison.
“I have to hand it to our kids. All week
long we really focused on fundamentals on
defense, getting over blocks, getting off
blocks, keeping our leverage, and it really
showed tonight. The two touchdowns they
scored they really had to work their way
down the field,” Lion head coach Marty
Martin said.
Jesse Deppe had an astounding 24 tackles
for the Lions. Reese Proctor-Burhans had
15 tackles and Nicholas Martin and Callan
Hoefler had 11 tackles apiece for the Lions.
Tyler Rose added two interceptions. Coach
Martin was also pleased that his team
recovered a pair of onside kicks – one each
by Rose and Caydon Scott.
Offensively, Scott had a team high 96
yards rushing on six carries. Andrew
Shepherd rushed 22 times for 72 yards.
Rose had five carries for 44 yards. Lion
quarterback Ayden Wilkes was 2-of-6 pass-
ing for 44 yards and one interception.
The only points of the first half were
scored on a five-yard TD run by Shepherd
seven minutes into the ballgame.
Following the onside kick to start the
second half, Scott scored on a 38-yard run.
An eight-yard TD run by Rose added to the
Lion lead with 6:31 to play in the third
quarter. The Lions followed both of those
touchdowns with successful two-point con-
version attempts to lead 22-0.
The teams traded touchdowns the rest of
the way. New Buffalo got a one-yard TD
run from Ben Coffeen and the Lions got a
24-yard TD run by Rose before the third
quarter was through.
Eli Thomas scored on a one-yard run for
the Bison early in the fourth quarter and the
Lions finished the TD scoring with Shepherd
finding the end zone from a yard out with
3:23 to play. The Linos followed each of
their final touchdowns with successful two-
point conversions.
“We were trying to get outside with our
sweep, and we were able to get up and
under their ends,” coach Martin said of his
team’s success in the running game Friday.
“They were bringing their ends up hard.”
“We got good kick out blocks on line-
backers and backs ran hard,” coach Martin
said.
The Lions finished with 231 yards rush-
ing as a team, compared to the Bison’s 113.
Thomas led the Bison attack with 20
rushes for 51 yards.
The Lions return to Tri-River 8-Man
Football Conference play Saturday, Oct. 9,
at league-leading Britton-Deerfield.FOOTBALL, continued from page 13 –––––––––––
SOCCER, continued
from page 13
Lakewood's Colby Carter (9) and Hastings' Cohen Smith try to get their heads on
the ball as it flies towards the Saxons' end during the first half of their match at
Lakewood High School Saturday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Hastings goalkeeper Zach Chipman slides onto a ball near the edge of his box
during the first half of the Saxons’ 3-0 loss at Lakewood High School Saturday. (Photo
by Brett Bremer)Thornapple Kellogg quarterback Carsen Burbridge looks to weave his way through the line with the ball during the first quarter
of TK's OK Gold Conference ballgame with visiting Cedar Springs Friday night. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Hastings defenders Jackson Dubois (58) and Daniel Weatherly (63) go after Pennfield Panther quarterback Damien Gibson
during the first half of the Saxons' victory in Battle Creek Friday. (Photo by Jason Slaughter)