Page 14 — Thursday, September 16, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
sports
Saxons, Vikings, Lions
score conference wins
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Maple Valley varsity football coach Marty
Martin quoted long-time Lion leader Guenther
Mittelstaedt after his team opened the first
ever Tri-River 8-Man Football Conference
season with a homecoming victory over
Vandercook Lake Friday.
“We’re in first place this week and we’re
going to try and be in first place next week,”
Martin said.
The Lions, Saxons and Lakewood Vikings
will all be trying to stay at the top of their
conference standings with wins this Friday
night.
The Saxons are 3-0 for the first time since
2010 and will hit the road back towards
Jackson to face Interstate-8 Athletic
Conference rival Parma Western. The Panthers
were trounced by Harper Creek 50-22 last
week, a Harper Creek team the Saxons beat in
week two of the season. Hastings will be try-
ing to snap a four-game losing streak to the
maroon and gold Panthers.
Lakewood got its first victory of the season
in its Greater Lansing Activities Conference
opener last week, and the Vikings and Olivet
Eagles are the two teams with 1-0 conference
records. It is a few weeks before the annal
showdown between what have been far and
away the to best GLAC teams over the short
history of the conference.
The Vikings are back at it in the GLAC this
week, hosting Perry. It’s the GLAC opener for
the Ramblers, who are 1-2 on the season. The
Ramblers got their first win yesterday with a
dominant performance against Saranac.
Maple Valley looks to get to 2-0 in the Tri-
River hosting Concord. The Lions are facing
the Concord program for the first time, and
the Yellow Jackets come into the ballgame
with a 1-2 record. That is a deceiving number
though as their two losses have been to unde-
feated Britton-Deerfield and Bridgman teams.
Delton Kellogg is still a week away from
the start of the Southwestern Athletic
Conference Valley Division season. The
Panthers go on the road to take on Coloma
this Friday night. It has been a rough start for
the Comets who are 0-3 and have given up a
total of 137 points in those three ballgames.
The Comets aren’t the only team around
chasing win number one. The Thrornapple
Kellogg Trojans are looking for win number
one as they host Forest Hills Eastern for the
Trojans’ annual Salute to Service Night in
Middleville. The Trojans are on their home
turf for the first time this season after going
on the road to face Hastings and South
Christian and having to forfeit their week two
ballgame.
Local Standings (W-L, playoff points)
Hastings 3-0 (51.667)
Delton Kellogg 1-2 (24.000)
Lakewood 1-2 (15.333)
Maple Valley (8-player) 1-
Thornapple Kellogg 0-3 (9.000)
Conference Standings (overall, confer-
ence)
Interstate 8 Athletic Conference
Hastings 3-0, 2-
Lumen Christi 3-0, 2-
Parma Western 2-1, 1-
Pennfield 2-1, 1-
Harper Creek 1-2, 1-
Coldwater 1-2, 1-
Marshall 1-2, 0-
Northwest 1-2, 0-
OK Gold Conference
G.R. Catholic Central 3-0, 1-
Cedar Springs 2-1, 1-
Kenowa Hills 2-1, 1-
South Christian 2-1, 1-
Forest Hills Eastern 1-2, 0-
Ottawa Hills 1-2, 0-
Thornapple Kellogg 0-3, 0-
Wayland 0-3, 0-
Southwestern Athletic Conference Valley
Lawton 3-0, 0-
Saugatuck 2-1, 0-
Delton Kellogg 1-2, 0-
Galesburg-Augusta 0-3, 0-
Schoolcraft 0-3, 0-
Greater Lansing Activities Conference
Olivet 2-1, 1-
Lakewood 1-2, 1-
Perry 1-2, 0-
Leslie 1-2, 0-
Stockbridge 1-2, 0-
Tri-River 8-Man Football Conference
Britton-Deerfield 3-0, 2-
Maple Valley 1-2, 1-
NorthPointe Christian 1-2, 1-
Concord 1-2, 0-
Vandercook Lake 0-3, 0-
Here is a round-up of last week’s local grid-
iron action.
Hastings 48, Marshall 28
Valerie Slaughter
Contributing Writer
The Hastings Saxons are 3-0 on the season,
for the first time since 2010, after defeating
the Marshall varsity football team at Marshall
Friday night 48–28.
Saxon senior captain, Owen Winegar, is
proud of how the team is playing so far this
season, “All the hard work is paying off, with
every challenge on the field the team has
pulled together and finished strong. Our
coaches have worked extremely hard to devel-
op the team.”
Saxon offensive coordinator, Pat Coltson
said the offensive line, “is the catalyst of the
offense that makes it go so smoothly. Glen
McFarlan and Owen are the coaches on the
field. They truly believe that we should score
on every play and that attitude becomes infec-
tious to the backs.”
The Saxons had a slight 8-7 lead after the
first quarter and a 53-yard touchdown run and
two-point conversion by TJ Russell.
Hastings took a bigger lead going into half-
time 24-15, after a 37-yard touchdown by
Robby Slaughter and a two-point conversion
pass from Mason Denton to Russell. Russell
would add another touchdown with 31 sec-
onds left in the half, and another two-point
conversion was ran in by Lanny Teunessen.
The Saxons have taken advantage of the
running game by converting all the extra
points to two-points this year. Winegar stated,
“the offense has been the best in the last few
years. Teamwork and positivity are strong
throughout the team.”
That positivity continued in the second half
when the Saxons scored on the opening drive
on a 46-yard touchdown and two-point con-
version by Slaughter. After the defense shut-
down Marshall, Slaughter would score again
with 4 minutes left in the third, and the two-
point conversion run by Collin Fouty was
good, for a 40-15 Saxon lead.
Marshall scored again in the third on a
42-yard pass from quarterback Nate Tucker to
Jamari Culliver to shorten the Saxon lead to
40-21. The Saxons answered with 1-yard run
by Teunessen less than a minute into the 4th
quarter, and a two-point conversion pass from
Denton to Ashton Benson.
With 30 seconds to go in the game, Marshall
completed another 8-yard touchdown pass for
the final score of the night. Closing the game
with a 48-28 Saxon victory.
Offensively, the Saxons rushed for 500
yards on the night, led by Slaughter with 217
yards and three touchdowns for the night.
Russell added 181 yards and two touchdowns.
They are supported by a strong offensive line,
who Coach Coltson said is constantly making
adjustments, “this years line is led by a great
group of seniors, Owen Winegar, Glen
McFarlan, Jackson Dubois and Ashton
Benson.”
On defense, the Saxons held Marshall to
135 yards rushing, but faced 318 passing
yards. The Saxons were able to pick off three
interceptions on the night by Layton Eastman,
Fouty and Slaughter. The leading tackler on
the night was Winegar with 6.5, followed by
Victor Ramirez and Drew Gleason with 6
each.
Constantine 40, Delton Kellogg 6
Delton Kellogg, playing its home opener,
didn’t fare any better than the Falcons first
two foes on the first Friday night of the 2021
varsity football season.
Constantine improved to 3-0 on the season
with a 40-6 win over the Panthers. The
Falcons have now outscored their three oppo-
nents by a combined score of 142-19 this
season.
A 67-yard run by Panther running back
Vinnie Quick on the opening play of the
fourth quarter put the Panthers in position to
score their only points. Two plays later team-
mate Ricky Ramsey plowed into the end zone
from two yards out to put an end to the run-
ning clock which started late in the third quar-
ter.
Constantine quarter back Caden
Hetmansperger scored the first of his two
touchdown runs on his team’s opening drive,
after the Falcon defense turned the Panthers
over on downs in Falcon territory on DK’s
first possession.
The Falcons had success with backs Lukas
Hagenbuch and Dom Jacobs carrying the ball,
and started to really take control when full
back Bennett Vandenberg started to find some
space through the middle.
Vandenberg scored on a one-yard run to put
his team up 24-0 in the closing seconds of the
first half. Jacobs and Hagenbuch each scored
once in the second half and their team was a
perfect five-of-five on two-point tries over the
course of the evening.
Quick finished the ballgame with nine
rushes for 75 yards for DK. Nabozny had 16
rushes for 53yards and Corey Moore added 11
carries for 34 yards.
Halcomb had a team-high five tackles for
the DK defense and was 3-of-6 passing for for
six yards on offense.
South Christian 35, Thornapple Kellogg
14
The Trojans didn’t appear to have missed a
beat on offense after missing the chance to
compete in week two.
Thornapple Kellogg quarterback Carsen
Burbridge capped off a 75-yard drive with a
one-yard plunge into the end zone at East
Kentwood’s Falcon Stadium in his team’s OK
Gold Conference opener against South
Christian.
The Sailors scored the game’s next 35
points though and went on to a 35-14 win
over the now 0-3 Trojans.
Burbridge was 11-of-17 passing for 113
yards in the game and rushed for 96 yards. A
50-yard pass to Jaxan Sias put TK into posi-
tion to score a second touchdown with 3:50 to
play in the ballgame. Zack Gibson scored on
a three-yard run and then Burbridge tossed a
two-point pass to teammate Logan Westcott to
complete the scoring.
South Christian back Chandler Van
Solkema rushed nine times for 101 yards and
a touchdown and teammate Nate Brinks ran
nine times for 91 yards and two scores. Sailor
quarterback Jake DeHaan was 3-of-8 passingfor 28 yards and a touchdown to teammate
Will Fennema, and DeHaan rushed eight
times for 73 yards and a score as well.
TK held its 6-0 lead late into the second
quarter when Brinks scored on a 43-yard run
that put his team in front 7-6 with the extra-
point kick. The Sailors scored twice in the
final two minutes of the first half, also adding
a 47 -yard TD run by DeHaan with 19 sec-
onds to go before the break.
The Sailors scored three more touchdowns
in the third quarter on a two-yard run by Van
Solkema, a six-yard run by Brinks and a
25-yard touchdown pass from DeHaan to Will
Fennema.
Lakewood 35, Leslie 28
Lakewood scored on its final drive of the
first half and the first drive of the second half
to dig out of a 14-point hole and went on to a
35-28 victory in the Greater Lansing Activities
Conference opener at Leslie Friday night.
Lakewood quarterback Nathan Willette
rushed for 189 yards and three touchdowns
and threw a pair of touchdown passes – one
each to Montreal Reid and Nathaniel Graham.
Viking head coach Matt Markwart was
thrilled with the job of blocking the six or
seven offensive linemen rotating on and off
the field did, and with the way the Lakewood
running backs blocked on rushing plays for
their quarterback. Back Denny Sauers added
eight rushes for 78 yards for the Vikings in the
ballgame.
“I have a lot of running backs that are good
blockers. Montreal [Reed] and Denny
[Sauers] and Brendan Straub are good block-
ing running backs. They like to go out and hit
people. They were opening him holes all
night and letting [Willette] run through them.”
“We have a real good team chemistry,” the
Viking coach added. “They knew their job.
They knew their roles and they were glad to
do their roles. They went out and blocked and
were disciplined. We started cleaning up the
little mistakes. Our whole offensive line
played tremendously. They were opening
holes all night. They were driving guys off the
ball. They worked hard.”
Markwart said the Blackhawks never really
did figure out how to slow down the Viking
offense. Lakewood had a touchdown pass
dropped on its opening offensive possession.
“The rest of the game they didn’t stop us,”
Markwart said. “We didn’t have to punt. We
didn’t turn it over. We stopped ourselves on
that first drive, and that gave them that
14-point lead.”
The Lakewood defense, which allowed 21
points in the first 15 minutes of action, man-
aged to keep the Blackhawks at bay through-
out the second half and batted away a last
second throw into the end zone to preserve the
victory. The Vikings also blocked a Leslie
field goal attempt late in the first half, a spe-
cial teams play that nearly allowed the Vikings
tie the ballgame up before the half.
“It was a typical Leslie football game,”
Markwart said. “We had to stop them on the
last play of the game to win. We had to bat
down a pass on the last play of the game at the
goal-line.”
Leslie quarterback Mason Tow was 16-of-
22 passing for 200 yards and a touchdown. He
rushed for a TD too. David Whitehead led the
Blackhawks on the ground with 23 rushes for
159 yards and two scores. Aiden Borst had the
Blackhawks’ TD reception on a 19-yard pass
from Tow with 9:23 to go in the first half that
helped put their team up 21-7 at the time.
Viking kicker Ellie Minard was a perfect
5-for-5 on her extra point attempts.
Maple Valley 55, Vandercook Lake 28
It is a little early for homecoming, but it is
never too early to get win number one.
The Maple Valley varsity football team
improved to 1-2 on the season with a 55-
win over visiting Vandercook Lake on home-
coming night at Maple Valley High School in
what was the Lions’ first ever football game
in the newly created Tri-River 8-Man Football
Conference.
“Our offense moved the ball and our
defense played well enough. It was just a
great team effort,” Lion head coach Marty
Martin said. “We just played well as a team.
We definitely could see the improvement we
have made in the last couple weeks.”
Cayden Scott rushed for three touchdowns
for the Lions, Tyler Rose rushed for two
touchdowns, Callan Hoefler had a shot TD
run, Reece Proctor-Burhans recorded a safety
for the Lion defense and Jesse Deppe recov-
ered a Jayhawk fumble in the end zone for a
Lion TD as well.
Deppe kicked an extra-point, Rose rushed
in two two-point tries, Scott scored a two-
point run and Ayden Wilkes tossed two-point
passes to Hoefler and Cam Carpenter on the
Lions’ point-after-try attempts.
The Lions finished the night having out-
gained Vandercook Lake 330 yards to 194.
Hoefler had 13 rushes for 93 yards. Rose had
13 rushes for 77 yards and Scott added 11
carries for 77 yards. Wilkes completed 6-of-
pass attempts for 96 yards.
“Our running backs did a really nice job of
reading those blocks and running the ball.
They ran really hard, all of them did from
Callan Hoefler to Andrew Shepard to Cayden
Scott, Tyler Rose and James Penny. All of our
running backs ran the ball really hard tonight,”
coach Martin said.
Both quarterbacks in the game had two
passes intercepted. Hoefler and Rose had one
interception each for the Lion defense andNicholas Martin recovered two fumbles for
the Lions while adding eight tackles. Deppe
had a team-high ten tackles for Maple Valley
and Proctor-Burhans and Rose had six tackles
apiece. Proctor-Burhans had three sacks and
Deppe two.
“We can go from a good defense to a very
good defense if we can limit big plays,” coach
Martin said. “Teams have a hard time moving
the ball slowly down the field and Vandercook
Lake tried to do that to us tonight, just have a
sustained drive, and they couldn’t do it.”
Quarterback Andrew Cheney led the
Jayhawk attack rushing 21 times for 109
yards and completing 4-of-8 passes for 85
yards. He hit a couple big passes early and
had one big run, but for the rest of the evening
the Lion defense mostly bottled up the
Vandercook Lake offense.
The Lions are now 2-0 all-time against the
Jayhawks having bested them in the semifi-
nals of last winter’s large school 8-player
postseason tournament. Coach Martin was
also really pleased with the enthusiasm and
support from the Lions on the sideline.Hastings’ defender Collin Fouty dives to trip up Marshall receiver Jake Jacob during
their I-8 match-up in Marshall Friday night. (Photo by Jason Slaughter)Maple Valley’s Callan Hoefler bursts
through an opening in the right side during
his team’s homecoming win over Vandercook
Lake Friday night at Maple Valley High
School. (Photo by Taylor Owens)Hastings running back TJ Russell with fellow back Robby Slaughter and the Saxon
offensive line working to open up holes at Marshall Friday night. (Photo by Jason Slaughter)Delton Kellogg’s Mason Nabozny slams
into Constantine quarterback Caden
Hetmansperger, knocking the ball away,
during the first half of their ballgame in
Delton Friday night. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Delton Kellogg tight end Cole Lane
turns up field with the ball after hauling in
a reception during his team’s ballgame
with visiting Constantine Friday. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)