A tenacious
Grand Haven defense bottlenecked Rockford senior running back Baron
Grutter for most of the game, preventing him from getting much of
a chance to grind out yardage.
Until the second
half, that is.
Near the end
of the third quarter, Grutter emerged and so did the Rams. The second-half
onslaught powered Rockford to a 49-14 win over the host Buccaneers
and earned the second-ranked team in Division 1 the outright O-K
Red Conference championship.
Grutter scored
two key second-half touchdowns on runs of 84 and 32 yards. Both
came on the first play from scrimmage.
The conference
title, Rockford's first solo crown since 1998, was celebrated by
Rams coach Ralph Munger, who proclaimed "O-K Red... undisputed...
champions" in the huddle to the delight of the players.
"It feels great
to be able to win eight (games), but we've got one big game left,"
Munger said, referring to Rockford's season-ending showdown at Mona
Shores.
Grand Haven
was as close as 28-14 in the third quarter, but Rockford's smothering
offense took over and ground out 21 unanswered points in the win.
Its one-two
punch of Grutter and quarterback Steve Fusee was enough to end Grand
Haven's evening, as Fusee connected on three touchdown passes in
the first half. Fusee threw a 66-yard downfield spiral to Erik Hansen
and then followed up with two short tosses of 8 and 10 yards to
Joe Staley. Fusee ended the night 9 of 15 for 187 yards.
Then came Grutter's
long runs. He took over and finished with 10 carries and 142 yards.
"Grand Haven
put up a very strong defensive fight against us, we weren't powerful
enough against it at first," Grutter said. "We got some crucial
blocks late in the game for my scores.
"It's an excellent
feeling for us to win this. We've wanted this for the last couple
years and it's been a tough league. No one in the Red gives up,
especially Grand Haven. As far as they were concerned this was a
0-0 game once again (to start the second half)."
The Buccaneer
offense wasn't powerless against Rockford, however, as they managed
320 yards total offense to the Rams' 464. The Buccaneer scoring
strikes came on touchdown passes of 12 and 27 yards from quarterback
Jon Hebb to Chris LeClair.
Rockford's
other scores came on a 2-yard run to Nate Teft and a 20-yard run
from Drew Powell.
Grand Haven
fullback Mike Pilko was the back that wouldn't go away, ending up
with 19 carries and 113 yards.
By Steve
Ungrey
The Grand Rapids Press