Rockford
Rams 28. Grand Haven 06
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Rockford closes Grand Haven's stadium with win
By Jeff Chaney / The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND HAVEN -- The
Rockford football team helped turned the lights out on Buccaneer
Stadium
on Friday night. The visiting Rams won the last football
game played in the 62 years of Grand Haven's home field. Rockford,
dealing with heavy winds, cold temperatures and an enthusiastic
crowd, played solid football on both sides of the
ball and defeated
the Buccaneers 28-6.
"
The wind made it tough for both teams," Rockford coach Ralph
Munger said. "We needed to come here and take care of
business. We have a number of things that we still need to
clean up, but
I thought we played well. Anytime you can put 28 points on
the board in these conditions is good." The Rockford offense,
playing without three linemen including two starters who were
suspended for disciplinary reasons, grinded
out
305 yards of total offense. Of those, 250 came on the ground.
Senior running back Zach Breen led the Rams in rushing with
100 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown.
"
(The suspensions) didn't affect us as much as the weather," Breen
said. "The wind was tough out there. Plus, Grand Haven
played their hearts out because this is their homecoming
and they were
shutting down their field." Field position became the
biggest problem during the night for the Buccaneers. Grand
Haven's first-half drives started at its own 1-, 25-, 1-,
3-, 37- and 3-yard lines.
"
We talked about how field position would be important tonight," Munger
said. "The elements weren't that bad, that wind made
it hard on both offenses." The good news for the Buccaneers
is that two goal-line stands contributed to the bad field
position, but Grand
Haven was
unable to generate
anything on offense. The Buccaneers had only 39 first-half
yards and the Rams went into the break with a 14-0 lead.
"
We pinned ourselves back tonight, and that hurt," Grand
Haven coach Mike Farley said. "Rockford is a great team,
and good teams really hurt you when they have field position
advantages
like that." The Rams increased the lead to 28-0
in the second half on a Mike Mudgett 1-yard touchdown
plunge
and a 7-yard
scoring
strike
from
quarterback Tom Fusee to Callan Sherd.
Grand Haven got
on the board late when quarterback Dan Bosch hit Louis
Olds on a 6-yard scoring strike to finish
the scoring
at
Buccaneer Stadium. "
Our kids were focused all week," Farley said. "They knew
the magnitude of this game. Not only to play Rockford, but to play
the last game in this stadium. I was glad I was able to coach the
last game at Buccaneer Stadium. This stadium has a lot of character,
but we are excited about our new stadium."
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