Rockford Football

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Rockford Rams 38. Jenison Wildcats 06

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(courtesy of Chris Rozema and Artistic Action)

Rockford gains momentum
By Jeff Chaney / The Grand Rapids Press

ROCKFORD -- There would be no letdown this time for the Rockford football team.
A week after beating Hudsonville on the road in a battle of top-ranked teams, the Rams pulled away from a struggling Jenison Wildcats team 38-6 in front of a packed homecoming crowd Friday night at Ted Carlson Memorial Stadium.

"The last time we won against Hudsonville, we turned around and lost against Jenison the next week, so you always try (and) guard against (a letdown)," said Rockford coach Ralph Munger, whose top-ranked team in Division 1 improved to 5-0. "This wasn't our best week of practice, and also it was homecoming week, so it was hard to focus."

The Rams' focus was a little blurred in the first half, as Rockford grinded it out to a 10-0 lead through 24 minutes of play.

The highlight of the first half was when Rockford junior kicker Paul Mudgett got the scoring underway by hitting a 48-yard field goal midway through the first quarter.

After halftime, Rockford's offense began to hit its stride, especially the passing attack.

Senior quarterback Tim McGee threw two long touchdown passes, one to Nick Stokes and one to Cam Lawson, and the Rams scored two times on the ground to put up 28 points in the third quarter, which started a running clock in the fourth.

"We felt the passing game was there, but in the first half, we didn't try to exploit it a lot," Munger said. "In the second half, we opened it up a lot, and that worked to our favor."

Jenison coach Irv Sigler Jr. was proud of the way his winless Wildcats played in the first half, but was disappointed that his team couldn't sustain that play through the game.

"I told our guys after the game that I liked our demeanor at the start of the game, we were here to play," Sigler Jr. said. "We just made way too many mistakes in the second half. And they are an outstanding football team, and you can't make that many mistakes against them."

The Wildcats avoided the shutout when senior running back Anthony Koziatek went in from 4 yards out as the clock expired.

McGee finished the night by completing 7-of-10 passes for 146 yards and three touchdowns.

Of those 146 yards and three scores, 117 yards and two touchdowns came in the decisive third quarter.

 

 


OK-Red Standings

Musk
7
0
RHS
6
1
H'ville
5
2
GHav
3
4
G'ville
3
4
WOtt
2
5
EK
1
6
Jenison
1
6

State Final Scores
RHS 26, LOrion 14
Musk 34, Warren 14
EGR 43, Inkster 24
HollChr 35, DetCD 20
MOak 26, OvEls 14
Mont 41, Leslie 20
TCSF 41, Ubly 13
MCC 40, CFFP 00


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