Rockford Rams 17. West Ottawa Panthers 10

Rockford defense rises up to turn back West Ottawa in Division 1 playoff opener
Jeff Chaney | The Grand Rapids Press, October 28, 2011 10:26 p.m.

ROCKFORD -- Rockford football coach Ralph Munger knows it’s hard to beat a team twice in one year.

Especially an OK Red Conference opponent.

Everybody at Ted Carlson Memorial Stadium found that out Friday night in the first round of the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 playoffs.

Rockford needed several strong defensive stands to hold off West Ottawa 17-10. It was far different from when the Rams whipped the Panthers 41-16 in Week 4 of the regular season.

Rockford advances to the district finals to take on Grand Ledge, a 21-14 winner at Grand Haven on Friday.

"It is very difficult to beat a team, and the edge (in the second) game usually goes to the team that lost, unless it’s a blowout," said Munger, whose team improved to 9-1. "In that first game with them, it was 14-10 at the half, and they outplayed us in the first half. In the second half, we got some breaks and long passes and pulled it out. So this game worried me."

West Ottawa (6-4) might not have outplayed Rockford in the first half of Friday’s playoff game, but it was a back-and-forth battle for the first 24 minutes.

The Rams got on the scoreboard first on a Brady Gent 1-yard run, only to have West Ottawa close the gap to 7-3 on a 23-yard field goal by William Winter.

Rockford pushed the lead to 10-3 on a Steven Mette 34-yard field early in the second quarter, but the Panthers tied it on their ensuing drive when West Ottawa quarterback Trevor Van Tubbergen hit Ato Condelee on a 30-yard touchdown pass.

Rockford scored the eventual game-winning touchdown late in the first half, when Gent darted through the West Ottawa defense for a 10-yard touchdown run.

"We battled," West Ottawa coach Rory Zegunis said. "We played well, and gave it everything we had."

The second half became a battle of defensive stops, as three consecutive West Ottawa drives were stopped on fourth-down plays by the Rams defense.

Twice, those drives were stopped in Rockford territory.

"Our defense won it for us. Those fourth-down stops were big," Munger said. "Our defense got excited, really excited, on those last three stops. Now, we need to get our offense excited. We had opportunities, and we have to hurry up and get that fixed."

Gent led the Rockford offense with 116 yards on 21 carries.

West Ottawa senior running back Brandon Allen rushed for 106 yards on 19 carries.

Allen also came in to relieve Van Tubbergen for part of the second half and completed 3-of-5 passes for 39 yards.

The Panthers just couldn’t finish drives in the second half.

"We put ourselves in a situation to win, just came up short," Zegunis said.