Portagers
ride rushing attack to win
By DYLAN SAVELA, Manistee News
Advocate Sports Writer
Published: Saturday, October 10, 2009, 12:16 AM
ONEKAMA — Onekama’s 48-0 win over Brethren
Friday night puts the Portagers one step closer in their quest to win
out for a playoff spot, while the loss puts Brethren another step behind
as they still seek victory number one.
“I’m only looking at one game,” Onekama coach
Jim Hunter said after Onekama shut out Mid State Activities
Conference-North opponent, the Bobcats. “The kids can celebrate this one
as coach Hunter goes to work tonight (for next week’s game against Mt.
Pleasant Sacred Heart).”
The one-game-at-a-time approach is the
same one being taken by Brethren coach Jason Kemler. “I told them
they’ve got to focus on homecoming right now,” Kemler said of next
week’s game against Big Rapids Crossroads Academy. “We have two games
left, and that’s what we’ve got to work on right now.”
The Portagers (4-3, 3-1 MSACN) can take
Friday night’s victory as a boost of momentum heading into the rest of
the season, as they finished the night with 401 total yards of offense,
with 13 first downs, and capping off the first seven of their last eight
possessions with a trip to the end zone.
“You have to bring your A game every play, and tonight I thought the
kids did,” Hunter said. “We’ve been getting better, and I thought we
showed it tonight.”
For the Bobcats (0-7, 0-3 MSACN), the same game is one they’ll want to
soon forget, as they managed only 64 yards of total offense on the
Portagers’ field.
“You take what you can take, and we’ve got to take the little things,”
said Kemler. “Sometimes we look like we’re playing well, and then other
times we just make way too many little mistakes, and that’s what gets
us. “We’re young, and though we do have a lot of seniors, a lot of them
haven’t played in a while and that makes a big difference.”
Onekama jumped out to a quick 22-0 lead in the first quarter as senior
running back Jake Matthews scored the first and second of his three
total touchdowns at 7:49 and 4:20 in the first quarter, and sophomore
running back Tyler Fogarty ran in for his first of two touchdowns at
2:13.“Any time you get down real quick, it’s always hard to come back
and fight through that,” Kemler said.
For the Portagers, it went according to plan.
“We got after it and did exactly what we wanted,” Hunter said of the
first quarter. “We got off to a fast start. I didn’t want a dogfight. I
thought our kids did a good job of nailing it.”
Matthews and Fogarty each ran for 114 yards apiece on the night,
Matthews on 10 carries and Fogarty on 11. Senior Jordon Zupin added 33
yards on four carries.
“The offensive line looked good tonight,” Hunter said. “Our backs got a
lot of nice stats, but anybody who knows football knows where it starts
from.” |
Onekama’s Tyler Fogarty (33)
gets a block from Adrian Norman (19) against Brethren on Friday
night. Fogarty rushed for 114 yards in the win. (Dylan Savela/News
Advocate)
The Portagers were led by senior Thomas
Koon under center, as quarterback Dan Gillespie sat out to insure the
symptoms of a concussion suffered last week against Ashley don’t return.
Koon went 6-for-11 passing for 91 yards and threw for two touchdowns to
go with 35 yards on the ground on seven carries. “It’s fun,” Koon said
of the temporary role. “I thought the team did really good.”
“The thing with Thomas is there was never any doubt that he could play
quarterback,” Hunter said. “I knew we were not going to miss a beat. And
Thomas does some things different. So some teams were geared up for what
Danny does, so when Thomas gets in there it changes just a little ...
and I think that worked to our advantage tonight.
“We caught them two or three times on things that they probably would
have played right had we not made the switch.”
Hunter assumes Gillespie will be ready to play next week, but said it’s
still to early to make the call.
“He’s symptom-free right now. We’ll see. First we’ll have him do some
light running and I guess if this were the NFL, he’d be a game day
decision.”
Onekama extended its lead to a 40-0 halftime score as Koon threw a
touchdown pass to Skyler Kimpel at 8:31 and again to Adrian Norman at
3:52.
Norman had three catches for 40 yards and Kimpel had two catches for 31.
Matthews rushed for his third touchdown with 1:09 left in the first
half.
Although the Portagers would score only once more in the second half,
when Fogarty rushed into the end zone for a second time at 4:54, Hunter
was happy with the way his team held its lead.
“I was really pleased with our intensity coming out of halftime with a
40-point lead,” he said. “I’ve tried to rally teams when we were down
20, and we came back out and played a great second half and got right
back into the game. So, I told the kids, ‘what I’m going to ask you guys
to do tonight is a lot harder.’ When you’ve got a 40-point lead, you’ve
got to remember to keep playing. And I really thought they did.” |
