Portagers blank Bobcats

Posted by Dylan Savela, Manistee News Advocate
September 23, 2011

ONEKAMA — Football may be a game of inches, but Friday night, big plays were the difference.

Onekama just made too many for Brethren to sustain, as the Portagers ran away with a 34-0 homecoming win over the cross-county rival.

“We just missed opportunities,” Bobcats coach Bob VanGorder said. “It’s the old saying, ‘players make plays.’ When it was time to make plays, we had people in position to make plays but we couldn’t convert.

“And I give it up to Onekama, because their players made the big plays when it counted.”

But first, the game was indeed a battle of just inches.

“We had to be patient tonight,” said Onekama coach Jim Hunter, citing the defensive battle that rendered each team’s first pair of drives scoreless. “It was tough. We were being dominated at the line of scrimmage in the first half, so it took awhile.

“It wasn’t like our first 14 points were on nice sustained drives. They were on big plays.”

The first was a 38-yard quarterback keeper by Onekama’s Adrian Norman nearly 11 minutes into the contest that broke the scoreless draw. Running back Quinn Matthews punched in the 2-point conversion to make it 8-0 for Onekama heading into the second quarter.

Onekama’s next trip to the endzone came to fruition on a pair key fourth-down plays.

On 4th-and-7 on Brethren’s 29-yard line, Norman’s pass to Tyler Johnson looked to be intercepted by Brethren’s Lucas Connolly, but was thwarted by a pass interference penalty.

Four plays later, Norman connected with Johnson on a 12-yard fourth-down toss for a touchdown at 3:08.

Norman was 3-for-4 for 11 yards on the night, while rushing for two touchdowns and 71 yards on the ground.

“Adrian called a really good game,” Hunter said of his senior under center. “In fact, a couple checks on the line, he made some really good decisions.

“It shows he’s getting it, it shows he’s a senior. It’s like having another coach on the field.”

The Portagers took the 14-point advantage into halftime, but weren’t satisfied with the two-score edge

“These guys always play us hard,” Hunter said of Brethren’s stingy defense in the first half. “And they played harder than us on the line in that first half.

“(Brethren’s Josh Cantrell) played a whale of a game,” Hunter added of the Bobcat linebacker who had a game-high 18 tackles including seven for losses. “That’s the first time I can think of that I’ve ever changed blocking schemes just to deal with one kid. So kudos to him.”

Hunter said his team made a few adjustments at halftime and eventually found their offensive stride in the second half.

“I thought to start the second half we made it more of a stalemate (at the line), and down the stretch we started to get the upper-hand,” he said. “Our kids settled down and played a better offense. We talked about coming out, told them we’ve got to grit our teeth and when we get the ball, we’ve got to take it down and score. And that’s what our kids did.”

On Onekama’s second drive of the third quarter, a huge 41-yard rush from Tyler Fogarty set the Portagers up nicely at Brethren’s 15-yard line. Norman capped the five-play drive off with a 6-yard touchdown run to make it 20-0 with 2:06 left to play in the third.

Fogarty rushed for a game-high 157 yards on 21 carries for the Portagers and a pair of touchdowns, while Quinn Matthews shared the workload, running for 123 yards on 13 carries.

“Our backs, Tyler and Quinn, have that big-play ability,” Hunter said. “Quinn’s a little guy with a huge heart, and it’s not just speed and quickness, he shows bursts of some good power.”

Onekama recovered a second Brethren fumble as the clock hit zero in the third, and on the very first play in the fourth Matthews ran for 44 yards to set his team up at Brethren’s 6. Fogarty punched in his first of two rushing scores on the next play, while Matthews ran in for the conversion to go up 28-0.

On Brethren’s ensuing drive, Norman, who plays safety on the Portagers’ defense, intercepted quarterback Devon Nelson. Onekama, in turn, capped the game off with a nine-yard rush from Fogarty at 6:49.

Brethren’s Nate Costello led his team’s offense with 62 yards on 12 carries while Nelson finished the game 1-of-4 passing for seven yards.

For Onekama, the win is the second in a row after an 0-3 start, and puts the Portagers at 2-0 in West Michigan D League play.

“(League play) is a big part of this win too,” Hunter said. “It’s sort of our second season and so far we’re hanging in there. We’re still in first place, and next week’s another game. Our goal is to try and stay in first for one more week.”

Posted by Dylan Savela,
Manistee News Advocate

 

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