Penalties doom Portagers in loss

by Dylan Savela, Manistee News Advocate
September 10, 2011

ONEKAMA — There’s some blemishing numbers in the stat book that will shed light on Onekama’s 36-14 loss to Coleman Friday.

But Portagers' coach Jim Hunter didn’t need to glance at the official figures and yard totals. He only needed to count to three.

“There’s really three things to this game and why we lost,” he explained. “The penalties were atrocious … we didn’t keep composure … (and) a little bit of it has to do with having faith in us coaches and following the game plan. At times, we didn’t do that.”

Each of those bullet points come with their own numbers, too. Namely, the Portagers wracked up 75 negative yards on 12 penalties, including a pair of personal fouls that gave Coleman new life on some key drives.

“Those are the mistakes you make the first week of the season, not the third,” Hunter said “That’s just keeping your head and your focus.

“But when you’re frustrated, and you’re just waiting for the walls to cave in it’s kind of what can happen when you’re still waiting for a first win.”

The Portagers (0-3) started the contest strong.

On Coleman’s first offensive drive, Onekama senior Adrian Norman intercepted quarterback’s Trevor Jones’ pass on 2nd-and-17 on the Comet’s 32 and ran the pick to paydirt at 8:47 for a 6-0 lead.

The Onekama offense, however, struggled moving the chains in the first half.

“They did some things up front defensively that our young line couldn’t adjust to,” Hunter said. “But we had three (false starts) in a row at one point, we fumbled a snap exchange twice that we turned the ball over on. I mean, you can not do that.”

Coleman tied the game at the five minute mark in the first quarter when tailback Tylor Rhynard punched in a touchdown on a 3-yard rush.

Rhynard, taking over for injured starter Tim Anderson, had a huge night in several aspects of the game — rushing for a pair of scores on 84 yards while catching for 94 yards with a touchdown reception and snagging an interception on defense.

“We came together and overcame a big injury from last week — Tim Anderson, our starting tailback,” said Coleman coach Chad Klopf. “Tylor Rhynard really stepped up. But, everybody had a role.

“We really played lights out defense. We had a couple mistakes that are going to happen when you have some young kids out there, but our defense really carried us tonight.”

The Comets extended their lead to 22-6 before the break with a pair of second-quarter scores — each on fourth down. Jones, who was 19-of-31 passing on the night, threw his first of two scores to Zachary Frazer on 4th-and-8 on Onekama’s 30-yard-line at 8:52 and tossed another strike to Rhynard for a 9-yard score on fourth-and-goal with just 33.5 second remaining before halftime.

The Portagers had a spark in the third quarter when on Coleman’s opening drive, Nolan Miller forced the Comets to fumble and Quinn Matthews recovered for Onekama.

Norman, the Portagers starting quarter, capped the ensuing four-play drive with a five-yard scoring rush at 9:53 in the third and Matthews punched in the two-point try to cut their deficit to 22-14.

“We talked about it at halftime, and I thought the kids listened well,” Hunter said of adjusting to the Coleman defense. “And the second half we moved the ball a lot better.”

Matthews led the team in rushing on the night with 67 yards. Norman ran for 29 while throwing for 71 yards on 5-of-11 passing with one interception. Onekama’s Tyler Johnson had three catches for 58 yards.

Though Tyler Fogarty led the Portagers with 25 tackles, the Portager defense hurt itself with a pair of big personal foul penalties that gave the Comets much-needed first downs. Coleman eventually extended the gap it needed for the win with Rhynard’s 27-yard scoring run at 2:15 in the third and Jones’ 6-yard pass to receiver Lars Murray at the 3 minute mark in the fourth.

"No question about it,” Hunter said. “Penalties and personal fouls were really costly for us tonight.”