Dylan Savela, Manistee News Advocate
October 12, 2012

ONEKAMA — After a wacky week of will-they, won’t-they play, Onekama and Crossroads Charter Academy got their game in Friday night, and the Portagers provided most of the highlights.

Onekama topped the Cougars 51-0 in a West Michigan D League contest that was almost going to be played as an 8-man scrimmage due to injuries and eligibility issues gutting Crossroads’ roster.

“Despite all the confusion, and the time we took off of practicing an 11-man offense this week, I thought the kids did well with it,” said Onekama coach Jim Hunter. “I give them a lot of credit for that.”

The Portagers were sparked by the usual suspects as junior quarterback Tyler Johnson rushed for two touchdowns on 104 yards and threw for another pair of scores, while senior running back Quinn Matthews eclipsed the 200-yard mark with the help of huge gains on the ground to go with four touchdowns.

Though it was the only score of the first quarter, Matthews set the tone early with a long scamper to paydirt from deep in his own territory.

Onekama (3-5) got in its groove during the second quarter, scoring 32 points for a 39-0 halftime lead.

Matthews punched in a 6-yard touchdown at 9:21, which was followed by Johnson’s two straight keepers in the redzone at 7:27 and 5:49.

At 4:28, Matthews again popped a big play from Crossroads’ 49-yard line for his third touchdown of the night, and Johnson connected for a 34-yard strike to receiver Brandon Bohannon at 1:51 to close the half.

“They’ve got a lot of young kids, and I give them credit, they came at us every play,” Hunter said of the winless Cougars. “But as far as we’re concerned, I thought we had a few times where we wanted to do our own thing a bit and not stay within the package, and that can sometimes happen in a game like this, where everyone is trying to get a piece of the pie.

“But what I was most impressed with is we came out the second half and did a better job of doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Big Rapids struggled to move the chains at times, but was successful on a pair of fake punt plays on fourth down, converting on one in the first quarter and one in the third. Crossroads quarterback Aron Garland connected with Dylan Balsitis for one of the Cougars’ largest gains of the night, a 21-yard pass for a third down conversion as the second quarter was winding to a close.

Onekama’s Josh Santa (65) makes a tackle against Crossroads’ Aron Garland during Friday’s game. (Dylan Savela/News Advocate)

“It’s a matter of execution; it’s never a matter of effort with us,” said Crossroads coach Fred Peacock. “We missed a few things — missed tackles, missed assignments — but the effort was always there.

“We’ve been playing shorthanded all season — the same with tonight — but I thought we played well. We didn’t get it in the endzone, but we played hard.

“And they’ve got some kids that are pretty good players over there that hurt us a bit.”

On the third play from scrimmage to start the second half, Matthews ran in for his fourth and final score of the night from 52 yards out. The 45-0 mark on the scoreboard instituted a running clock.

At 11:28 in the fourth, Johnson connected with Jacob Morgan for a 12-yard score the 51-point lead that would hold up the rest of the way.

“I thought we came out with some intensity in the second half, which can be tough to do on a cold night,” Hunter said. “And it was still tough. We had 13 kids … with us dropping some down to JV this week thinking we’d be playing 8-man.

“I thought the kids who were here tonight did a great job.”

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