Weekend roundup: Fruitport football can't complete comeback at Coopersville
Sep. 13—Scores and results from the weekend's high school sports action:
Football
Fruitport: The Trojans traveled to Coopersville on Friday for their first road game of the season. In their first OK Blue matchup of the year, Fruitport nearly pulled off an impressive comeback, but fell just short in a 29-22 defeat.
Down 29-8 midway through the second half, the Trojan defense pitched a second-half shutout, and Aiden Vela scored twice on the ground, but Coopersville did just enough to take home the victory.
The Broncos scored three touchdowns in the first quarter sandwiched around a 66-yard rushing touchdown from Fruitport's Paschal Jolman.
Vela scored his first touchdown late in the first half from 17 yards out to head into the half down 15. With just under three minutes to go in the third quarter, Vela added a 7-yard rushing touchdown and Jolman added a 2-point try to cut the lead to a touchdown.
Gavin Reames and the Trojan offense had chances to tie the game, missing a fourth-and-goal attempt and getting intercepted on their final drive.
Jolman carried 10 times for 93 yards and a touchdown, while Reames completed 5 of his 15 passes for 52 yards and a pair of interceptions.
Cody Nash led the defense with nine tackles, while Camden Farrell added seven and a sack. Vela and Cody Leonard both had an interception for the Trojans, who move to 1-2 before their home game against Spring Lake this Friday.
Grand Haven
Cross country: The Buccaneers headed to West Ottawa for a Saturday meet with some of the top teams in the state.
Grand Haven's boys scored 86 points finishing ahead of 10th-ranked Lowell and ninth-ranked East Lansing on 124 points, and top-20 Jenison 141.
"Our guys ran the plan we laid out for them Saturday," coach John Tarr said. "They came through the mile around 5:10-5:12 and sat back on the leaders then went after people in the last two miles finishing up strong down the stretch. We've been working on this for two weeks and it paid off today."
The team was led by sophomore Seth Norder who finished third overall and ran a career record of 16 minutes, 8 seconds, sprinting to the end and finishing only three-tenths of a second out of first.
Junior Nolan Clark ran with the leaders most of the race and was sixth in 16:22. Clark was followed by Logan Vining in 21st (17:12), John Tysman in 27th (17:24), Ben Pease at 29th (17:26) and freshman Ben Held with a PR of 18:23.
"Pease ran an especially great race today for us as a fifth runner," Tarr added. "He finished about 10 places ahead of his ranking going into this race and made all the difference for us today."
The girls were fifth out of 19 teams, with freshman Valerie Beeck taking home a ninth-place finish in 19:40 and sophomore Payton Hosley finishing 23rd in 20:38.
Gracey Barry was next-best for the Bucs in 21:18, with Margot Frendt adding a 21:26 and Laurel Tolliver rounding out the top 10 in 51st at 21:29.
The girls had their first taste of a big cross country race and handled it well," coach Scott Przystas said. "We had seven of our top eight run season-best times and at this point that is what we are focused on, getting better every week and racing faster every week. This is a young team and we are still figuring a lot of things out."
Both teams will have the week to train before a 35-team race at Riverside Park in Grand Rapids on Friday. After that, the Bucs will host the first OK Red jamboree of the season on Sept. 21.
Girls swim/dive: The Bucs were third at the weekend's West Michigan Relays event at Hudsonville.
The diving team took second overall behind Jenison. Grand Haven's first home meet of the season will come on Thursday against the Wildcats, kicking off at 6 p.m.
Volleyball: Grand Haven took a road trip south to Novi for a Saturday 12-team tournament. The Bucs took a 1-2 record into bracket play after two-set losses to state-ranked teams in Saline and Lake Orion.
Up against Walled Lake Northern, Grand Haven had won in two sets in pool play, but lost a three-set match to bounce out of the tournament, as Northern won 25-18, 29-25, 15-11.
"It was an up and down day for us," coach Aaron Smaka said. "We saw some really good things throughout the day, but are still struggling to compete at a high level consistently. We know we have the ability to play with anyone, but right now too often show our inexperience and make too many mistakes."
Paige Redder played her best volleyball of the season finishing with 24 kills, five aces and 28 digs. The middle hitters were effective for the Bucs with Middle Kam Burbridge adding 16 blocks and 10 kills. Alena Whittaker and Molly Long also both added 10 kills. Mia Swierbut added 35 digs and five aces.
Now 9-12 on the season, the Bucs start conference play on Thursday at Grandville.
Spring Lake
Boys soccer: The Lakers faced a recent rival at home on Saturday, earning a momentum-building 3-0 win over Reeths-Puffer.
Kole Pattyn, Keegan Fritsche and Conrad Bush scored goals for Spring Lake, while the defensive group dealt with strong wins to record a shutout. A recap from their Monday matchup with Hudsonville Unity Christian will be in Wednesday's TribSports section.
Girls swim/dive: Spring Lake hosted and won a five-team event on Saturday against Mona Shores, Ludington, Fremont and Manistee.
The Lakers won a relay and a handful of individual events, including the team of Avery Flynn, Tori Fouchea, Kyla Meyers and Leila Kahler taking home the 400-yard freestyle relay in 4:12.3.
Kahler won the 200 free in 2:03.96 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.84, while Bella Boodt was first in the 100 butterfly at 1:11.23. Sophia Brakora and Sarah Colvin took the top two places in diving, Meyers was second in the 500 free, and Fouchea was second in 1:09.48 at the 100 backstroke.
The Lakers head to Holland on Tuesday before hosting Forest Hills Northern on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Fruitport
Volleyball: The Trojans were 2-2 at their home invitational to take third place, beating Grant and Mona Shores before losses to Traverse City West and Gull Lake.
Sydney Woods had a team-high 31 kills, while Kylie Rudolph had 16 kills and 22 digs. Raegan Dykstra had 58 of the team's 63 assists, while Sadie Haase added 11 kills and two blocks.
The Trojans host Spring Lake on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Western Michigan Christian
The Warriors' girls team won their division at Fremont's Hill and Bale Invitational on Saturday.
Abby VanderKooi and freshman sister Grace finished 1-2, Abby in 18:46 and Grace nearly two minutes behind at 20:42. Brianna Zuidema and Ava Rotman were also top-10 finishes with 22-minute times.
The boys team was third, just behind Manton with 66 points. Jonathan Clausing's 19:10 and Danny Maat's 20:54 both earned top-10 finishes.
Not seeing your team's scores? Encourage coaches to send results to the Tribune sports desk by emailing kturk@grandhaventribune.com.
