For each of the past two seasons, the Reeths-Puffer football team got off to a great start with uplifting victories in their season openers.
Back in 2022, in head coach Cody Kater’s first game, the Rockets washed away the bad taste of a 3-6 season in 2021 by beating Grand Haven 32-20.
Last year R-P led Grand Haven 14-7 on opening night when play was suspended by stormy weather. The game resumed the next night, and the Rockets pulled away for a 41-13 victory.
Both of those Week 1 victories were important confidence-builders and propelled R-P toward successful seasons. The Rockets finished with a 6-3 regular season record two years ago, a 7-2 mark last year, and qualified for the state playoffs both seasons.
Photo/Tyler Lirones
Now, however, the Rockets are faced with a different scenario. They opened the 2024 campaign last Thursday against a very powerful opponent – defending Division 3 state champion Forest Hills Central – and lost 21-10.
The outcome was not shocking, considering the quality of the opposition and the fact that R-P has a lot of new starters in many positions, including every offensive skill spot.
The Rockets were competitive and remained very much in the game until well into the fourth quarter.
But the situation is still unfamiliar for the team. Instead of receiving a happy boost in the opener, they are facing Week 2 with the task of righting the ship.
Kater said the players understand that the team is a work in progress and remain confident in their potential.
Photo/Tyler Lirones
“We knew it was going to be all about the process, and that was not the best version of ourselves (against Forest Hills Central),” said Kater, whose team is below the .500 mark for the first time in his R-P career.
“It’s early in the season, and we have to pick up the pieces and move forward. The kids understand that it’s day-by-day. We are not the machine we want to be yet, but we are having the conversations we need to have to be geared toward that.”
The Rockets have no time to dwell on the loss, because another major challenge is just days away.
Caledonia, which has emerged as a West Michigan power in the last few years, will visit Rocket Stadium on Friday at 7 p.m. It will be the first meeting in history between the Rockets and Fighting Scots on the football field.
Photo/Tyler Lirones
Caledonia has been a playoff team for the past four seasons and has posted an impressive 30-8 record over the last three.
Some might have wondered if Caledonia would be quite as good this year, following the graduation of running back Brock Townsend and H-back Derek Pennington, who one news service called “two of the best players in school history.”
That apparently didn’t make too huge of a difference, because the Fighting Scots opened the season in style last week with a 48-7 win over a team from Windsor, Ontario.
They still have standout QB Brody Betser, who threw for 1,428 yards and 22 touchdowns last season, and that's obviously a big plus.
“Great program, great team, great coaching staff,” Kater said about Caledonia. “It’s obviously going to be another tough matchup this week, but we are excited to go against this program. It’s going to be another great test to help us find out who we are.”
A few bad plays blight an otherwise solid opener
A lot of people were wondering what to expect from the Rockets against Forest Hills Central, considering their inexperience at so many positions.
As it turned out, they held up pretty well against the mighty Rangers.
R-P took a 3-0 lead in the second quarter on a 26-yard field goal by Owen Ritsema.
Forest Hills Central scored a touchdown before halftime and led 7-3 at the break, then added another in the third quarter to pull ahead 14-3.
Photo/Tyler Lirones
R-P’s offense found the end zone with an impressive 16-play, 80-yard scoring drive later in the third quarter. Junior quarterback Mason Darke ended the drive with a three-yard TD run, and the PAT made the score 14-10.
Forest Hills Central added a touchdown in the fourth quarter, then the Rockets drove all the way to the FHC 16 before an interception ended their chances.
Kater said he expected his players to be poised and ready, so the fact that they were competitive did not surprise him.
He feels the Rockets ended up beating themselves in a lot of ways, which is a lot different than being overwhelmed against a clearly superior opponent.
Photo/Tyler Lirones
“I think it was our game that we lost,” the coach said. “Looking back at the film, we did not adjust as fast as they did. We didn’t execute in those high-pressure situations. I think our kids learned a lot about our team and I think the staff learned a lot about our team.”
The offensive stats support the fact that the Rockets moved the ball quite well.
R-P ran 60 offensive plays, compared to 36 for FHC. The Rangers had a slight 295-268 edge in total offense and a big 163-79 advantage in passing yards, but the Rockets outrushed the home team 189-132 and had 17 first downs, compared to 12 for the Rangers.
Darke, making his first start at quarterback for R-P, completed 8 of 12 passes for 79 yards and rushed for 85. Running back Bryce Muskovin also ran for 85 yards. Lukas Johnson had four receptions for 39 yards while Ethan Muskovin had four catches for 25 yards.
Photo/Tyler Lirones
A handful of bad plays by the offense contributed to the loss, however.
The Rockets turned the ball over on a fumble early in the game.
They had the ball to start the second quarter and drove to the FHC five-yard line but were stuffed on a third-and-goal play.
On the first possession of the third quarter, Reeths-Puffer turned the ball over on downs just short of midfield, leading to a quick Ranger touchdown
R-P also threw the interception midway through the fourth quarter on its final possession.
Photo/Tyler Lirones
“The offense played really well,” Kater said. “They executed the game plan, although we felt we should have been able to make adjustments a little quicker. Overall I was very pleased. The young guys made a few mistakes but played hard. They left it all on the field. We just have to fix some things.”
The defense was burned by three big Forest Hills Central plays - a 37-yard touchdown pass, a 46-yard TD run and a 27-yard touchdown pass.
Sage Secrest had eight tackles for the Rockets while Mari Davis added four.
“If we don’t give up the big plays, I’m guessing that they are under 200 yards total offense,” Kater said. “We have to go back to the drawing board a bit and make sure we have the right guys in the right places.
"As a staff, we believe it was more about discipline than anything else. It was a matter of focusing on the details and focusing on the moment, and we didn’t do that.”