By Justin Haggerty
LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP – It seems Muskegon Catholic Central can do no wrong on the gridiron this season – at least so far.
The Crusaders outscored their opponents by a combined score of 51-12 through the first two games of the season. Friday’s challenger, Orchard View, failed to alter that trend.
It was all Crusaders from the coin toss as MCC rolled past the Cardinals 42-0 to improve to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the Lakes 8 Conference.
Coming off a game last week that included 135 penalty yards against his team, MCC Coach Steve Czerwon made a point to preach discipline at practice this week. It worked. Neither team was flagged in the first quarter and the Crusaders committed just 35 yards in penalties this week.
“I think we played a lot cleaner game,” Czerwon said. “I thought after last week that we needed to have more attention to detail. I think it showed tonight, we cut down on the penalties from last week and played a sound game.
“We’ve only got one turnover (against) through three games. If you don’t turn the ball over and play some good, solid defense you’re going to give yourself a chance against anybody.”
LaTommy Scott breaks a tackle for Muskegon Catholic. Photo/Leo Valdez
MCC won the toss and elected to kick off to start the game. The kick was bobbled by an Orchard View up-man and recovered by the Crusaders at the OV 44-yard line.
The Crusaders made quick work of the resulting drive. They needed just six plays to score on a quarterback keeper by Trenton Bordeaux from the two-yard line, giving MCC a 7-0 lead just 2:32 into the game.
On their final drive of the first quarter, MCC needed just four plays to march 55-yards to the end-zone. Led by back-to-back 17 yard gains by Logan Helton and Bordeaux, and punctuated with a 20 yard sprint down the sideline by LaTommy Scott, the Crusaders took a 14-0 lead after one.
MCC had a 56-yard touchdown called back on a penalty in the second quarter, but Helton made up for it, rumbling 42-yards to put the Crusaders up 20-0.
Scott contributed carries of 19 and 28 yards on that drive en route to 109 yards rushing for the game.
In the third quarter, MCC’s Walker Christoffersen scored touchdowns of 8 and 42 yards to put the Crusaders up 34-0 going to the final frame.
Orchard View surrounds on defense. Photo/Leo Valdez
Freshman Cameron Martinez capped the scoring with 7:47 to play with a two-yard keeper around the end.
Christoffersen led all rushers with 128 yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns. MCC had 11 different players carry the ball and totaled 411 yards on 51 carries as a team.
“It was good chance to get the younger kids in,” Czerwon said. “Some of these younger kids need to play, they work hard during practice.”
The Crusader defense also continued its dominance. It has now surrendered only 12 points over three games.
“We’ve shut down the rushing game of all three teams we’ve played this year,” Czerwon said. “We want to force some teams to do what they don’t want to do. It’s good if you can shut down a team’s rushing.
Orchard View fell to 0-3 on the season and faces a tough schedule the rest of the year with four out of its five remaining games on the road, beginning with a trip to Benton Harbor next week.
