By Mike Mattson
Local Sports Journal

Believe it or not, Mona Shores is 2-0 in football.

Coach Matt Koziak believes after the Sailors routed Spring Lake 42-14 Friday night at Sailor Stadium.

“I’m very pleased being 2-0 and proud the way we are 2-0,” Koziak said after his team duplicated its 42 points against Muskegon Catholic Central in the opener. “To score 42 points and hold them under 20 points in both games is great.

“I’m very pleased the way our offense is playing and pleased with our defense 80 percent of the time. I thought Spring Lake had a great game plan and went up and down the field on us.”

Mona Shores collected 542 yards in a balanced attack. Quarterback Tyree Jackson completed 13-of-18 passes for 276 yards and two TDs.

Fullback Darnell Longmire carried 19 times for 134 yards and three TDs and Chris Bradford added 10 carries for 88 yards and a score.

Spring Lake (1-1), meanwhile, hurt itself with three lost fumbles in the first half and two interceptions in the second half.

“Mona Shores is much improved, but we destroyed ourselves,” Spring Lake coach Jerry Rabideau said. “We moved the ball up and down the field, but destroyed ourselves. You can’t win a game with five turnovers.”

Shores used its speed to build a 22-0 lead.

Longmire scored on a 1-yard run on Shores’ first possession. Asantay Brown made a diving 24-yard TD catch from Jackson and Longmire added a 9-yard scoring run in the second quarter.

But the Lakers regrouped, thanks to a 6-yard TD run from quarterback Jake Chittenden and a 20-yard TD pass from Chittenden to Charlie Warber.

The Lakers had all the momentum going into the second half.

But Shores’ Jacob Workman intercepted a pass on Spring Lake’s third play of the third quarter. Seven plays later, Longmire scored on a 1-yard run to up the Sailors’ lead to 29-14.

Marquon Sargent stopped the next Lakers’ scoring drive when he intercepted a pass in the red zone. Five plays later, Jackson lofted a 51-yard TD pass to Sargent for a 36-14 lead late in the third quarter.

Chris Bradford capped the scoring for Shores with a 5-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

Spring Lake totaled 259 yards, 168 via the rush.

Chittenden completed 5-of-9 passes for 86 yards. Marlin Ingalls led the ground attack with 17 carries for 77 yards.

Top tacklers for the Lakers were Chittenden with nine and Johnny Mundt with six. Carter Bench intercepted a pass for Spring Lake.

Leading the Shores defense were Workman with eight tackles and Gage Veltman and David Bloom with seven stops apiece.

Overall, Shores’ speed on the perimeter proved to be the difference.

“The bottom line is we just hurt ourselves the whole game,” Rabideau said. “I thought defensively, we would do a better job securing their offense. They had better Xs than our Os.”