By Ron Rop

LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON–Oakridge Eagle Trever Jones waited patiently for his turn in the spotlight.

The junior has found his way to center stage of the Eagles’ offense and that was evident again on Friday night.

Jones rushed 24 times for 216 yards and scored four touchdowns in the Eagles’ 36-8 victory in the West Michigan Conference Lakes homecoming matchup over the visiting Fremont Packers.

Jones scored on runs of 1, 37, 52 and 39 in leading an Oakridge offense that churned out 357 yards of total offense. Jones also caught two passes for 51 yards.

“Trever, again, just did an outstanding job,” Oakridge coach Cary Harger said. “That kid is such a competitor. He runs it super hard.

“He just couldn’t wait for this year to be ‘the guy.’ He was really looking forward to that.”

Jones pointed directly at his line for his success.

“The line was doing their job and the receivers were holding their blocks and just let me break loose,” Jones said. “The line definitely stepped up their game.”

The Eagles got out of the gate quickly and used a 10-play drive off the opening kickoff and moved 65 yards. That drive ended with Jones’ first touchdown of the game.

Quarterback Matt Danicek gave the Eagles a 14-0 lead at the half when he darted around for a 22-yard score.

The team exchanged scores in the third quarter. Jones ran it in from 37 yards out to give the hosts a 22-0 lead.

Fremont scored its lone touchdown with 7 seconds remaining in the third quarter when quarterback Kyler DeKuiper found Justin Dirheimer streaking down the left sideline on a long pass. Dirheimer turned on the speed and outran several Eagle defenders 69 yards to the end zone.

Oakridge capped the scoring in the final quarter on Jones’ runs of 52 and 39 yards.

“I thought the line did a great job,” Harger said. “Fremont held their ground at times, but we just kept grinding and just kept going at them.”

Danicek, the highly composed signal caller for the Eagles, completed 7-of-15 passes for 103 yards, but was picked off twice by Fremont defenders Daniel Romero and DeKuiper. Danicek ran the ball four times for 29 yards.

Dirheimer, the Packers’ workhorse back, was largely contained by the Eagle defense. He managed 49 rushing yards on 21 carries. He did have four catches for 98 yards and the one score.

“That was one of the toughest fronts that we have seen,” Fremont coach Jared Hudson said. “We had to get a little creative to get Justin some touches and there were some opportunities that even he came up a little bit short.”

Brody Jennings and Isaiah Eller led the Oakridge defense with 10 tackles each. Kyle Weaver recovered a fumble.

Owen Vanderberg and Connor Pettis had nine tackles each for Fremont. Andrew Steger had a fumble recovery for the Packer defense.

Hudson had a front-row view of not only a solid Eagle team, but a program that has a tradition of excellence.

“Playing teams like Oakridge are where we need to be and we need to be at this level,” Hudson said. “It’s great for us to experience this and for us not to not give up is a step in the right direction.”

Next week, Oakridge (5-0) will host Whitehall (5-0) in a West Michigan Conference Lakes showdown. Fremont (3-2) travels to Orchard View (0-5).