Kent City Eagles spoil legendary coach’s debut for Newaygo with one-point victory

 

KENT CITY–The Kent City Eagles came from behind to spoil Ralph Munger’s debut as the Newaygo Lions head football coach on Friday evening.

 

The Eagles came away with a 14-13 non-conference win.

 

The two teams originally were scheduled to play on Thursday evening, however, due to weather conditions, the game was moved to Friday evening.

 

Kent City relied heavily on its running game as it rushed for 269 yards.

 

Caden Hartzel led the ground game with 154 yards on 23 carries while Carson Goton rushed 13 times for 92 yards.

 

Both teams went scoreless during the first quarter.

 

Newaygo got on the board first in the second quarter and converted the extra point kick to take a 7-0 lead. Kent City narrowed the lead to 7-6 before the halftime intermission on a fumble recovery by Gabe Rusnell.

 

The Lions scored a touchdown in the third period to take a 13-6 entering the fourth quarter.

 

Hartzel scored on a 5-yard run for Kent City in the fourth quarter and the Eagles were successful on the 2-point conversion to take a 14-13 lead.

 

Jake Perry led the Eagles’ defense with 10 tackles while Joe Vanoffelen had seven and Zach Devoogd chipped six.

 

Kent City will travel to Central Montcalm next Thursday while Newaygo will travel to Big Rapids.