Spring Lake shows off its offensive weapons in narrow victory over Belding

By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

SPRING LAKE – A successful team can be measured by how many weapons they have at their exposal, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

The Spring Lake football team displayed many weapons on Thursday night in their second game of the season.

The Lakers had three players score on rushing touchdowns as they managed to attack well from the ground, resulting in a 34-28 win over Belding on their home turf.

Spring Lake is now 2-0 on the season, winning both games by the exact same score, and it will open O-K Blue Conference play next week against Hudsonville Unity Christian.

The Lakers had a strong running attack led by Wren Dephouse who rushed for 139 yards on nine carries and one touchdown, while Sam Schafer had 124 yards on 15 touches with two touchdowns.

Bryce Collins chipped in with 87 yards rushing on nine carries and a touchdown.

“We really like our fullbacks,” said Spring Lake coach Cody Mallory. “We have a combination of thunder and lightning and we needed to establish the fullback in the middle. They carried the ball and blocked well.”

The Lakers forced Belding to punt on its first possession before Spring Lake struck quickly with the opening score of the game.

Quarterback Reid Grimmer found Jackson Lemmen for a 43-yard touchdown pass on the Lakers’ third offensive play of the game. Jessica Stewart nailed the extra point to give Spring Lake a 7-0 lead with 8:41 remaining in the first quarter.

The Black Knights responded by going 63 yards on eight plays on their second drive of the game.

Belding quarterback Anthony Szubinski scored on an 8-yard run, then converted on the 2-point conversion to give the Black Knights an 8-7 advantage with 4:34 left in the first quarter.

Spring Lake regained its advantage with 1:59 left in the opening stanza with a 15-yard touchdown run by Schafer. Stewart converted on the extra point to give the Lakers a 14-8 advantage. The Lakers had four first downs during the six-play drive.

The Lakers led 14-8 at the end of the first quarter.

Spring Lake had a chance to extend its lead after forcing the Black Knights to punt early in the second quarter.

Dephouse looked to have a 32-yard touchdown run, but the play was called back for an illegal block in the back. The Lakers had three costly penalties during the drive that stopped them from putting points on the scoreboard.

Spring Lake eventually fumbled the ball at the Belding 38-yard line, giving the Black Knights a chance to tie the contest before halftime.

Belding drove the ball 63 yards on its final possession of the first half and tied the game 14-14 on a 4-yard fourth-and-goal conversion by Szubinski with 27 seconds left in the half.

The Black Knights failed on the two-point conversion to keep the score deadlocked.

The Lakers completed a 42-yard pass completion from Grimmer to Lemmen with 17 seconds left to give Spring Lake a chance to regain the lead before halftime. The drive stalled on the last play of the second quarter when Szubinski picked off a pass to keep the game tied at halftime.

“We just needed to make a couple of adjustments with our alignments,” Mallory said. “I think they had a lot of linemen play both ways and it was affecting them.”

The Lakers drove the ball 68 yards on their first possession of the second half and scored on a 4-yard run by Dephouse with 7:30 left in the third quarter to take a 21-14 lead.

Belding responded on its next drive by going 65 yards on 12 plays that resulted in a 6-yard touchdown pass from Szubinski to Jack Ward with 1:30 remaining in the third quarter. Spring Lake stuffed Belding on the two-point conversion to maintain a slim 21-20 advantage.

The Lakers added on to their lead early in the fourth quarter with a 5-yard touchdown run by Schafer with 11:11 left in the contest. Spring Lake failed to convert on the extra point and led by a 27-20 margin.

The Lakers forced Belding to punt on its next drive, then scored five plays later with an 11-yard run by Collins with 6:23 remaining. Spring Lake’s extra point was good, giving the Lakers a 34-20 advantage.

The Black Knights refused to give up, driving the ball 70 yards on eight plays to cut into their deficit.

Hayden Halladay caught a 30-yard touchdown pass from Szubinski with 2:26 left in the game and Cody Manley converted on a 2-point conversion run to make the score 34-28.

The Lakers recovered the onside kick, then melted the clock with their ground attack to seal the win.