Fruitport’s football woes continue with home loss to Hamilton

By Ron Rop
LocalSportsJournal.com

FRUITPORT – The struggles are real for the Fruitport Trojans football team.

For the third straight game, the Trojans struggled and the end result was a loss. On Friday night, the Hamilton Hawkeyes scored early and often en route to a 44-20 victory over the host Trojans.

“They are a heckuva football team and they came out and punched us in the mouth,” Fruitport coach Nate Smith said. “They are very motivated. That’s probably one of the best Hamilton teams I’ve seen in a long time.”

And it started from the opening drive that started with a 53-yard kickoff return by Cyrus Berens. Then, under the direction of senior quarterback Justin McIllwain, the Hawkeyes drove 43 yards in eight plays and ended when senior Ben Boehm slashed through the Trojan defense for a 7-yard touchdown run. A McIllwain run for the 2-point conversion was successful and in less than 5 minute’s time, the visitors had an 8-0 lead.

It was the first dose of the Boehm and McIllwain show that put Fruitport on its heels all night long. Boehm had touchdown runs of 7, 24, 61, 11 and 18 yards. McIllwain stung the Trojans with his poise, passing and occasional running play.

“They took advantage of some of our youth and stuff like that so hat’s off to them, they did a heckuva job,” Smith said. “I thought, in pieces, our guys rallied tonight. Some guys stepped in that don’t get a ton of reps and you could see they played with some heart tonight.”

Hamilton (3-0) led 24-0 after one quarter and 36-6 at the half. Keaton Haverdink scored Hamilton’s other touchdown when he took a pitch and dashed 42 yards down the left sideline.

Fruitport got on the board with 3:48 remaining in the opening half on a 11-yard pass from junior quarterback Bradon Dornbos to lanky receiver Bobby Canfield, who reached up and over a Hawkeye defender and hauled in the high pass in the end zone.

In the latter stages of the third quarter, Hamilton scored again to make it 44-6 with a 12-play drive that culminated with Boehm’s fifth touchdown of the night. For the night, Boehm rushed 13 times for 151 yards.

Despite the fact the outcome had been decided, Dornbos guided the Trojans to two more scores, both in the fourth quarter.

With 3:30 remaining, Dornbos hit Kayden Beardsley for a 25-yard touchdown pass and with 1:17 left, ran one himself for 24 yards into the end zone.

Dornbos finished with 11 rushes for 83 yards. Beardsley had 11 carries for 45 yards and hard-running Ricky Wiggins had 40 yards on five carries.

“Our guys are pretty resilient,” Smith said. “They know they have great opportunities in front of them. They know we can still do some things we want to do. All in all, I’m really proud of our guys.”

Next week, the Trojans (0-3) travel to Holland Christian to take on the Maroons (1-2).