By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
FREMONT – The Oakridge football team has been in a lot of dog fights early in the season and that trend continued in Week 5 on Friday night.
The Eagles opened the season with a 12-point win over Sparta, then dropped two straight games to Unity Christian and Manistee.
Oakridge bounced back last week against Ludington, but trailed by 14 points early on.
The Eagles had another tight game as they tied at the half.
Oakridge scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to break the tie and defeat a much-improved Fremont Packers team 26-14 on the road.
The Eagles improved to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play while Fremont is now 2-3 on the season and 0-2 in league play.
“In a couple of games, we have just had some slow starts and then we make some more adjustments and then have a belief in ourselves,” said Oakridge coach Cary Harger. “They start putting stuff together and start rolling more. We also have gotten dinged up a few times and we have to start making adjustments with our lineup.”
The Eagles suffered another injury as junior running back Bryson Stephenson left the game after the first possession with just three carries.
Trever Jones and company stepped up in his absence as Jones carried the ball 18 times for 168 yards and a score, Brayden Cunningham rushed for 53 yards on 10 attempts and Bryce Bisson chipped in with a touchdown.
Bisson also led the defense with nine tackles.
The Eagles opened the scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run by Bisson with 8:35 left in the opening quarter to take an 8-0 lead.
Fremont responded on its first possession, going 70 yards on nine plays. Quarterback Talen Reichert-Slater found Daniel Romero for a 24-yard touchdown pass with 4:17 left in the opening quarter to cut the Oakridge lead to 8-7.
The Eagles turned the ball over on downs, but forced Fremont to punt on its next possession.
Oakridge increased its lead to 14-7 when quarterback Evan Miller tossed the ball to Jones, who threw a 76-yard pass to Cunningham for a score with 4:54 remaining in the second quarter.
The Packers tied the game 14-14 on their next possession, scoring on a 24-yard run by Khai Noordyk with 2:37 left in the first half.
Fremont forced the Eagles to punt on their next possession and had a chance to take the lead late, but a possible 40-yard touchdown pass was dropped, keeping the score tied going into the half.
Both teams failed to score during the third quarter.
The Eagles regained their advantage with 10:28 left in the fourth quarter on a 6-yard completion from Miller to Evan Jozsa to give Oakridge a 20-14 lead.
Fremont turned the ball over on downs during its next possession, but forced the Eagles to go three-and-out with just under six minutes left in the game.
The Packers moved the ball down the field all the way to the Oakridge 37-yard line, but an interception by Alec Moore with three minutes left gave the Eagles the ball back with the lead.
Oakridge had a big 60-yard run by Jones on the second play of the drive, putting the ball inside the 10-yard line to help seal the win.
“We came out flat today, but we got back in our groove and a couple big plays late won us the game,” Jones said. “We have to keep pushing as hard as we can and the offensive line helped me look good on the big run at the end of the game.”
Bisson added a 5-yard touchdown run to close out the scoring with 2:08 remaining before the Packers turned the ball over on downs to end the comeback attempt.
The Eagles will have a tough test next week when they play Whitehall, while Fremont will host its homecoming on Friday against Orchard View.
“Oakridge is a traditional powerhouse and a WMC frontrunner,” said Fremont coach Jared Hudson. “We wanted to go toe-to-toe with them, and it was a heavyweight fight, and we came out a little short on a couple of plays we wanted to have back.”
The Packers were led by Reichert-Slater, who threw for 150 yards on 13-for-28 passing with a touchdown and interception.
Noordyk rushed for 68 yards and a score while Owen Hertel had six carries for 53 yards. Romero caught five passes for 65 yards and a touchdown.
Fremont was paced defensively by Hertel with eight tackles while Connor Pettis had seven.
