By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

SPRING LAKE – The Spring Lake football team hasn’t been a stranger to close contests this season.

The Lakers opened the season with three consecutive 6-point wins over Montague, Belding, and Unity Christian before sneaking past Coopersville by a single point.

Spring Lake then suffered its first loss of the season against Grand Rapids West Catholic last week.

The Lakers had yet another close game this Friday and their experience paid off as Spring Lake scored the eventual game-winning touchdown with 49 seconds remaining on a 7-yard run by Wren Dephouse. Spring Lake then held off the Falcons, who drove the ball all the way to the goal line before running out of time, securing a 35-28 win for the Lakers in an O-K Blue Conference showdown.

The Lakers are now 5-1 on the season and 3-1 in league play. They are just one game back of first-place Grand Rapids West Catholic in a tough O-K Blue Conference.

Spring Lake will host its final home game of the season next week against Holland Christian before closing the season on the road against Fruitport and Hamilton.

“Just about every game we had this year has been a knife fight in a gun booth,” said Spring Lake coach Cody Mallory. “Our guys got accustomed to operating in a tight game and at no point were they panicky.”

The Lakers received the ball first and opened the scoring on the sixth play of the game. Bryce Collins scored on a 20-yard run to give Spring Lake an early 7-0 lead with 9:08 remaining in the first quarter.

The Falcons responded on their first drive, going 72 yards on 10 plays, ending with an 18-yard touchdown run by quarterback Tyler Sparks with 4:16 left in the opening quarter. Allendale missed the extra point, keeping the Lakers ahead by a 7-6 margin.

The Lakers added another touchdown on the fourth play of the second quarter as quarterback Reid Grimmer found the end zone from a yard out.

Spring Lake held a 14-6 lead with 10:32 remaining in the second quarter.

The Lakers forced Allendale to punt on its next possession, then drove the ball 80 yards on 10 plays to increase their advantage. Grimmer found Jackson Lemmen for a 14-yard touchdown pass with 2:41 left in the second quarter to give Spring Lake a 21-6 lead.

Both teams turned the ball over with interceptions on their next drives just before halftime.

The Falcons managed to close out the first half scoring with 13 seconds remaining on a 6-yard touchdown run by Sparks.

The Lakers led 21-13 at halftime.

Allendale tied the game 21-21 on the fourth play of the third quarter, scoring on a 20-yard run by Sparks with 10:58 left in the stanza.

Spring Lake responded on its next drive, going 53 yards on eight plays which ended with a 1-yard run by Sam Schafer.

The Lakers led 28-21 with 6:03 left in the third quarter.

The Falcons quickly tied the game at 28-all with 2:48 remaining in the third quarter on a 54-yard touchdown run by Nolan Spencer.

Spring Lake fumbled the ball on its first drive of the fourth quarter. But the Lakers managed to stuff Allendale on a fourth down attempt with 7:16 remaining in the game.

The Lakers drove the ball 65 yards on their next drive on 13 plays while milking the clock down to the final minute of the contest.

Dephouse found the end zone from 7 yards out on a run with 49 seconds remaining to give Spring Lake a 35-28 lead.

The Falcons were not quite done as they managed to drive the ball down to the Spring Lake 7-yard line on passes of 9, 16, 11 and 9 yards. Sparks added a 6-yard run to place the ball on the 7-yard line with just one second left in the game.

The final play was another 6-yard run from Sparks, but he was tackled just inches short of the goal line.

The Lakers were paced by Collins with 141 yards rushing on 14 carries and one touchdown, while Dephouse had 10 rushes for 107 yards and one score. Schafer chipped in with 14 attempts for 59 yards and a touchdown.

Grimmer went a perfect 4-for-4 passing for 80 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 11 yards and a score.

Dephouse caught one pass for 39 yards, Collins had two receptions for 27 yards and Lemmon caught a 14-yard touchdown pass on his only catch of the night.

Next week, Spring Lake hosts Holland Christian.