By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
EGELSTON TOWNSHIP – In a season that has already had many ups and downs for the Oakridge football team, it was nice for Coach Cary Harger to look up at the scoreboard and see a large margin of victory.
The Eagles entered Week 5 with conference losses to both Montague and Ludington and they need a huge “pick me up.” Oakridge got by cruising to a 56-6 victory over Fremont on Friday night on Homecoming night.
The Eagles are now 3-2 in both league play and overall and they will host Whitehall next week in another tough West Michigan Conference clash.
“The goal coming out was to start from the beginning like we knew we could do,” Harger said. “We didn’t wait and didn’t take a half to get going and it felt good to watch these guys and more importantly they enjoyed it.”
The Eagles scored a touchdown in their first seven drives to take a commanding 49-0 lead into halftime.
Bryson Stephenson scored from 27, 35 and 28 yards out in the first quarter, while Jayden Dailey had an 8-yard touchdown run to give Oakridge a 28-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Eagles added a 2-yard run from Bryce Bisson and 6- and 20-yard runs by Dailey to increase the lead to 49-0 at halftime.
Oakridge scored the lone touchdown in the third quarter with 16 seconds remaining on a 1-yard run from Bisson.
The Packers finally ended their scoring drought with 8:55 left in the contest on a 6-yard touchdown run from Karter Frens.
The Eagles rushed for 381 yards as a team, led by Stephenson with 149 yards on 12 carries and three touchdowns. Bisson had 108 yards on 14 attempts and two scores and Dailey added 70 yards on five carries and three touchdowns.
“It was good to see us spreading the wealth,” Harger said. “We made a little change in the backfield this week and it’s paid off. Rest of this season we have to think about this as playoff football and we want to qualify and make a run.”
The Packers were led by Khai Noordyk with 74 rushing yards on seven carries, while Frens had 17 rushes for 69 yards and a score.
Fremont’s defense was paced by Tritan Corrigan with 11 tackles while Asa Barnhard had eight.
The Packers (1-4) will play at Orchard View next week.