The Detroit Lions have had Willie “Big Play” Clay and Darius “Big Play” Slay. Forest Hills Eastern also had a lot of “big plays” Friday night in a 44-6 rout in Wayland.
The defeat left the Wildcats winless in six games this season. Meanwhile, The Hawks, in their first season under former Belding coach Joe Schwander, are 3-3.
Wayland had its chances and even a few big plays defensively in the early going. Jared Rankin and D.J Reed made a couple of key stops to halt Forest Hills’ first drive 30 yards away from the end zone. Rankins and Justin Dobry later came up with a sack of QB Gage Krueger to put the visitors in a third down and 22 situation at their own 30.
Then came the first of many big plays that went the other way when Austyn Adams somehow broke loose on a 63-yard run to the 7-yard line. Krueger on the next play tossed a seven-yard TD strike to Adams and then hit Caden Vandenberge with a two-point conversion pass.
The next big play: An onside kick that caught the Wildcats napping, recovered by Kyle Sypien. Seven plays later, Krueger connected with Ethan Johns on a seven-yard TD pass and kicker Grant Coash booted the extra point. There was still a little less than a minute left in the first quarter and the home team was down 15-0 in its homecoming game.
Wildcat QB Grant Chesley then hit Tim Wierckz with the biggest play of the night for Wayland, a 46-yard pass that took the ball to inside the Hawks’ 10 and a couple of plays later Zac Jones took a direct snap and wedged over the goal line from three years out.
The joy was short-lived, as Forest Hills got another big play from Justin Johnson, who picked off the ensuing kickoff and toted the pigskin from near midfield to the 12-yard line. Thankfully, the defense held on downs at the 18.
But soon afterward, it was time once again for a big play, a 51-yard TD pass from Krueger to Joseph Hoeks on fourth down and nine.
Wayland punter Cody Kaboni late in the second period came up with what appeared to be a big play for his team when he pinned the Hawks back on their own nine-yard line with time running out until halftime. This is where Forest Hills administered the fatal blow to the Wildcats’ hopes of scoring their first victory.
Mostly on passes by Krueger to his bevy of receivers, the Hawks managed to do a sort of two-minute drill with a 10-play, 91-yard drive capped by a nine-yard TD strike to Vandenberge with just 0:28 showing on the clock. The visitors, now regarded as intruders and homecoming spoilers, had mouned a 31-6 advantage and sent a large local crowd heading for the exits.
Will Reurink and Conner Henney came up with fumble recoveries and Wierckz blocked a field goal attempt picked up by Rankin, but the second half was relatively uneventful. Backup QB Cal Doyle tossed a 19-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Armbrester, set up by big play 45-yard run by Drew Karstin, and the Hawks netted their final TD of the night with 6:31 left, sending the game into a running clock.
COVER PHOTO: The homecoming king and queen selections were Tyler Calkins and Sarai Yanes.
