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Hudsonville Unity Christian came into the Hopkins football stadium Friday night not having lost on the gridiron since Nov. 22, 2019, in the state semifinals to Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
The Crusaders had little trouble in keeping their win streak intact in a 50-8 pasting the hometown team in the season opener.
Hudsonville Unity lost only one game last season, and that was a 2-0 forfeit to Hamilton, which it defeated handily during the regular campaign. The Vikings can relate after last year besting Belding in the regular season, but then losing to their O-K Silver rival in the playoffs.
But this one wasn’t close almost from the opening whistle.
Quarterback Cameron Chandler, one half of the Chandler Brothers scoring show, completely faked out the Hopkins defensive unit and raced 59 yards to the end zone on Unity’s first play from scrimmage.
The Hudsonville visitors came back to score eight more points later in the first quarter when Chandler sprinted to the end zone from 31 yards out and then tossed a two-point conversion pass to brother Drew.
Cameron early in the second period returned a punt 53 yards to the Hopkins 17 and several plays later Drew wedged over the goal line from a yard out and ran in the PAT.
Drew took off on a 55-yard touchdown gallop with seven minutes left in the half, but this time the Vikings foiled the conversion attempt. No matter, Cameron threw an 18-yard scoring strike just before the end of the half to Gabe Newhof.
So Hopkins uncharacteristically was down by a 36-0 count at intermission.
By the half, the Vikings had recorded just four first downs, and one of them was a broken play on a punt attempt when Trenton Baugh scooped up a low snap and raced 25 yards to the Unity 46.
Defensively, the best play for Hopkins in the first 24 minutes was a sack by Miles Gibson, but it only delayed the inevitable.
The fat lady started to sing after the opening seconds of the second half when Cameron Chandler ruined a really nice kickoff at his own three-yard line and raced 97 yards to the end zone. That’s when the referees said, “Start the (running) clock,” a situation a Hopkins football hardly ever finds it self in.
The Crusaders had a time-consuming long drive of 59 yards that featured two fourth down conversions and upped their lead to 50-0, with Levi Tuinstra kicking his second consecutive extra point. Tuinstra sent seven of his eight kickoffs into the end zone for no returns, but that afforded the Vikings their best field position of the evening, on their own 20. They had to start from their own 6 after the other kickoff.
Finally, with 1:12 left in the ballgame, Hopkins took advantage of three first down carries by Gibson and reserve quarterback Jack Reynolds hooked up with Tristan Perry for a 17-yard TD pass and the same duo made it happen again for the two-point conversion.
Hopkins will try again in another non-league encounter Thursday evening, this one at Allendale.
