The Martin varsity football team got off to a slow start Friday afternoon, falling behind 14-0 against Tri-Unity Christian, but righted the ship afterward en route to a convincing 60-20 victory to open the season.

“We had about as rocky of a start to a game as you could imagine; we were down 14 – 0, just minutes into the game,” commented coach Brad Blauvelt. “I thought our kids responded to the adversity and eventually we got things back on track.”

Senior quarterback Gabe Meyers rushed for 150 yards on 14 carries scoring twice, from 13 and 27 yardsout. He also was 6-15 with 129 yards passing, including four touchdown passes of 35, 11, 39 and 35 yards. Meyers also led the defense with nine tackles.

Sophomore, J.R. Hildebrand (Gabe’s cousin) also had a huge varsity debut. He scored three times on the night on two pass receptions of 11 and 35 yards. JR also rushed for a 51-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, while playing quarterback. From his middle linebacker position on defense ,he accounted for 7.5 tackles.

Chris Tuinstra returned a fumble 47 yards for one touchdown and had an interception. J.T. Krick and Carson Young added a fumble recovery. Charlie Martin intercepted a pass to end the game.

“We have some areas for improvement and will work on fixing those heading into this week’s matchup with Bridgman,” Blauvelt said.

Martin, which lost only once last year, to state champion Colon,