After Wayland won three of its first four football games this season, some fans started to talk about making the playoffs. About all the Wildcats would have to do is win two more ballgames the rest of the way.
Such hopes were dealt a severe blow Friday night in a 35-14 defeat at the hands of South Christian. Wayland is now 3-2 and three opponents on the remaining schedule pose a tremendous challenge — Grand Rapids Christian and East Grand Rapids in league play and Forest Hills Central in the nonleague season finale.
Some observers thought the game with South Christian would decide whether the Wildcats have a winning season and make the playoffs, or they don’t on either count.
It had to be frustrating for the Wildcats late in the second quarter when Devin Westfahl jarred the ball loose from South Christian quarterback Andrew Haan and Seth Sevenski-Popma pounced the pigskin to give the home team possession just 29 yards away from the end zone. The ‘Cats, down just 14-7 at the time, stalled on downs at the 23.
Even worse, though there were fewer than two minutes left until intermission, Haan was able to move the football steadily down the field via the forward pass, most of the aerials going to Luke Schrotenboer, who too often was able to get out of bounds after making the catch. The Sailors picked up the necessary 77 yards, with the touchdown pass to Peyton Vis coming just as the haltime horn sounded.
Instead of having an excellent chance to go into halftime tied at 14, Wayland was down 21-7.
Haan, perhaps the finest kicker anyone has seen this year in these parts, shredded the Wildcats’ pass defense. Meanwhile, South Christian picked up very little yardage along the line of scrimmage. The Sailors’ game was very definitely not smash mouth.
South linebacker Derek Meyering in the first period came up with a fumble recovery at Wayland’s 19-yard line. Haan then hooked up with Schrotenboer with a 19-yard TD pass two plays later.
Wayland, which up to that point had done virtually nothing on the offensive side, struck quickly with a Carter Morse pass play to Coby Dressler, who found daylight after the catch and raced to sidelines in a 68-yard strike. Austin (Chuck) Wroblewski booted the extra point to tie it 7-7.
The Sailors responded with a 64-yard drive, almost all of it through the air until Haan’s 37-yard pass to Vis put the ball on the Wayland 10. But then they surprised everybody on the next two plays with direct snaps to Schrotenboer, and the 6-foot-4 senior wedged into the end zone of the second attempt. Astonishingly Haan’s extra point attempt was blocked, but still made it over the crossbar.
That set the stage for the frustration of fortune that turned into last-second disaster.
South Christian took the second half kickoff at its own 35 and drove to the Wildcats’ 30, where it appeared it had stalled on fourth and 10. Not to worry, Haan found Schrotenboer with a 30-yard scoring strike to break the backs of the home team again and take a 28-7 advantage.
Wayland appeared to be staging a comeback shortly afterward when QB Morse got a nice block from Tyler Sikkema, found an opening and raced to the Sailors’ 23-yard line. But just like in the second quarter, the efforts failed on downs, at the 21.
It looked like the defense then was rising to the occasion, as Kayd Hulst and Braeden Anderson sacked a running back for a six-yard loss and Westfahl jarred the ball loose from a pass received, but alert Sailor lineman Meyering recovered the pigskin.
South Christian put together its last drive early in the fourth period by taking advantage of Wayland’s understandable preoccupation with the forward pass. Haan would drop back to pass and then scramble for big yardage. Just after he scrambled to the 11, Schrotenboer did his direct snap routine again, galloping into the end zone and putting the ballgame out of reach at 35-7.
Wayland fans had a little excitement on the ensuing kickoff when Caleb Wolf field the ball and then passed from one sideline to another to Devin Jakey, who took the ball all the way to the Sailors’ 37. Jakey later had a nice punt return to South’s 45, and this time the ‘Cats covered the distance in just a few plays, most notable by a Carson Sevigny pass to Wolf. Sevigny took it in from three yards out, but there was only 3:33 left in the contest.
Not long afterward, a shotgun snap sailed over Sevigny’s head and he was forced to cover the ball in his own end zone for a safety. with just 57.6 seconds left.
Wayland, now 2-1 in the O-K Gold, resumes league play next Friday at Forest Hills Eastern.
