It almost seemed as though Wayland was trying to give away a football game Friday night. It was a good thing guest Middleville Thornapple Kellogg would have no part of it.

The Wildcats continued their nasty habit of not finishing what they started offensively and spent the entire last quarter having to come up big on crucial defensive plays to post their first O-K Gold Conference victory of the season, 15-9. A keen grasp of the obvious would be to say it wasn’t pretty.

This was against a TK squad that suffered through an 0-9 season last year and got a new coach, only to have him not come on board. Middleville did edge Hastings in the season opener last month, but it’s a program that’s struggling mightily to regain its glory of bygone days.

Wayland opened the ballgame like it was going to beat the Trojans in a cakewalk. On its first drive, quarterback Carter Morse fired a 39-yard pass to Devin Jakey just five yards away from the end zone and

two plays later the two made it look easy with a four-yard TD strike. It was a 46-yard drive in just six plays and the ‘Cats were up 7-0 with the contest only four and a half minutes old.

But the home team did not score a touchdown for the rest of the evening, though threatening to do so. The Wildcats penetrated deep into TK territory on their next two possessions, but came away empty.

Middleville used a couple of big plays to score its only touchdown of the night, on the first play of the second period when Jeremy Van Sickle broke loose on a 25-yard TD romp. That play followed a 36-yard pass from quarterback Brendan Miller to Gary Buller.

Wayland had another long drive that finally stalled at the Trojan’s 16 late in the second quarter, but this time the talented leg of Austin “Chuck” Wroblewski kicked the ball through the uprights to give his teammates a 10-7 advantage at halftime. Interesting, that was exactly the final score of the ballgame between the two teams exactly a year ago.

Highlighting the first half defensive effort were a fumble recovery by Anderson and a couple bruising sacks by Robert Bausick.

Neither squad found the end zone during the entire second half.

Wayland was doing some experimenting with its offense, alternating Morse and junior Carson Sevigny at quarterback, and the first two offensive plays after the second half kickoff featured a direct snap to Caleb

Wolf, who picked up seven yards on first down and then lost nine on second down.

It was hard to fault the defense, though it bend an awful lot, but didn’t break. The ‘Cats at one point came down with poor tackling disease on TK running backs Van Sickle and Logan Tolan, who knifed their way through most of the yardage in the third quarter and helped the Trojans to get with just eight yards of the goal line.

That’s where Wayland was able to hold that line on downs, thanks to some big defensive plays by Mason Miller and Braeden Anderson.

It was Anderson who blocked a TK punt in the third quarter and forced TK to take a safety. But Middleville returned the favor in the fourth period by nailing Sevigny in his own end zone just after the stout defense in the previous series.

Providing a little breathing room was yet another field goal by Wroblewski, who booted an impressive 38-yarder after the ‘Cats failed to capitalize on a first and goal at the enemy 10, aided by one of a number of penalty gifts TK presented all night long.

The fourth quarter was a nail-biter because six points separated the two teams, and if TK could cross the goal line and kick the extra point, it would take home its second victory since 2015.

It’s not like the Trojans didn’t have their chances.

One fourth down and four at the Wayland 33, a combined tackle by Miller and Kayd Hulst held the line by measured inches. It was the team’s second successful stand in the last stanza.

Middleville got the ball back at its own 35 and a pass interference call put the pigskin at midfield. Tolan broke loose for 21 yards to the 29, before Miller came up with another sack, forcing a third and 11. Caleb Wolf then picked off a Brendan Miller pass at his own 20 to end that threat at 2:40.

That’ll fix it, thought Wildcat fans, but they were wrong.

TK, with no timeouts left, stuffed the ‘Cats with fourth down and one at their own 29. But rather than punt, coach Mike Doupe elected to go for it. Middleville wasn’t fooled and took over with 1:01 remaining on the clock and the ball 29 yards away from victory.

This time, Tyler Chiaramonte stepped in front of a Trojan receiver near the end zone and the Wildcats were able to run out the clock afterward and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.