It’s been 42 years since the Wayland varsity football team has had this much fun on opening night.
The Wildcats’ debut on their home tur
f Thursday night was a smashing success in a 54-16 romp over Grand Rapids Union. It was the widest margin of victory for a season opener since Wayland, coached by Gerald Omness, bounced Ravenna 44-0 in 1974.
This one was guided by second-year coach Mike Doupe, and it featured plenty of offense, but the real star of the night was the bruising defensive line of Chad Stoepker, Mason Miller, Mike Velting and freshman friendly giant Ethan Mutschler. This group yielded no yardage except on scrambles and broken plays, and they seemed to be in the Union backfield more often than the Red Hawks’ backs.
The first play from scrimmage set the tone for the entire evening when linebacker Logan Bishop sacked quarterback Da’tyn Lee for a loss of nine yards. The Hawks lost 21 yards in their first three plays and were sitting on their own three when they punted.
It didn’t take long for the ‘Cats to cross the goal line on their first drive, with quarterback Kyle Jansen taking the ball the final 11 yards on a keeper.
Union’s next three plays from scrimmage yielded minus three yards and Lee Misak’s fine punt return to the Union 29 set up the second touchdown, a five-yard run by Eric Villareal, and Wayland was up 14-0 with the contest only six minutes old.
The Hawks finally gained their positive yardage on their third series, but it was only three yards in three plays and they had to punt for a third time.
This time the Wildcats had to move the football 62 yards down the field, and they did, with Jansen picking up 16 on one play, sophomore Caleb Wolf 21 on another and Jansen waltzed into the end zone from four yards out, blowing through a huge hole, courtesy of offensive lineman Mike Velting.
The Red Hawks had one brief shining moment in the first half, a 63-yard scoring strike from Lee to Jonathan Bowman, who slipped behind the secondary down the left side sideline. Lee then hit Marquell Ross with a two-point conversion pass to cut the difference to 21-8.
The visitors’ glee was short lived, as on the ensuing kickoff sophomore Devin Jakey appeared to mishandle the ball, but then outran everybody to the end zone with an 82-yard return. With the fourth of junior Austin Wrobleski’s six kicked extra points for the night, the home team was up 28-8.
And there were still 30.1 seconds left in the first quarter.
Union’s offensive misery continued early in the second period when Stoepker made a jarring hit on a Union running back for a sack and caused him to fumble at his own 20. Sophomore Ashton Ordway alertly pounced on the loose pigskin and several plays later, it was almost as though his teammates rewarded him when he scored his first varsity touchdown from three yards out.
Not long after that, Villareal picked off a Lee aerial on his own 41 and Jansen decided to score through the air for once by hooking up with Jake Omness for an 11-yard TD strike, bringing the count to 35-8 midway through the second quarter.
So the Wildcats had put five touchdowns on the board in just a quarter and a half of play. And Union didn’t seem to be able to stop anything they wanted to do.
The Hawks made another mild offensive threat when Lee hit Ross for a 30-yard pass, but Misak came up with an interception at his own 11.
Wayland drove down to the nine-yard line of Union with first and goal and the clock running down, but Red Hawk defender Willie Brown came up with a sack to put a stop to any further damage.
Though Wroblewski showed excellent promise as kicker, he did fumble a snap while attempting Wayland’s only punt early in the third quarter and his kick only went 11 yards. It was the only time Union had possession of the football in four-down territory. It didn’t last long. Two plays later Miller came up with a punishing sack and Kayd Hulst came up with the resultant fumble.
Brody Place, who handled 
most of the tough inside yardage running for the evening, scored on a six-yard burst not long afterward to start the running clock. The ‘Cats had gone 59 yards in four plays after recovering the fumble.
Union struck back with another quick pass over the middle to Ross, who outran everybody to the end zone from 51 yards. Lee scored the two-point conversion on one of the few runs that gained yardage against Wayland’s steel curtain.
Villareal had another fine kick return to set up the last touchdown of the evening, a 16-pass from backup junior quarterback Carter Morse to Misak.
So fans had to leave the stadium wondering: Is Wayland this good, or is Union this bad? The Wildcats still have a lot of work to do because the O-K Gold, with the entry of new teams East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills Eastern and Wyoming, promises to be even tougher than usual.
PHOTO: Wayland quarterback Kyle Jansen (3) is en route here to the game’s first touchdown.
Union QB Da’tyn Lee (6) is getting dropped for a big loss by linebacker Ian Carpenter while teammate Mike Velting (60) moves in to make sure of the stop.
The Wildcats’ secondary gave up a couple of long TD strikes, but also had several interceptions and incomplete passes like this one, defended by Lee Misak (5).
