Is it “he who makes the fewest mistakes wins, or he who makes the most mistakes loses?”
It was the latter for the Wayland varsity football team Friday night in its ugly 34-6 defeat at the hands of visiting Lansing Waverly. The miscues included a boatload of penalties, fumbles and botched plays at critical times. It all added up to a boring fourth quarter with fans just hoping to run out the clock in the mist and drizzling rain.
The loss dropped Wayland’s overall season record to 0-2 and next Friday will begin the bruising O-K Gold Conference season at Grand Rapids South Christian.
Things didn’t really go south badly Friday night until late in the second quarter, and it was mistakes that paved the way.
Down only 14-6, the Wildcats had just put together another promising offensive drive from their own 16-yard line and went 62 yards to Waverly’s 22 with third down and two. They were whistled for an illegal substitution and turned the ball over on downs two plays later.
The Warriors’ first play yielded a nice gain to midfield and they picked up an extra 15 yards on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. There was less than 40 seconds until halftime.
On fourth down and eight quarterback Reggie Bush hooked up with Trey Taylor for a first and goal with 16 seconds remaining and then Bush hit his favorite target, Bryson Fronta with a seven-yard scoring strike with just 10 seconds showing on the clock.
Noah Herring then made the third of his four kicked extra points to give the visiting team a 21-6 cushion at intermission.
So instead of threatening to tie the score, Wayland was down by 15.
The two teams traded big mistakes in their first drives, but Waverly broke into the scoring column first with 12 seconds remaining in the first period when Bush wedged over the goal line from three yards out. The score was set up by a pass from Bush to Fronta that put the ball on the one.
The Warriors had to go only 46 yards in eight plays because Wayland fumbled the football over to linebacker Carr’Eon Gordon to set the table.
Not long afterward, however, Wildcat QB Justin Holtz, on third down and four at midfield, rolled to his left and tossed a pass to Dustin Simmons on the left sideline, who deftly reversed his field and outran the secondary to the end zone. It was a spectacular 50-yard scoring strike, but it turned out to be one of the few good moments for the home team.
Waverly struck back, going 63 yards, with the biggest play a 23-yard burst by Trystan Harrold, who managed to break a lot of tackles on his way to the six-yard line.
After a fumble and big stop on Gordon by lineman Matthew Guppy, Bush tossed an eight-yard TD pass to Ellis Trainer.
The stage was set then for the Wildcats’ awful mistakes that halted a critical drive and led to Waverly’s big TD just before halftime.
Sophomore Ian Thompson came up with a big 13-yard run to set up a fourth and one at the Warriors’ 43, but an illegal procedure call pushed the home team back five yards. Wayland tried a fake put at midfield, but it failed.
A face mask personal foul helped Waverly get the ball close to the goal again. Bush and Gordon traded rushing attempts and the QB finally scored from a yard out.
Bush capped off the evening’s scoring late in the third period with a 10-yard TD pass to Fronta.
Zac Jones returned the kickoff to midfield, but you guessed it, the ball was brought back to the 25 because of an illegal block.
Despite all the penalties and mistakes at critical times, there were a few bright spots. Simmons caught a number of passes, perhaps as many as Fronta, including his TD romp. Linebacker D.J. Reed has a couple of tackles behind the line of scrimmage and Spencer Murphy recorded a sack.
