NORTON SHORES — Sitting at 2-0 and with confidence high, the Reeths-Puffer football team was looking to make a statement Friday night against rival Mona Shores.
But in a matchup with a very good Sailor team, the Rockets made a few too many mistakes and fell 28-10 in their O-K Green conference opener.
“I saw a lot of self-inflicted wounds,” said R-P Coach Cody Kater. “That’s a good team over there, you can’t do that. We moved the ball well, we stopped the ball, we just couldn’t figure out a way to create rhythm. We were battling and fighting ourselves, it seemed like, the whole game.”
The Rockets committed four turnovers, including one at the Mona Shores one-yard-line and one on a dropped punt after a defensive stop. Two of those turnovers led to Mona Shores touchdowns.
Reeths-Puffer moved the ball well at times against the Mona Shores defense, but struggled to finish drives off with points.
“We moved the ball well enough to score, we just couldn’t push it in to score,” Kater said. “That’s where we’re at. We’ve got to figure out how to get it in the end zone.”
After missing last week’s game with an injury, senior Antrel Jones returned to the quarterback spot for R-P on Friday. Kater said Jones is still not 100 percent but played well enough through the pain.
“He’s still injured,” the coach said. “I think it looked like that out there a little bit at times today. I thought he did a good enough job for us to win and make plays.
“He’s going to learn a lot about the game of football in the next 24 hours with how he bounces back from this result.”
Reeths-Puffer is now 2-1 on the season and 0-1 in conference play. The Rockets will host Holland (0-3) next week.
“It’s Week 3, we learned a lot about ourselves tonight,” Kater said. “Going forward, we know what we need to work on. It’s going to be up to the kids if they want to make excuses or if they want to buckle down and take the next step.
“We’re going to look inward in the next 24-48 hours. We’ll learn about ourselves.”
Mona Shores struck first on a 23-yard pass from quarterback Jonathan Pittman to Micah Carefelle with 5:57 left in the first quarter. After a R-P turnover, the Sailors extended the lead to 14-0 on a 1-yard run by Pittman with 1:29 left in the first.
Reeths-Puffer looked poised to get on the scoreboard midway through the second, but a turnover at the one-yard-line halted the drive.
The R-P defense forced a three-and-out after that, and Bryce Ross returned a punt to the Sailor 10-yard-line, giving Puffer another scoring chance.
Luke Callender connected on a 22-yard field goal attempt three plays later to bring the Rockets within 14-3 with 4:52 left in the half. That score held until halftime.
Mona Shores added to the lead with 6:55 left in the third on a 9-yard run by Pittman to make it 21-3. With 7:19 to play, Pittman scored from two yards out to give Mona Shores a 28-3 lead.
Following a Sailor fumble later in the quarter, Reeths-Puffer found the end zone on a 15-yard pass fromJones to Ross, bringing the score to 28-10 with 3:45 to play.
The Rockets attempted an onside kick, but Mona Shores recovered and ran out the remaining time on the clock.
Jones completed 5-of-18 passes for 49 yards, a TD and two interceptions. Brody Johnson carried the load in the rushing game, running the ball 25 times for 191 yards.
Travis Ambrose led the receiving corps with three catches for 29 yards. Ross had two catches for 20 yards and the TD. He also led the defense with seven tackles.
Caiden Bolduc added six stops for the Rockets. Brooks Johnson recovered a fumble for R-P.
