MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP - The Reeths-Puffer football team has had an interesting roller-coaster ride over the past three weeks on the road.
Some of it was strange, like the Game 1 experience, when violent storms led to a mid-game postponment in Grand Haven on Aug. 24 and forced the Rockets and Buccaneers to finish the next day.
The Rockets played well, particularly on the seocnd day, and won 41-13.
Some of it was really exciting, like the Game 2 experience, when R-P traveled nearly four hours to Farmington, senior running back Brody Johnson rushed for 210 yards and five touchdowns, and the Rockets rolled home with a 34-18 win.
Some of it was painful – specifically last week’s rivalry showdown game in front of a huge crowd at Mona Shores, where the Rockets made too many mistakes and lost for the first time this season.
After all of that, they are more than ready to get back home.
The Rockets will finally get a chance to play on their own field, in front of a friendly crowd, on Friday night when they host 0-3 Holland.
If everything goes according to plan, R-P fans should see a particularly sharp version of their team. That’s because the Rockets have spent the last few days of practice looking in the mirror, closely inspecting what they’ve done right and wrong, and tightening up their game.
It all stemmed from their performance in the 28-10 loss to Mona Shores in their first big showdown of the season.
In retrospect, R-P head coach Cody Kater thinks his players might have gotten caught up in the hype of the moment.
“Maybe the pressure mounted to the point where it posed too much stress,” Kater said. ”I don’t hold a lot of open forums, but we allowed the kids to speak freely on Saturday morning, and a lot of the feedback was that they wanted to play perfect, they had maybe never been in such a high-profile game.”
The final score might suggest that Mona Shores kind of dominated R-P, but that was not really the case.
Statistically, several Rockets had very good games, including running back Brody Johnson, who had 24 carries for 180 yards. On the defensive side, Bryce Ross had six tackles and nine assists, Caiden Bolduc had five tackles and nine assists, and Elliot Schneider with two tackles and four assists.
The team offensive stats were pretty even.
The Sailors had a 262-232 yard edge in total offense. Mona Shores had 113 passing yards, compared to 49 for R-P, but the Rockets outrushed their hosts 183-149. Mona Shores had a 17-13 edge in first downs, but also had five more penalties.
Turnovers were the difference. The Rockets coughed the ball up four times, including an interception at the Mona Shores 1-yard line, and two of the turnovers led directly to Sailor touchdowns.
The turnovers were an odd and unexpected twist, according to Kater.
“We had one interception and one fumble that happened in Week 2,” the coach said. “Other than that we took care of the ball, from our scrimmage all the way up to last Friday.”
For the talented Rockets, who still have all of their goals intact and in front of them, the disappointing loss was an opportunity to look in the mirror, address weaknesses and start fresh.
That has led to a week of very intense, productive practices, Kater said.
“We look at any failure as an opportunity to grow,” he said. “Our kids have been getting tested all week because of the performance on Friday. We have had a good, healthy environment, because this is something we have to learn and grow from. That goes for the coaches, too. We definitely looked inward and searched for things we can improve on.
“This has been the most trying week of football of (the players') lives, with more R-P vs. R-P than ever before. We’ve made it a really difficult week, so we can figure out ways to improve on our weaknesses. We wanted to win so bad that it became a distraction from how we go about the process, and that’s what we focused on this week.
“I think the response (from the players) has been good. They really don’t know what to expect on the other side. They just want to make sure they improve on the things they lacked on. The competitive level and effort have been extremely high the last few days.
“The moment maybe got a little too big, and they are hungry to have another opportunity.”
