MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP - To be sure, last year’s Reeths-Puffer-Muskegon football game did a lot to build the Rockets’ confidence going forward.
Coming off a 3-6 season in 2021, the R-P players really had no idea if they could hang with the mighty Big Reds, particularly in the third week of the season.
As R-P head coach Cody Kater put it, ‘Our kids were in the midst of being kind of unsure just how good they were.”
As it turned out, they found out they were better than they thought. The Rockets waltzed into Hackley Stadium and gave Muskegon everything it could handle before fading late and falling 28-20.
The big story of the night was not how Muskegon won, but how close Reeths-Puffer made it.
R-P ended up using that game as a springboard to a very nice 6-3 regular season and the team’s first state playoff berth since 2013.
So now it’s time to take the next step and get a win when the Big Reds visit R-P on Friday night in a very big O-K Green conference matchup – right?
Yes and no, according to R-P head coach Cody Kater.
Of course the Rockets would love to win, and they think they are good enough to win, the coach said.
But a potential pratfall could be getting caught up in the big-game hype leading up to the showdown - sort of like two weeks ago when the Rockets lost their first big rivalry game of the season, 28-10 to Mona Shores.
The trick will be to keep is simple, play well, and see how the game goes, Kater said.
"I told our guys about a study that’s out there about how a group of kindergartners who were tasked with putting marshmallows into a stack beat a group of corporate CEOs who were tasked with something, because they were just worried about the mission, not all the surrounding things like status and all that stuff,” Kater said.
“I would like to see our kids be like those kindergartners and just do the work, kind of like last year. They didn’t know what they didn’t know (going into the Muskegon game), and we want that to be the same way this year.”
The Rockets (3-1 overall, 1-1 in the O-K Green) are seemingly prepped and ready for Friday’s Big Red Challenge, based on their performance in last week’s 62-21 blowout win at home over Holland.
There was no shortage of big offensive plays.
Senior running back Brody Johnson scored three first-quarter touchdowns on breakaway runs of 65, 32 and 52 yards. He had 158 yards and three touchdowns on four carries in the first quarter.
R-P added a 30-yard TD pass from quarterback Antrel Jones to Bryce Ross, a 67-yard touchdown run by Brody Johnson, a 34-yard scoring pass from Jones to Jaxson Whitaker and a 10-yard touchdown run by Kameron Coleman.
Defensive lineman Brooks Johnson also had a 10-yard fumble scoop-and-score.
R-P needed a big bounceback after the Mona Shores game, and they went out and got it.
But Kater said game film revealed a lot of things that the Rockets need to clean up and improve, and that has been the team’s focus this week, he said.
“We are still lacking in discipline,” Kater said. “We would like to clean up the penalties, especially the unsportsmanlike penalties. Those are the things we are focused on now. We are just trying to get better with the little things.
“A lot of people just look at results – that’s one of the biggest distractions in life, just worrying about getting there and not worrying about how you get there.
“This is a big game, and everyone has been talking about how we need to get that first signature win. We just want to make sure we keep growing and getting better. We want to make sure we’re doing the little things better. In the long run that type of success will be more sustainable.”
A few weeks ago some fans might have been thinking that Muskegon (2-2 overall, 2-0 conference) might be an easier opponent this year, because the Big Reds opened with two losses.
But those losses came against two very powerful teams – Rockford and Warren DeLaSalle.
More telling were the Big Reds’ two subsequent wins, 76-0 over Holland, and far more importantly, their 32-21 victory over Mona Shores last Friday.
“They’ve got a lot better from Week 1 to Week 4,” Kater said about Muskegon, which advanced all the way to the Division 3 state finals last year, which is pretty much a tradition for the Big Reds. “They have found their identify on both sides of the ball. It’s going to be a difficult and physical game. It will be interesting to see how our boys answer the bell.”
Kater admitted he’s excited to square off with the Big Reds again, but said the best thing about game preparation has been the opportunity to teach more attentive players.
“We want to teach the details and it’s easier to get their attention before a big game like this,” he said. “They are trying just a little bit harder, focusing just a little bit more."
