MUSKEGON TWP. - The Reeths-Puffer football team’s deep passing game, featuring a junior quarterback who can air it out and three tall, fast receivers who can create space, has not been a secret to any of the Rockets’ opponents this season.
The problem was that it took too long to get rolling in the first two games.
The Rockets scored two late touchdowns on deep passes in Week 1, but it was too little, too late in an 18-12 loss to Forest Hills Central. They scored on a pair of touchdown passes against Caledonia, but only after they were far behind in an eventual 56-21 loss.
So the R-P coaches finally decided, no more waiting around.
On the first play from scrimmage last Friday at Spring Lake, quarterback Braylon Swain hit senior wideout Mason Darke with a stunning 79-yard touchdown pass, and the Rockets were off to the races.
Photo/Jeremy Clark
That first TD pass led to three more, covering 95 (a bomb from Swain to sophomore Ja’Michael Williams), 21 and 13 yards, respectively. The passing game allowed the ground game to finally get going, and R-P scored on a 46-yard run.
When it was all over, the Rockets claimed their first win of the season, 35-28 over previously unbeaten Spring Lake, and came away with a new sense of confidence in their ability to score and win.
The victory was particularly notable, because Reeths-Puffer started nine sophomores in the game, and those youngsters got their first taste of the kind of success they could have in the coming years.
“I think we were due,” said R-P head coach Cody Kater. “The guys have been working hard. We’ve been trying to build more of a connection throughout our offense. We had slow starts the first two weeks, so it was nice to get off to a hot start.
“There was no way of creating an excuse for what happened the week before. We got our butts kicked, and we had to be able to be honest with ourselves and move on. I think the seniors did a good job of laying the foundation throughout the week of just putting the work in.
Photo/Jeremy Clark
“It was nice to have the kids feel that sense of gratification.”
After such an exciting victory, one might imagine Kater starting practice this week with a passionate speech, reminding his players that archrival Mona Shores was next on the agenda, a very big game indeed.
But the theme has not been about Mona Shores, or the challenge of playing the powerful Sailors on Friday night on their field, with a ton of fans from both schools watching.
It has not been about R-P’s lack of success against Mona Shores in recent years - nine straight losses, dating back to 2017 - and the need to end that streak.
It has simply been about the Rockets worrying about themselves and continuing to improve from week to week, regardless of who the opponent might be.
Photo/Jeremy Clark
For the record, Mona Shores is 2-1, with its only loss coming against Grand Blanc, the eighth-ranked team in the state in Division 1.
“The talk this year is all about us,” Kater said after practice on Monday. “It takes the anxiety out of the entire week. There are a lot of things around this game. The kids all know each other, and a lot of people come to this game that don’t go to other games, so there’s a lot we could talk about. But we are solely interested in the things we want to improve upon.
“Shores is going to be as tough as they always are. For us it’s R-P vs. R-P. That’s always going to be our brand.”
Offense was rolling, defense came through in the end
Focusing on themselves and getting better every week certainly paid off for the Rockets at Spring Lake.
The offense finally clicked on all cylinders, which made all the difference in the game.
It started with the success of the passing game. Swain completed 14 of 18 throws for 321 yards and four touchdowns.
Darke led the way with five catches - including his game-opening TD reception - for 132 yards. Williams hauled in four passes - including two for touchdowns - for 125 yards. Cal Millis had three receptions for 50 yards and one TD while Connor McManus had two catches for 21 yards.
Photo/Jeremy Clark
“We knew that, going in, we have to be pass first, instead of vice versa,” Kater said. “We knew that we had weapons on the outside. We just needed to find a way to get those guys the ball. It was nice to see our kids execute.”
Spring Lake realized early that it had to worry about the pass, so that gave R-P’s ground game the chance to finally get moving after two weeks of little productivity.
Millis rushed for 112 yards on 20 attempts, including the 46-yard scoring run.
“We have fewer negative plays and penalties,” Kater said. “The execution of our quarterback did not result in many negative plays. He kept us moving the chains forward, which is what we expect of him.
Photo/Jeremy Clark
“Overall I think it was just the growing connectivity in the offense. They are starting to believe in what they are doing and in one another. They made big plays. We just have to make sure it’s not against just one opponent.”
The Reeths-Puffer defense is still a work in progress, as the statistics from Spring Lake show.
R-P game up 341 yards in rushing, 409 yards in total offense and allowed the Lakers to accumulate 23 first downs.
The Rocket offense had to keep scoring, because the Lakers kept answering R-P, touchdown-for-touchdown.
Photo/Jeremy Clark
But in the end, one stat really stood out. Spring Lake was 3-for-4 on fourth down conversions, and the one attempt that the Lakers didn’t convert was the big one.
R-P led by seven with just under a minute to play and Spring Lake had a fourth down on the R-P 24. Obviously a touchdown could have led to a tie, or even a Laker win.
But the Rockets stuffed the fourth-down play, the offense got the ball back and all ended well for Reeths-Puffer.
”There was one final adjustment that our staff was able to make, and our defense used that adjustment and capitalized on the final play,” Kater said. “We have four or five sophomores out there, so it’s going to be one quarter at a time for them, one game at a time.
"But I could feel that we were getting closer, and closing that gap as the game went on, then the kids showed a lot of toughness and resilience on that final play.”
Millis led the defense with 12 tackles, Devin Welch had six, Troy Swingley added five and Bobby Gamble and Cole Piper each totaled three.