MUSKEGON TWP. - If a football game is not played until Thursday, how can a team manage to lose it earlier in the week?
By a lack of proper preparation, according to Reeths-Puffer head football coach Cody Kater.
His Rockets knew they were going to be in a dog fight last Thursday against a good Grand Haven squad that brought a lot of talented skill players and was coming off a big Week 1 win.
Yet the team did not have the week of practice it needed to have leading up to the game, Kater said.
The coach believes that played a very real role in the Rockets’ disappointing 17-14 loss to the Buccaneers at Rocket Stadium.
“We had a bad week of prep, and there are no excuses for that,” said Kater, whose team is preparing for another big non-conference game on Friday night at Grand Rapids Northview. “We had one good day of practice. The other days we had to try to overcome self-inflicted wounds, from energy to moods to attendance.
“We lost that game on Thursday, but maybe on Sunday and Monday, too.”
Kater thinks the experience might actually be good for the Rockets in the long-run, because now they have a much better sense of how important it is to have focused practices leading up to games.
“From conversations we had this weekend, I could see that some lightbulbs went off,” he said. “What a gift Grand Haven gave us. We learned the importance of preparing.”
Missed opportunities
Despite the lack of quality prep time, the Rockets still had every chance to win last Thursday.
The visiting Buccaneers scored the first touchdown in the first quarter, then the Rockets tied the game 7-7 at halftime, following a six-yard scoring run by Ke'Ondre Sanders.
A very key moment came at the start of the third quarter, when the Rockets were driving in Grand Haven territory and could have scored and taken the lead, but lost the ball on a fumble inside the 30 yard line.
Grand Haven pulled ahead with a touchdown, and later a field goal, and led 17-7 with 4:48 left in the contest.
The Rockets finally responded with long drive that appeared to be the ticket to getting back in the game, but it ended with an interception near the Grand Haven goal line.
Even that didn’t finish R-P off. After the interception, the Rocket defense forced a quick punt, then R-P drove quickly for a touchdown on a one-yard burst by quarterback Braylon Swain, making it a 17-14 game with 1:28 left on the clock.
The Rockets tried an onside kick at that point, but Grand Haven recovered and killed the clock to claim the narrow victory.
Kater was pleased with the fight the Rockets put up toward the end of the game, even thought it was too little, too late.
“The kids did everything they could to keep themselves in the game,” the coach said. “They even executed the onside kick pretty well.”
In the end, however, they couldn’t overcome all the missed opportunities from early in the game.
The Rockets’ biggest problem was their inability to sustain drives and keep the Grand Haven offense off the field.
On their eight offensive possessions, the Rockets scored two touchdowns, but also were forced to punt four times and had two turnovers.
As a result, Grand Have ran 65 offensive plays, compared to 46 for Reeths-Puffer. The Bucs had a 338-229 edge in total yards, including 135-115 in passing and 203-113 in rushing.
“We felt like we moved the ball relatively well, and the kids executed our plan, but again it came down to those key moments,” Kater said. “We had two turnovers and couldn’t get a takeaway from them, and they had a huge advantage in time of possession.
“The defense played well in terms of bending but not breaking. They gave the offense chances to score.”
Big game on Friday
It’s hard to call any game a must win this early in the season, but the Rockets certainly have an important matchup on Friday.
Their new non-conference schedule this season, which features four new opponents, presents a big opportunity. Three of the four teams finished below .500 last year, suggesting that the improved Rockets, who were 2-7 last season, can be competitive and have a real chance to win.
Every win will be important in R-P’s drive to return to the state playoffs for the first time since 2023. The Rockets play in the very tough O-K Green conference against some very strong opponents like Muskegon, Mona Shores and Byron Center, so they are counting on the non-conference opportunities to bolster their record.
The first opportunity, against Greenville in Game 1, certainly worked out well, with R-P posting a big 56-7 victory. The Grand Haven game was obviously winnable, but it was a big opportunity that got away.
Now the Rockets have two non-conference games left, against Northview on Friday and against Whitehall in Week 9.
“We need to get this one,” Kater said. “All of the non-conference games are like that. We have one of the tougher schedules, so we need to take advantage of every chance we have to find a way to see it through. This is one of those weeks when we will have to be able to respond. It’s a game where we feel we have to prepare well and perform well."
The Rockets will meet a Northview team that is hungry for its first victory, after falling 48-21 to Grand Rapids West Catholic in its season opener and 22-7 to Vicksburg last week.
The Wildcats have now lost four straight games, and six of their last seven, going back to last season.
Northview apparently throws a lot, according to media reports, relying heavily on the arm of senior quarterback Braylon Jefferson, who passed for 2,100 yards and 14 touchdowns last season.
“They have a really good quarterback, and the skill position players around him are really good, too,” Kater said about the Wildcats. “In Week 1, West Catholic kind of exploded with some big plays in the first and second quarter, but the entire third quarter was a scoreless game. Vicksburg was a state finalist team last year, and they played them to a 7-6 score at halftime.
“So we know they play teams really tough, they are capable of beating us, and they are really hungry. But I think our guys are hungry, as well.”
