By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
DELTON—Another week, another win for the Saugatuck football team.
The Trailblazers opened play in the SAC Valley with a 42-14 road win over Delton, pushing their record to 6-0 in the process.
All but one of Saugatuck’s victories—a 15-14 decision over Union City in Week 4—has been by double digits.
“This was another good win on the road against a big, physical Delton team,” Saugatuck coach Bill Dunn said. “Delton will always challenge us up front with their size and strength. I throughout our offensive line executed well and that resulted in big plays from our run game.”
One of those big plays from the run game came early in the contest, as Cass Stanberry broke free from a 20-yard touchdown run to open the scoring in the first quarter.
Later in the opening stanza, Will Doucette scored on a 4-yard run to give Saugatuck a 14-0 lead.
Doucette scored the second of his three rushing TDs in the second quarter, this one covering 14 yards.
Delton answered with a touchdown of its own to cut the Trailblazers’ lead to 21-7. But a 28-yard scoring pass from Matt Hartgerink to Stanberry with 1:32 remaining in the half pushed the Saugatuck advantage back to 21 points at 28-7.
“That was a nice play-action pass from Matt to Cass to give us a cushion going into the second half,” Dunn said.
Doucette did his part to make sure Delton didn’t get any thoughts of a comeback in the second half.
On the opening play of the third quarter, Doucette raced 67 yards for his third trip to the end zone, extending the Saugatuck lead to 35-7.
Doucette finished with 139 yards on 11 carries as part of a 218-yard ground attack by Saugatuck. Stanberry (29 yards on five carries), Landon Miller (24 yards on five carries), Bradley Moorer (20 yards on six carries) and Hartgerink (16 yards on six carries) also contributed to the running game.
Hartgerink went 2-of-4 passing for 36 yards, with Moorer (one catch for eight yards) joining Stanberry with a reception.
Cam Lewis was perfect on six extra-point kicks.
Defensively, Stanberry led the charge with 17 tackles. Chris Foley (11) and Norm Bos (10) also had double-digit tackles.
Sam Bos added a fumble recovery
“Our defense made Delton work for their offensive yardage,” Dunn said. “Stanberry, Foley and Norm Bos played well.
“We just played a sound, physical defensive game to limit Delton’s offensive opportunities. The defense gave the offense a short field to work with early and our offense was able to convert those opportunities into points.”
Saugatuck will be on the road again on Friday, Oct. 6, as the Trailblazers travel to Galesburg-Augusta (1-5) before closing out the regular season by hosting Lawton (5-1) on Oct. 13 and Schoolcraft (5-1) on Oct. 20.
“We’re taking one week at a time and challenging ourselves to improve in every facet of the game,” Dunn said.
Saturday, October 05, 2024
