Montague has displayed resilience several times throughout the 2025
season, but Friday night at North Muskegon, the Wildcats also showed
off their talent and improvement, ripping off several big plays and
downing the Norsemen 39-26.
The key sequence of the game was
in the third quarter when Montague, holding a 26-6 lead, surrendered a
Norsemen scoring drive and then fumbled the ball away, which North
Muskegon recovered and took back for a touchdown. Suddenly it was 26-18,
and the specter of past defeats hung in the air.
However,
this time the Wildcats (2-4) were having none of it, and quickly
responded with a touchdown drive that ended with a six-yard run from
quarterback Eli Petersen.
"Sometimes these guys make me pull
my hair out, but we usually keep playing," Montague coach Phil Koops
chuckled. "There was a bit of time in the third quarter when things
could've gotten more interesting, than they needed to, but after the
mishap we squashed that pretty quickly."
Petersen has had his
struggles at times adjusting to the Wildcats' new option-based offensive
playbook, but Friday saw his efforts in the system paying off. Not only
did he run for over 100 yards, Koops said, but so too did each of his
two main backs, Devlin Dean and Cole Moss.
"When you want to
run the triple option, it's good to have all three of those guys have
that kind of rushing yards," Koops said. "That's a cool and unique stat
that doesn't happen very often. You might get two over 100 sometimes,
but three is pretty neat."
Moss being back from an injury that
kept him out of the Ludington game the week prior added some needed
explosiveness to the Wildcat backfield, and he showed he's no worse for
wear by ripping off a 53-yard scoring run early in the third quarter.
"He
hit a counter, and there wasn't a lot of room, but he has a great
acceleration gear and he split a couple defenders and went the
distance," Koops said.
The longest scoring run, though,
belonged to Devlin Dean, who took the first Montague snap 91 yards to
the house after the Wildcats had gotten a fourth-down stop the previous
play.
"For us to get a stop and get a score on the first play
from scrimmage, you obviously want to start hot like that, but
especially for the mentality of our kids," Koops said.
The win
was especially impressive given North Muskegon's success in the recent
past; since the West Michigan Conference split into the Rivers and Lakes
divisions in 2022, the Norsemen have not lost to a Rivers opponent.
They'd also decisively beaten Montague in the previous three meetings.
