Reeths-Puffer's offense sputtered on two red-zone drives Friday
against Division 2 No. 10-ranked Byron Center, and against a team the
caliber of the Bulldogs, those were damaging errors in a 42-7 defeat.
The
host Bulldogs were able to move the ball much of the night against R-P,
and the Rockets did keep up for a time - but stalled drives inside the
five-yard line and inside the 20 created a deficit too big to overcome.
"We're
very surprised by the way we executed," R-P coach Cody Kater said. "We
had a good week of practice, got into the game, and we had some
injuries, but it was one of those things where we looked like we were in
panic mode at times."
The lynchpin of what offensive success
the Rockets (2-5, 1-3 O-K Green Conference) did have was senior receiver
Mason Darke, who had 148 receiving yards and his team's only touchdown.
His move to the receiver spot from quarterback has seemingly produced
the desired results.
"He's a special athlete," Kater said of
Darke. "He has a competitive spirit to him that shows up on Friday
nights. Our thing here is we don't want to have good or bad surprises on
Friday nights; we want to execute like we did all week. He's like that.
What he does on Friday is what he does Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
I'm hoping our young guys are seeing that and can apply that to their
own work ethic."
Braylon Swain also played well at quarterback, Kater said, going for 193 yards through the air.
Injuries
are making things difficult for an already inexperienced Rockets'
roster; Cole Piper was one of the latest to get "banged up," Kater said.
All the team can do is keep fighting with two more tough matchups to
go, especially next week against powerhouse Muskegon.
Prior to
the season, Kater said his focus for 2025 was to make sure his players
focused on self-improvement rather than being hung up on wins or losses,
believing the results will take care of themselves. There has been
progress to that end, but not quite to the degree Kater hoped.
"Every
time we take the field, we want to be able to show people this program
is worried about the work and not the result," Kater said. "That was our
goal for this year and I don't know if we're there yet...We're all very
frustrated, players, coaches, parents, community members, and we're
still aiming towards being that team that focuses on the process. That's
still our mission and our goal."
