Montague football unable to slow down Reed City in district finals defeat

REED CITY — Montague's great start felt like a distant memory by the end of the first half of Friday's district finals game, as Reed City scored six touchdowns on six possessions to bury the Wildcats en route to a 45-14 win.

The Wildcats (6-5) got the exact start they wanted when Cooper Bradley showed off his elusiveness on a big opening kickoff return to the Reed City 23-yard line. A few plays later, Eli Petersen hit Fletcher Thommen to narrowly convert a fourth-and-8, and Petersen capped the drive with a five-yard touchdown. It was 7-0 Wildcats.

From there, the Coyotes' wing-T attack took over. Three different Reed City players ripped off long touchdown runs on the first three Coyote possessions, and Montague was simply unable to slow down an attack that has dominated throughout the season.

"Reed City's the real deal," Montague coach Phil Koops said. "I'm going to give a lot of credit to them. Did we wish that we could have played better and executed better? Yeah. They got off the ball better than we did. (They were) bigger, faster, stronger. Their team speed was really good. We had trouble getting footing on this field. They didn't. They're good."

Coyote ball carriers Kason Coppick, Andrew Kiaunis and Jack Deitsch each scored 40-plus yard touchdowns to make it 21-7, and after a good Wildcats' punt pinned Reed City inside its own 10, Kiaunis essentially iced things with an 87-yard run.

Koops said the Coyotes' offensive structure, and what it forces defenses to do to counter it, lends itself to big plays.

"You're going to have to put a lot of people by the line of scrimmage to stop it, and when you do that, and they crease it, they're big plays," Koops said. "We couldn't get them on the ground. In contrast, their edge and alley players got us on the ground. A lot of credit to them. They've been good for a long time now, and they were good again tonight."

Montague's own offense only got a first down on one other possession in the first half after the touchdown, as Reed City forced the Wildcats out of their comfort zone. Montague is usually content to pick up yardage pieces at a time, but as with most option attacks - or any offense, really - being put into third-and-long situations over and over again makes its best plays less effective.

"We're fine with, (gaining) three yards, three yards, three yards," Koops said. "We'll hit the big one eventually, if we can stay on the field, but (gaining) zero yards, one yard, half a yard, you just get in very predictable down-and-distances.

"You get behind and then you get out of rhythm and you've got to play a little catch-up and then you're out of your game. We want to give it to our fullback and lean on him and get him going. They were just whooping us up front."

The second half was played mostly with the running clock, and after Reed City drove down for a field goal to start the third quarter, Montague did not allow any more points. Cole Moss put a final touchdown on the board for the Wildcats in the fourth quarter, a nine-yard run.

Despite the unfortunate ending, though, there was plenty to take pride in for a Wildcats team that won five games in a row prior to the Reed City defeat, putting together its first winning season and scoring its first playoff win in four years despite having to adjust to a new coach and a new offense.

Koops said coaches and players alike adjusted to each other over the course of the season. At one point, hoping to slow down the mental mistakes that plagued the Wildcats early, the coaches dialed back Monday practices and dove deeper into teaching the option concepts. It was a tweak that certainly worked, starting with the Wildcats' dominant win over North Muskegon that featured three 100-yard rushers and over 500 on the ground in all.

The players, in turn, stayed bought in and earned better results by doing so.

"We kept coaching and the kids kept listening," Koops said. "Sometimes it's easy for things to fall apart at that point, and the kids showed a lot of resolve and mental toughness and trust in us as coaches. They stuck with the program. We started getting better.

"It's huge and a great life lesson. When things get hard, you've got to dig in. You can't start blaming other people. You can't say, 'Woe is me.'" They just kept coming to practice every day, kept getting coached every day."

Fifteen seniors played their final Wildcats' game Friday, Koops said, and they'll be remembered most for the strong way they finished their four years at Montague - and, hopefully, for kick-starting a new era of success. It all started with their work prior to the season - prior, in fact, to Koops even being hired.

It's work that no doubt will have to continue to get the Wildcats to the next level.

"I would drive up to Montague on Wednesdays from Hamilton and see those guys, and they'd be in the weight room after track practice...or baseball or whatever their spring sport was, and they were in there grinding," Koops said. "They wanted to be good. They wanted Montague football to get back to its winning ways, and I'm proud as heck to say that we did. We're going to finish the year 6-5. (We had) a winning season, won a playoff game. Are we where we want to be? No. Did we feel like we made some strides getting back towards what Montague football has been known to be? Absolutely."