Reeths-Puffer lacrosse falls behind big early, loses to red-hot Kenowa Hills

MUSKEGON — Reeths-Puffer coach Josh Robidoux knew Kenowa Hills would be a tough matchup for his Rockets Thursday night, but he hoped things wouldn't get out of hand early and his young team would get more reps in close games.

Unfortunately for the Rockets, that's not how the game played out, as Kenowa Hills took total command very quickly, burying R-P with 11 first-quarter goals and cruising to a 22-5 win. The running clock came on early in the third quarter and remained on the rest of the day.

"We knew coming in that they were a very, very talented team," Robidoux said of the Knights, who improved to 12-2 with the win. "They've got some impressive players, and all of those guys have been playing together for a very long time. I'm familiar with their program, and I knew that coming up this year, they were going to be a solid team, but we were hoping to bring them some more pressure and start quicker today."

Instead, it was the Knights who stormed out of the gate, scoring the game's first goal within two minutes of the opening face-off. Only one more time did 90 seconds to go without a Knights' goal in the first quarter. Maxx Jason scored three times by himself - he went on to score seven times in the game - and two other Knights scored twice each as Kenowa Hills attacked, attacked and attacked some more.

The Rockets (2-8) finally got on the board in the closing moments of the first half after falling behind 14-0. Cohen Beck, the team's leading scorer all season, made a nice series of moves to get to the goal and find the net with 1:26 left. Garrison Niklasch added a second goal with 25 seconds to go in the half.

Beck's goal was his only one of the game, and Robidoux said he'd hoped the senior attacker would get some opportunities for assists. With the Rockets rarely able to hold possession for long, that didn't come to fruition. Niklasch did get his second goal of the game in the fourth quarter, and Hunter Adams scored one too. Jax Sieplinga was the fourth Rocket on the board. R-P is working to build a well-rounded offense around Beck.

"I was hoping that (Beck) would get some more feeding looks because typically teams are going to slide to him a lot," Robidoux said. "It just so happened he was able to sneak through their defense on (the team's first goal). We've been really impressed with the looks that Garrison's been getting for us lately. Hunter has been making some great strides offensively. Braeden Monette just went down to attack for us, and I think that gives another option or another look for Cohen that he can go to, and those guys have played together before."

The Rockets have been moving pieces around a fair bit, hoping to find a combination that works. The team is very young, with only nine seniors of the 30 players on the roster, and is displaying versatility in working with the tweaked lineups.

Kenowa Hills is hardly the last impressive team these young Rockets will face. They're scheduled to take on unbeaten Coopersville Friday night, giving R-P a look at two excellent teams on consecutive nights.

"We know that they're some of the best teams that we're going to play this year," Robidoux said. "When we look at a close, competitive game, like (last week's overtime loss to) Jenison, those are games where I think we really see where the team's at. I thought they played well together, and I thought they meshed well together. We're hoping that they take some some more strides in terms of looking to each other and supporting each other as options."