Whitehall took an upset defeat to an on-the-rise Fremont squad
Thursday night, 32-19, dropping the Vikings to 0-2 and 0-1 in West
Michigan Conference Lakes play.
The loss marked the first by
any WMC Lakes team to Fremont, other than Orchard View, since the
Packers joined the conference in 2022. Vikings' coach Tony Sigmon
credited Fremont counterpart Jared Hudson for his work with the program.
"Fremont
had their youth night tonight, the place was packed, and Jared
has been working his tail off," Sigmon said. "He has a pretty good group
and a lot of returners. They looked the part and they played the part
tonight."
Fremont wasted no time jumping on the Vikings,
scoring on its first two possessions. Liam Leeke rang up a 90-yard
touchdown run to get Whitehall back to within one score, but the Packers
responded with another score. The Vikes got a big kickoff return to set
up an Isaiah Lewis touchdown pass that made it 20-13, but Fremont again
answered with a touchdown drive.
The Vikings committed their
second turnover early in the fourth quarter with a chance to get back
within a score, and that was the last real chance they had.
"Turnovers hurt us tonight," Sigmon said. "We have to do a better job taking care of the
ball. Any time you surrender a possession, it's detrimental to a football game."
Often
a loss like Thursday's can serve as an inciting incident to turn around
a struggling football team. For the Vikings, it will have to be; an
improved Orchard View squad is next on the schedule, followed by a visit
from the Swan Valley team that eliminated them from last year's
playoffs.
"They definitely need to (bounce back)," Sigmon said. "It's one of those situations where preparation during
the week can contribute to a win or a loss. We need to have a great week
of preparation next week. That's the challenge for our group.
"We have to be better across the board, frankly. We have to be better at
practices, at execution in the game, and that's what it really boils
down to. Little things contribute to big things, and right now we have
to reset, refocus and do the little things right."
Leeke ran
for 101 yards on 14 carries, and Lewis threw for 97, including his
touchdown throw. On defense, Wyatt McFarren had a huge game, with eight
solo tackles and another 12 assists. He had 1.5 tackles for a loss.
