By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
GRAND RAPIDS—In Hopkins’ Division 5 football playoff opener against Grand Rapids Catholic Central on Friday, Nov. 1, Viking running back Justin VanWagner rushed for 102 yards on 19 carries.
The was the good news for Hopkins.
The bad news? The Vikings were limited to only 15 more total yards as they suffered the 28-0 season-ending loss.
Despite losing its final three games, Hopkins still ended the season with a winning record of 6-4. That was a marked improvement over last year’s 2-7 showing.
The Vikings also placed second in the OK Silver Conference to Belding.
“It was a great turn-around season for us,” Hopkins coach Cody Francis said. “To be runner-up in our conference and to triple our win total from last year says a lot about this group of guys.”
And even though his team will lose some solid seniors, Francis believes there are reinforcements on the way.
“Our JV team finished at 7-1-1, so we have some good talent coming through,” he said.
In this game, Catholic Central took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter and doubled that to 14-0 at halftime. But Hopkins kept the Cougars from scoring in the third quarter to keep itself in the game.
“We played tough defense versus Catholic Central, making them work for all their points and yards,” Francis said. “To hold them to 14 points in the first half and scoreless in the third quarter was a great effort.”
The fourth quarter saw Catholic Central score two more touchdowns to put the game out of reach.
Zac Wierenga finished with 14 yards on nine carries in the loss, while Jacob Helder had eight yards on two carries.
Defensively, Braydon Smigiel had a interception, while Cole Schaendorf, Colin Gibson and Jaxson Koperski were each in on five tackles.
“I’m proud of how tough our kids played and that they never gave up during the 48-minute battle,” Francis said.
