The Chix had a tough one on homecoming at Zeeland Stadium.
ZEELAND - Joe Woodruff, the Zeeland East football coach, didn’t have a problem with how his team moved the football on offense.
The problem was scoring.
“We moved the ball up and down the field on ‘em but we couldn’t put the ball in the end zone,” Woodruff said. “It’s frustrating for us.”
Zeeland East lost to South Christian 41-12 on Friday night in front of a packed homecoming crowd.
Defense was a problem, too, for the Chix (4-3).
“We didn’t stop ‘em,” Woodruff said. “We didn’t play good defense all night. When you give up 41 points, that’s a bad day.”
The first half was competitive, though.
South Christian (4-3) scored the first 14 points on touchdown runs by quarterback Brody Shilts. But the Chix responded. Isaiah Boonstra caught a 17-yard pass from quarterback Will Drnek, but the point-after missed. Drnek then ran the ball 22 yards into the end zone. The 2-point run failed making it 14-12.
But it was all South Christian after that.
South Christian coach Danny Brown said it’s never easy playing at Zeeland.
“You know what you’re gonna get with them,” Brown said. “They’re a tough-nosed team and well coached. This isn’t an easy place to win at. I don’t know how many times we’ve won on this field, but it hasn’t been many. I’m just happy that our kids could travel here and get the win.”
Drnek was 15-of-22 for 257 yards passing and his receiver Coby Miller caught three passes for 136 yards.
“They have a solid defense,” Miller said of South Christian. “And we have a lot of guys out. It’s hard when we have guys like Mason Raade, Cam (Jaworowski) and Jack (Kamphuis) out.”
South Christian sophomore Brody Shilts, who was playing QB for just the third time of his career, was 5-of-5 passing for 87 yards and he ran the ball 16 times for 165 yards and three touchdowns.
“We practiced for it all week for him,” Woodruff said. “We didn’t do a good job on defending the edges. He got goin’ on us and we didn’t react well to the jet sweeps.”
Big game for Chix receiver
Miller, a 6-foot-4 junior wide receiver had a nice game. He caught anything his way.
“Coby had a great game,” Woodruff said. “It’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to capitalize and finish off the drives. He made some fantastic catches.”
The offense didn’t go to the passing game until the second half.
“I felt really good,” Miller said. “I wish they came to me sooner.”
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Zeeland East football loses to South Christian in conference showdown
Category: General Sports
