THREE RIVERS — The home team’s offensive line pushed a little harder, its defense went from good to really good and it was smooth sailing in the second half for the Three Rivers football team, which shut out Wolverine Conference opponent Allegan in a 28-0 victory Friday night at Armstrong Field.
Three Rivers senior quarterback Alex Cottingham rushes for the game’s first touchdown in the second quarter.
A week after a disappointing loss at Plainwells at intermission. But first he shouldered some of the blame for a measly 7-0 halftime lead.
“That first half was my job,” Wagner said. “I had to have them ready and they weren’t ready. They came out flat. We emphasized turnovers all week. What’s the first thing we do on the opening drive? We put it on the ground. At halftime we said we’re going to do what we do, and they answered the bell.”
Senior quarterback Alex Cottingham (click here for video interview) capped a 43-yard drive in the second quarter with a short rumble and spin over the goal line for the game’s first touchdown. The Wildcats defense did the rest, giving up just 54 yards of total offense to the Tigers (0-3). The offense had a chance to inflate the cushion in the final minute, but Cottingham’s pass intended for senior Kyle Walczak was overthrown and intercepted by Allegan’s Josh Wedge deep in Tigers territory.
Click here for video of the locker room celebration.
That, along with his team’s first drive of the game, which ended with a sack on fourth down at the Allegan 7-yard line, didn’t impress Wagner. How his team responded in the second half certainly did.
A methodical 69-yad drive in the third quarter finished in the end zone when Cottingham hit senior receiver Kyle Walczak in the flat with nothing but green space ahead of him. Cottingham connected with sophomore Brandon Verwey for a 15-yard TD strike early in the fourth quarter and Bailey Miholer-Wortinger (junior) rushed for a 49-yard score with 1:50 remaining to put the game away.
Cottingham wasn’t sure why his team came out sluggish in the first half, but he’s proud of the way it refocused.
“The first half we were hit in the mouth a little bit,” he said. “We weren’t really on our game. Everybody got on the same train and we just went with it. We got the momentum and started pushing them back. Then we started to play our game. We knew them being 0-2 they had nothing to lose.”
Verwey registered four tackles and Keo and Colby Brundige each added three to pace the Wildcats, who head to Coloma next weekend.
Kaylob Ghist finished with eight stops for Allegan, followed by Sam Carlson (five) and Kyle Simaz (five).
Three Rivers outgained Allegan 359-54, and the Wildcats tandem of Miholer-Wortinger and senior Ray King tallied 233 rushing yards, with King leading the way with 127 on 20 carries.
Linemen Logan Kutz, Collin Wagner, Robert Satkoski, Dallas Recker, Connor Smith and tight ends Verwey and Trevor Keo deserved major credit in Wagner’s eyes.
“We’ve got two good backs and our line up front did a nice job,” Wagner said. “You’ve got to do what you can do — take what they give you.
“Defensively they played well. I got a call with nine minutes to go that said they had 43 yards of total offense. When you play good defense, it gives you a chance. And I thought our special teams played well too.”