Gremlins football struggles in home loss to Patriots
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HOUGHTON -- The Houghton Gremlins football team fell to 1-3 on the football season Friday after a 38-26 loss to the Westwood Patriots at home.
It was the tale of two halves. While the Gremlins outscored their opponent 12-8 in the second half, it could not make up for a 30-14 Patriots' lead at half.
The win was the first (1-3) for first-year Westwood coach Sam Gilles.
"It was great to see the kids come out and compete," said Gilles. "They played a complete game and kept their composure in the third as Houghton played better than us. My hope is that this win will compel them to play even harder moving forward."
The Patriots set the tone with an opening-drive touchdown less than 90 seconds into the game. Alex Turek punched in an eight-yard run for six. The two-point conversion was good, and Westwood led 8-0.
The Gremlins didn’t stay far behind as they got on the board at the 7:15 mark with quarterback Brody Donnelly going for 33 yards off the snap into the end zone. The extra point was good and made it an 8-7 game. Both teams scored again and it was a 16-14 Westwood lead after one.
In the second, it was all Westwood as quarterback Andrew Beckman punched in two short yardage runs for six. The Patriots converted for one two-point conversion and kept the Gremlins off the scoreboard, giving them the 16-point advantage at half.
Houghton coach Eli Luoma summed up the first 24 minutes of the game.
"Westwood came out harder than we did, and they had a great game plan," he said. "They worked well and ran over us."
He added that his squad’s play in the third and fourth was better. This included a pick-six for the Gremlins at the 8:58 mark by senior Alex Hebert to make it a 30-20 game.
In the fourth the Gremlins got within four points courtesy of a 15-yard touchdown run at the 10-minute mark by Thomas Niedzwiecki, but 30-26 was as close as the Orange and Black got.
Westwood sealed the deal with eight more points just minutes later putting the score at 38-26.
"It was a tough loss, and hopefully we can be a better team for it," said Luoma."Our schedule isn’t getting any easier."
Up next
The Gremlins will be on the road to Menominee on Friday. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.