Hamilton football 'Steady-Eddie' in win over Spring Lake

Hamilton used a steady approach on both sides of the football to take down Spring Lake 24-14 Friday at home.

The Hawkeyes played a sound game offensively to bottle up a Spring Lake option rushing attack, keeping the Lakers in check most of the night outside of two long touchdown runs.

The defense has been the key in most of Hamilton’s wins this season, with last week’s 42-36 win over Grand Rapids Christian being an exception. It was a return to form for the 5-2 Hawkeyes this week.

“They played well,” said Hamilton coach Phil Koops. “They’re a really good offensive unit. They score a lot of points on a lot of people. They’ve been in some big ball games, they’ve gone the wrong way for Spring Lake, but they’ve been close. I’m just glad they didn’t figure it out tonight against us.”

More: High school football Week 7 live scoreboard and roundup

More: Holland High School defense becomes fourth-down wall, beats Comstock Park

They even weathered a surprise at quarterback. Spring Lake started junior Landon O’Donnell at quarterback in place of senior Reid Grimmer, who moved to wide receiver for the game. It wasn’t something the Hawkeyes had scouted.

“We kind of saw it during pre-game that, hey, a different kid is taking the quarterback reps,” Koops said.

It didn’t faze them though. Hamilton moved to a 17-0 lead after the first half of play, bending slightly on Spring Lake’s first drive but forcing a turnover on an option where O’Donnell couldn’t get the pitch off cleanly.

The offense went to work behind that defensive effort. Gabe Schrotenboer started the scoring with a 23-yard field goal early in the second quarter, and Hamilton followed it up with a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Grant Petroelje. He’d connect with Logan O’Connor for a 24-yard touchdown pass late in the second on a perfectly thrown ball to the corner of the end zone.

Petroelje would close out the scoring with another one-yard touchdown run with 7:02 remaining in the game to push the lead to 24-7.

“Grant’s a really steady Eddie kid,” Koops said. “Grant does a great job, just a calm guy, super smart. Gets us into a lot of the right plays. He has the right to flip the play side to side, or check us one run play to another. He does a great job with all that responsibility.”

Spring Lake got a touchdown to open the third quarter on a 49-yard run up the middle by Owen Smies, and the Lakers kept fighting to make it 24-14 with 5:44 left on a 41-yard run by Gabe Trask.

The win is Hamilton’s fifth, the program’s most since 2016. The team will likely make the playoffs behind their strong schedule and a 5-2 record to start the year.

But there’s plenty left to play for. Hamilton travels to West Catholic after the Falcons beat Forest Hills Eastern 24-23. Hamilton’s lone conference loss came to FHE (28-7), so a win at West Catholic would create a three-way tie atop the OK White.

“We didn’t feel like we played our best against Forest Hills Eastern,” Koops said. “Excited to be playing late in the year with a shot to win championships. That hasn’t happened around here in a long time.”

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hamilton football 'Steady-Eddie' in win over Spring Lake