Spring Lake drives past Whitehall

Fri, Aug 29, 2008    to del.icio.us

An 85-yard drive that milked over nine minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter helped Spring Lake's varsity football team pull out a season-opening victory at Whitehall Thursday.

The Lakers led 20-15 early in the fourth quarter and the Vikings were driving for the potential go-ahead score, but a Whitehall fumble was recovered by the Lakers' defensive tackle Richard Orling.

Spring Lake then went to work on a drive that devoured nearly the entire fourth quarter. Senior fullback Chad Setterbo capped off the drive with a 4-yard scoring plunge with 1:08 remaining in the game. Setterbo also scored on the two-point conversion for a 28-15 lead.

"They had the ball for the entire third quarter, and we had it the entire fourth," said Spring Lake coach Jerry Rabideau.

Junior Alex Howe had a big game on the ground for Spring Lake, rushing for 156 yards. Quarterback Mark Rhem added 65 yards rushing and scored the Lakers' first touchdown on a 25-yard run in the second quarter. Andy Skendrovic's two-point run tied the game at 8-all.

The Lakers then took the lead on Howe's 4-yard run. The score was set up by McHale Smith's interception return down to the Vikings' 5-yard line.

Spring Lake made it 20-8 when Skendrovic took the opening kickoff of the second half and scampered 65 yards for a touchdown.

"There's always room for improvement, but the big thing for Spring Lake is, we have to slowly go about our business," Rabideau said. "We've got a lot of things we want to fix. We want to see drastic improvement offensively from Week 1 to Week 2.

"Defensively, we played pretty solid."

Rabideau said cornerbacks Kyle VanderShaaf and C.R. Mohrhardt played outstanding games against the Vikings' speedy receivers.

JUNIOR VARSITY: Spring Lake blanked Whitehall Wednesday evening, 30-0.

FRESHMEN: The Lakers crushed Mona Shores Wednesday, 46-0.