Dutch claim Wooden Shoes
Fri, Aug 29, 2008 
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BY MATT DEYOUNG
mdeyoung@grandhaventribune.com
HOLLAND — The Wooden Shoes will reside in the trophy cases at Holland High School for the foreseeable future.
The host Dutch thoroughly dominated the second half of the 110th all-time meeting between the two Lakeshore rivals Thursday at Holland Municipal Stadium, outgaining the visiting Buccaneers 231 yards to 95 and outscoring Grand Haven 18-0 en route to a 31-16 victory.
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It was a night of missed opportunities for the Bucs, who were plagued by penalties and turnovers at crucial moments of the contest.
"Getting stopped on fourth down, driving the football and fumbling it, a couple penalties, just the mistakes. That's what you get with a young team," said Haven coach Mike Farley, whose team has just four starters back from a year ago.
Quarterback Bryan Kiel is one of the newcomers that Farley will rely on heavily this year. The elusive junior electrified the Buccaneer faithful with a 34-yard touchdown run late in the first half to put his team on top, 16-13.
That was the end of the highlights for Grand Haven, which carried that lead into halftime, but were dominated on both sides of the ball in the second half.
The Dutch, who rushed for 302 yards on 46 carries out of their Wing-T offense, started the second half with a bang as senior halfback Ryan Puente rumbled for 63 yards down to the Bucs' 2-yard line. Jake Guillory scored on the next play for a 19-16 Holland lead.
The Bucs went three-and-out on their next possession, then looked to have dodged a bullet when Holland quarterback Adam Drooger's third-down pass sailed out of bounds minutes later. However, the Bucs were called for pass interference on the play, extending Holland's drive, and a few plays later, Puente plunged across the goal line from 1 yard out for a 25-16 advantage.
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Grand Haven, needing desperately to put together a drive on offense, could not gain 10 yards on four plays on their next possession as fullback Jordan Goetz was stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Bucs' 44.
Holland took advantage, driving the 45 yards in eight plays for yet another Puente touchdown, his third of the game. The Dutch again took advantage of a key Grand Haven penalty on the drive, this one an unsportsmanlike conduct call after making a key stop on a third-down play that would have forced Holland to punt the ball.
"We went into halftime and said, 'We have to take control of the game like we know we can,'" Holland coach Shawn McManus said. "We kept letting little things stop us, and we needed to go and be physical and shut this thing down, and obviously the kids responded."
"This was a game of momentum, and the second half, we couldn't get the momentum back," Farley said. "If anything, it was the mental mistakes that hurt us. I told the kids, I don't get mad when they make physical mistakes, but those mental mistakes are inexcusable."
Grand Haven looked strong early on, driving 59 yards on its first possession of the game before getting stopped on fourth down at the 1-yard line.
The very next play, linebacker Andy Deal hauled down Drooger in the end zone for a safety.
The Bucs followed that up with another nice drive, this one ending with Kiel's 9-yard scoring pass to Mitch Gillissie in the right corner of the end zone, giving Grand Haven an 8-0 lead.
The Bucs' starting tailback, senior Pat Werksma, didn't dress for Thursday's game for undisclosed reasons. In his absence, junior Logan Cuddington handled a bulk of the carries. He broke free for 36 yards on the first play from scrimmage and had 66 yards at halftime, but managed just 4 yards on four carries in the second half to finish with 70. Kiel also rushed for 70 yards. He did a fantastic job of gaining positive yardage on several bad snaps from center.
Kiel struggled at times to find his rhythm throwing the ball and finished 9-of-17 for 108 yards, including the touchdown strike to Gillissie. Josh Poel, who made several key tackles from his cornerback position, was Kiel's favorite target, catching a pair of balls for 41 yards.
Drooger completed 4-of-9 passes for 108 yards with one interception. His talented tight end, Adam Israels, hauled in three balls for 42 yards.
JUNIOR VARSITY: Grand Haven blasted Holland Wednesday, 41-8.
FRESHMEN: The Buccaneers edged the Dutch Wednesday, 34-30.
