Game of the Week: Cedar Springs Red Hawks at Grand Rapids Catholic Central Cougars
Cedar Springs paid a visit to Grand Rapids Catholic Central Friday night for both teams’ first OK Gold conference game of the 2022 season.
The Red Hawks led 7-6 at the half and 14-6 in after a third quarter Ryan Mitchell touchdown run.
The Cougars responded with a Kellen Russell-Dixon TD reception and run to take a 21-14 lead.
Mitchell's second TD run pulled Cedar to within 21-20 with just 38 seconds to play.
The Red Hawks decided to go for two and CC's Michael App sacked Cedar Springs quarterback Ryan West and Cougars held on for a 21-20 win.
"It was unbelievable," App said about the stop. "I got emotional, I'm not really an emotional person. I got emotional, tears in my eyes, I was loving on my teammates and I was proud, super proud."
The end was very similar to last season's week eight game between Cedar Springs and Catholic Central when the Cougars stop a late two-point conversion for a 41-40 win.
"It goes back to just staying focused on your keys and on your reads and in that particular case Michael did an excellent job doing it," CC head coach Todd Kolster said. "Defensively we did play pretty well tonight, we got some big stops, gave up some yards which you are going to do that, but we got some big stops when we needed them. It was just great to see our defense play well and rise to the challenge."
Russell-Dixon finished the game with 84 yards rushing and a touchdowns and five receptions for 30 yards and a TD.
"Halftime we made a couple of adjustments and it was really and effort thing," Russell-Dixon said. "We just kept fighting until the very end. I had trust in my guys up front, they did a great job blocking and we were able to get it done."
The Cougars win extends the state's longest streak to 40-games.
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