ZEELAND, Mich. — The Zeeland West offense is scoring points in bunches again now that the playoffs are here after struggling the final three weeks of the regular season.
After a six and oh start to the season, Zeeland West lost three games in a row to Muskegon, Mona Shores and Reeths-Puffer.
"We just knew we needed to keep going," Dux senior quarterback Trenten Bolhouse said. "It was a bad three weeks, but we knew we needed to flip it and we needed to come out against Zeeland East, a team that if we played bad definitely could have beat us. We just knew we needed to get better."
All three of the losses were to division two playoff teams, Zeeland West has now one three straight games in the division three playoffs.
"In the locker room we just continued we believe," Dux senior outside linebacker Orion Yant said. "We believed that we could get here and we wanted it more than all the other teams that we played, so we just have to bring that."
Zeeland West has suffered injuries to key players like senior fullback/cornerback Parker Holman (week five) and junior running back/linebacker Isaac VanderZwaag (week nine), but still have found a way to play well when it matters the most.
"You have to give credit to the kids that have stepped up," Dux head coach John Shillito said. "Trey Sllothaak has been tremendous for us, Trenten Bolhouse, quarterback, has been tremendous for us, Keaton Hendricks stepped into some new roles and really done well. Tyler Baumann actually at backer, we lost Isaac VanderZwaag in week nine, Tyler stepped in and did a great job, Wyatt Boersen's been good for us all year in that spot. I feel like in the playoffs we have played better up front."
Zeeland West looks for its first trip to Ford Field since 2015 on Saturday when it takes on Forest Hills Central at West Ottawa at 1pm.
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