Panthers fall to defending champs

FRANKFORT – For one half of play, the Frankfort Panthers stood toe to toe with four-time defending state champion Muskegon Catholic, but in the end, the Crusaders used their talent-rich roster to take advantage of Frankfort mistakes and claim the 31-6 victory.

While the loss proved painful for a Frankfort football team that was hungry to pull off a win against the team that had bested them in two straight regional championships, coach Matt Stapleton came away looking at the positives.

“Are they disappointed? Sure, they are disappointed, but sometimes you have to take on the tough tasks to get better. Sometimes you need to fail to improve,” Stapleton said. “We could have played a different team and had a different result, but we didn’t. We knew this would be a tough opponent. In life, things that are hard are worth it. We wanted to play the top Division 8 team in the state. We thought we could beat them. We did not. Our season is not over. It is still early. We are still improving and figuring things out.”

One of the biggest positives that came out of the game, was Frankfort’s defense.

The Panthers held a potent MCC offense and one of the top duel threat quarterbacks in the state to just one first-half touchdown, which came in the final seconds of the first quarter. When the Crusaders tried to add another score in the second quarter, the defense stepped up to force a fumble.

At halftime, Frankfort walked off the field, down only 7-0 and set to receive the kickoff to start the second half.

“Overall, our kids actually improved a lot on defense from last week to this week,” Stapleton said. “We still did not tackle well and struggled with some pursuit angles, but our kids really hung in there and played hard.”

After a half of Frankfort keeping those small mistakes in check, the Crusaders made their move early in the second half, taking advantaged of small mistakes made by a defense that was spending the majority of the game on the field to score on their first two possessions of the half.

Frankfort’s lone score came on a one-yard Griffin Kelly touchdown run late in the third quarter, set up by big plays on a screen pass to Conner Smith and a downfield reception by Mack Powell.

Frankfort quarterback Kirk Myers finished the game 9 for 21 passing for 183 yards, but he was haunted by a pair of interceptions, one of them a leaping one handed grab.

Myers also rushed for 24 yards on eight carries.

Kelly led the team in rushing with 53 yards and a score on 17 carries.

Matt Loney led all receivers with three catches for 89 yards. He also earned praise from his coach on the defensive end, where he recorded eight tackles.

“Matt Loney played a nice game on both sides of the ball,” Stapleton said. “Defensively, he had some really good one on one tackles and took some good angles.”

Other leading tacklers were Kelly with eight, Smith with seven and Spencer Nye with seven.

Frankfort travels to Mio this week. Opening kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday.