The crispness in the air matched the cracking of pads on the field as the Eagles battled the
Lakers from Spring Lake. Eagle Fans showed up in good and boisterous numbers on a beautiful
evening and supported the team throughout the game despite the final score of GRC 26, Spring
Lake 46.
The Spring Lake option offense was tough to stop tonight but the defensive line of Felipe
Martinez, Paul Kim, Jay Harris, and Wyatt Stuit were battling hard at the line of scrimmage all
evening. Those guys hammered away at the line of scrimmage to try to make the play
themselves or occupy Laker blockers and give the other defenders lanes to the ball. It was
tough to get the Lakers off the field tonight but the whole defense was hustling and hitting!
Stuit and Justin Davis led the way with 7 tackles each, backed up by Charles Molenbeek with 6.
Cooper Brisbane, Easton Howe, and Yohannes Rock had 4 tackles each. Kayden Buyck and Eli
Clark each batted away a would-be completion by the Lakers.
On offense, the Eagles once again moved the ball up and down the field. The running of Elden
Grover (102 yards on just 5 carries, including a 51-yard scamper) and Justin Davis (65 yards on 6
carries including a 29-yard burst of his own) was effective. Through the air, Bradley Nuiver had
7 completions in 14 tries for 173 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 interception. Two of those TD tosses were
among Malachi Sandberg’s 4 catches for 101 yards; one from 10 yards out and the other a 62-
yard dart where Sandberg broke a tackle on the catch and raced away from the Lakers defense
to the endzone. The other TD from Nuiver was a 46-yard strike to Brieon Walton. Late in the
game, Wyatt Stuit took over as the signal-caller and found his trusty tight end Xander
Leatherman for a 12-yard strike. None of those fancy stats would have been possible if not for
the grit and hustle of the offensive line. LT Sam Deyoung, LG Jacob Bierling, C Tyler
VanderPloeg, RG Javi Cummings, and RT Easton Howe gave Nuiver and Stuit time to survey the
field and opened some majestic holes in the Laker defense for Grover and Davis to speed
through.
The Eagles JV team goes on the road to Holland Christian for their final game of the 2024
season next week Thursday at 6:00PM. Come on out and support these excellent players as
they try to put an exclamation point on an entertaining season of Eagle JV Football. Roll Eagles!!