ROCKFORD ATHLETICS I HOME OF THE RAMS

By Randy Gregory, Michigan Sports Radio Photo courtesy of Miles Postema After losing their opening contest of 2025 to Saline amidst a flurry of unforced errors, Rockford seemed to be headed along a similar path against a top-ten ranked East Kentwood squad at home on Friday, September 19. On three occasions the Rams were in Falcon territory and seemed headed for points but turned the ball over all three times on a pair on interceptions and a fumbled lateral. But Rockford showed tremendous grit as they ended up holding a powerful East Kentwood attack to only 14 points on the night to claim the key OK Red triumph. The Falcons were averaging nearly 50 points a game and had rolled to three lop-sided wins early in the 2025 season. With the win, Rockford moved to 3-1 on the season and 2-0 in the OK Red. Eaast Kentwood fell to 3-1 and 1-1 in conference play. “We played team defense even though they were able to make some plays,” said Rockford Coach Brent Cummings. “They (East Kentwood) have a special quarterback but I really did enjoy watching how our kids rallied to the ball all night long and had different kids step up in big spots time after time. We kind of won by committee at linebacker as we were trying to get Sam (Cummings) eased back into the rotation. And we had to use a few different safeties with Luke (Ahern) having to carry some of the load late on offense. But our defense had a heck of a game plan all night long against a very potent offense.” The Rockford offense moved the ball all night long and could have easily had several more scores save for the turnover issues in the opening 24 minutes. The Rams got to the EK 40 on their opening drive before fumbling a lateral that was recovered by the Falcons. After quickly thwarting the Falcon offense, Rockford drove deep into Falcon territory again before suffering an interception near the goal line. Again, the Ram defense answered the bell and they began their next drive at the Falcon 45 following a nice return from Jackson Cummings. Hayden Peoples then did the honors for the Rams in putting the first points of the night on the board for Rockford. First he busted loose for a 26-yard run to put the Rams at the Falcon 19. Peoples then broke into the end zone on the next play as he swept left and made a couple of jukes to make it a 7-0 Ram lead following the Dawson Hoekert PAT with 10:35 left in the opening half. The Falcons then made their first impression offensively as their senior quarterback Kayd Coffman (MSU commit) drove them all the way down to the Rockford 11-yard line. Facing a fourth and one at that juncture the Falcons went for it and were stuffed in the backfield to turn the ball back over to Rockford. The Rams then began another march before turning the ball over on their second interception of the half. Taking over at their own 42, Coffman led them into the end zone on a four-yard run that knotted things up at 7-7 with only 49 seconds left in the half. After bringing the kickoff back to their own 25 most people assumed that the Rams would chew up the rest of the first half clock and settle for the 7-7 tie. But that could not have been further from the truth as senior quarterback Braylen Daniels first ran for 15 yards and Rockford called a quick timeout. Daniels then stepped back and fired a deep ball to Jax Eichbauer that the senior reeled in at the Falcon 22 to put them in prime scoring shape. On the next play from scrimmage Daniels fired a deep pass over the middle to Jackson Cummings that he grabbed in the back of the end zone and gave Rockford a 14-7 lead with only 12 seconds left in the half. Thde second half saw Rockford battling field position problems from the start as their first possession began at their own 1. After the Falcons forced a punt after a pair of Ram first downs, East Kentwood drove down to the Rockford 1 where they were facing a fourth and goal. Again, an inspired Ram defense stuffed them and they took over at their own two this time. Rockford then began a methodical march that saw them reach the Ram 43 before Daniels went down with an injury and Ahern stepped in to replace him in the QB position. The Rams kept running the QB power play over and over again as Ahern ran for 52 yards on that drive alone before eventually giving Rockford a 21-7 lead with only 5:04 to play. But Coffman broke loose for a 39-yard TD on a QB scramble that made it a 21-14 game with still 3:48 to play in the contest. Rockford took over at their own 20 and nearly ran out the clock following a few more bruising runs from Ahern. After exhausting their timeouts the Falcons took over at their own 13 with only 20 seconds to play. It was far too little, far too late and the clock ticked down to zero as Rockford claimed the key 21-14 triumph. “I go back to the performance of our offensive line that we were able to impose our will on the ground while running the same play over and over,” said Cummings. “It is great to have Luke Ahern in your back pocket when your starting quarterback goes down. He is just a hard-nosed football player and we are thrilled to have him on our side.” The Rams will now jump from the frying pan into the fire next week. They will square off with their third top-ten ranked team in the state on Friday, September 26 when they travel to Grandville to take on an always tough Bulldog squad.