Zeeland West football remains unbeaten, racing past Holland
ZEELAND - Zeeland West’s defense carried the day for the Dux as they remained undefeated with a 68-7 win over Holland Friday night.
The Dux forced five turnovers and scored two defensive touchdowns on the night. Keaton Hendricks had a 70-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first quarter’s waning moments, and Brody Maas had one less than three minutes later from 20 yards out. Rolando Robelin and Niko Moungkhoun also had interceptions on the night.
Holland had less than 100 yards offense for the night. The West defense is a unit that’s held five of its six opponents under 10 points, and it’s a unit coach John Shillito saw big things from early on this season.
“They’ve played well since the start; they’ve played well in the scrimmage,” he said. “It’s a talented group and it’s also a very cohesive group.”
The defense has remained stout all season, but it’s a big time for them to step up. The offense is dealing with the loss of Parker Holman (torn ACL), so having a unit like that defense to fall back on is big.
They didn’t need it Friday night. The Dux carried the ball 22 times for 310 yards, and Trenten Bolhouse was 5-for-6 passing for 114 yards and a touchdown. No Dux ballcarrier had more than three carries on the night, with the leaders being Robelin and freshman Brandon Holman.
Mixing it up was the name of the game Friday night offensively.
“The reality is for us is you can’t replace Parker Holman,” Shillito said. “Since 2015, he’s one of the top, if not the top, player we’ve had, really, on both sides of the ball. But you have to do some other things. Trenten did a nice job of throwing the ball early. We know we’re going to (do) maybe a little more of that.”
Robelin had a rushing touchdown early, followed by Isaac VanderZwaag catching a touchdown pass from Bolhouse. From there, Hendricks and VanderZwaag both scored their second touchdowns of the night on the ground. Zeeland West led 54-7 at the half.
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Holland’s lone touchdown came on a 16-yard pass from Amari Powell to Joel Morin. On the ground, Jacob Torres had 17 carries for 70 yards for the Dutch. Shillito said the Dutch had improved since last year despite the tough start to the season.
In the second half, Zeeland West got touchdown runs from Brandon Holman, Jonah Leslie and Dre Quintanilla to close out the win.
Holland falls to 0-6, 0-4 in the OK Green. The Dutch have Homecoming against Zeeland East next Friday.
The win moves Zeeland West to 6-0 and 4-0 in the OK Green. They take on Muskegon (4-2, 4-0 OK Green next week), and the defense will need to come to play against an always-potent Big Red offense to enter the driver’s seat for the conference title.
“We have tremendous respect for Muskegon and their program, how they’re coached and how their kids play,” Shillito said. “It’ll be fun.”
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Zeeland West football remains unbeaten, racing past Holland
