BALDWIN — Mistakes were made. Now it’s time to learn from them.
Brethren overcame early fumbling issues and senior running back Cole Headley scored six touchdowns in a 71-28 victory over Baldwin in Thursday’s eight-player football game at Baldwin.
“We got the mistakes all out of the way early, and then pushed past that, move on to the next play,” Bobcats senior quarterback Kenyon Brown said. “After that, we locked back in and picked it back up. That’s what good teams do. We turned it around through adversity.”
After some early jitters, Brethren bounced back to take control.
The Bobcats’ control was so complete that referees started running the clock for the mercy rule before Brethren even hit the 35-point lead needed to trigger the point-differential rule.
Brethren (4-2) scored 99 points the last two weeks in wins over Mesick and Suttons Bay, and has its toughest stretch of the season coming up, hosting rival Bear Lake (3-2) next week, then Marion (3-2) and visiting No. 8-ranked Grand Rapids Sacred Heart (5-0).
“The last three games are going to be tough,” first-year head coach Tony Bowen said. “It’s a gauntlet. If we win one or two, I think we can make the playoffs. Our goal was to be better than 1-8 last year. We’ve done that. Now the kids reset the goal and said, ‘We need to work for the playoffs this year, coach.’ So that’s what our goal is.”
Thursday’s scoring outburst was Brethren’s most points in a game since hanging 72 on Baldwin in 2022. It’s also the Bobcats’ highest scoring output this season by 20 points.
The Bobcats fumbled four times in the first two and a half minutes — recovering two themselves — that helped Baldwin get out to an 8-0 lead on a Jalen’e Allen 52-yard run and conversion.
“It’s one touchdown,” Bowen said to his team in a huddle. “It’s not a big deal. Let’s get it back.”
The Bobcats forced a three-and-out and drove down for a 7-yard John Card touchdown on a nice misdirection play where Brethren blocked left and pitched back to Card going to the right for an easy score.
Card’s score was the first in a string of touchdowns on six consecutive possessions.
Headley scored on an 11-yard run, senior Jerry Cain broke a 51-yard scoring run up the middle, then Headley finished off three straight drives. First, he shrugged off a would-be Panthers tackler just before the goal line on a 4-yard run, then caught a 41-yard pass from Brown, wriggling out of a tackle inside to the 10 and finally broke two tackles on a 5-yard TD run set up by Anthony Collier’s fumble recovery.
Brown added a 20-yard bootleg keeper for a score and a 47-28 halftime score. Baldwin produced scores by Pierre Johnson on a 19-yard pass from Chance Dockery, and Allen 3-yard run and a 42-yard connection between Dockery and Johnson.
Brethren held Baldwin to two second-half first downs.
Collier caught a 56-yard TD pass aided by a downfield block from Card, Headley juked a defender on the edge on a 33-yard TD run and then hit Baldwin’s defense for a score where he stopped, let a diving defender fly by, then continued 30 yards for the game’s final 71-28 margin.
Brown was 4-for-6 throwing for 145 yards and two touchdowns, adding three more conversion passes and kicking one extra point.
The Bobcats’ only two losses are to Division 1 top-ranked Inland Lakes and Division 2 No. 3 Onekama.
Baldwin (0-6) didn’t field a team last year and hasn’t won a game (except by forfeit) since October of 2022.
The Bobcats defense featured interceptions by Card, Collier and Levi Morrison, while Headley, Collier and Cain recovered Panther fumbles and Issac Mikus, Tyler Schulte and Headley (two) had sacks.
“We got burned on the deep ball a couple times,” Headley said. “We had to talk with the DBs, told them open their hips a little sooner. They were able to step up and get some interceptions, so that was good.”
Baldwin also turned the ball over on downs three times.
“Our one weakness has been deep balls and our deep coverage,” Brown said. “So we just had to adjust. Our freshman, Anthony, he really stepped up and played good defense. Levi Morrison dropped three picks in our first game and got one today. Our secondary stepped up for sure.”
Brown also faced off against his cousin, Dockery, in a matchup of left-handed quarterbacks.
Bowen said the early turnovers have to stop in the Bobcats want to make the postseason.
“We made way too many mistakes tonight,” Bowen said. “We did not play a clean game. We can put points on people, but if we expect to win against playoff teams, we can’t make the mistakes that we make. If we can eliminate mistakes and capitalize on some of the opportunities that present themselves to us, we can play with anybody.”
Bobcats assistant coach Tommy Neuman, who was the interim coach the last six weeks of last season after Drew Wyse departed, is a Baldwin grad.
Brethren’s stretch run starts with a battle against rival Bear Lake next Friday. The Bobcats and Lakers share a football field, but Brethren is the home team this time around.
“We’ve been preparing for them the past few weeks,” Headley said. “We watched a lot of film on them and got prepared for them. We’re ready for them next week.”
Bowen, a longtime assistant at North Muskegon, Muskegon Catholic Central and Manistee Catholic Central, took over the program this year and hopes the Bobcats earn their first playoff spot since 2019 (all teams made the postseason in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic).
“We’re smash mouth football,” Bowen said. “We just have to eliminate the mistakes. If we do that, we can be a force to be reckoned with. Seventy-one points, and we didn’t pull anything. All we did was mainly run dives. We tried to keep it simple and didn’t want to give up too much information to the teams we have ahead.”