For the 4^th consecutive year, the Big Rapids Cardinal Football team has reached the post season.

Since 2000, Big Rapids has made it this far 11 times. They’re 6-10 in those games with 3 of those wins coming in the historic 2003 Semi-Final run under Coach Phil Fortier. 2 of those 6 wins have come under the current HC Mike Selzer.

Since Coach Selzer has taken the helm of the Cardinals in 2015, BR has made the playoffs 5 times: 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, and now 2023. In those games he’s 2-5 averaging 19 points a game while surrendering 32. The opponents he’s played had a combined 52-22 record and only the 2020 round 1 Newaygo Lions game has been played in Big Rapids.

This post season the Cardinals continue the trend of traveling to their opponent when they head down to Spring Lake to take on the 7-2 Lakers tonight at 7:00pm.
 

HISTORY

The 1^st time Big Rapids played Spring Lake was in 1975. The Lakers won 38-0. The last time they played was 2005. The Lakers won 48-0.

Overall Big Rapids is 3-7 versus Spring Lake. The last time Big Rapids defeated the Lakers was 2002; 28-12. That’s some of the bad news.

The good news is this is high school football and long-term trends typically mean very little when coaches change and rosters turnover at most every 4 years. So, with BR’s historic 2023 regular season which saw 8 wins for the first time since 2012 and for only the 8^th time in school history, the optimism around tonight’s game should be very high. The Big Rapids offense averaged over 36 points and 344 yards a game. The defense surrendered less than 13 points and 200 yards a game even pitching shutouts at Central Montcalm in week 3 and versus Morley Stanwood week 8.

All these efforts have led to a Selzer era best +23.8 point per game differential. For context since 2015, only the 2022 team came close to these numbers with a differential of +10.7 each game (+30.9 -20.2). Also to note, the 2023 schedule difficulty is identical to 2022.

 

MATCHUP

In Spring Lake we have an OK-Blue team that is tested by conference foes like D5 defending state champion Grand Rapids West Catholic (coached by former Bulldog Landon Grove), recent BR adversary Coopersville, Holland Christian, Fruitport, Hudsonville Unity Christian, and Allendale who is most known for being where Grand Valley is.

Spring Lake also included Montague and Belding on their schedule. Both these teams sound more familiar for Reed City Coyote fans as Montague is a frequent playoff matchup (they head to RC tonight; game is broadcasting on Y-102) and Belding is the home of former Coyote HC Monty Price.

It’s a tough schedule for Spring Lake, and they impressively won 7 games. Using playoff point rankings, the Laker’s schedule is about 23% tougher than Big Rapids’ schedule.

BR’s schedule included 2 1-win teams (Morley Stanwood being a D7), 1 really good non-conference opponent in Paw Paw (#7 in D4), and 1 not good non-conference opponent in Alma (#47 in D5). The key take away for Big Rapids is that they did to bad teams what good teams do: take care of business. As noted above, BR’s average margin of victory was +23.8 points.

For Spring Lake, it’s been a bit of a lucky season at times. They won the 1^st 3 games versus Montague, Belding, and Unity Christian by the exact same score of 34-28. They beat Coopersville 20-19 on 2 late game Bronco fumbles that bounced Spring Lake’s way. But lucky or not, the wins have been impressive. The Belding win in week 2 is particularly interesting considering Belding flattened Tri County in week 9 66-20.

 

COACHING

Big Rapids has been coached by Mike Selzer since 2015. His stability in the position is paying dividends for BRHS as he has won 15 of his last 19 games. Overall, Selzer is 43-42 and 27-24 on the road. While he has never coached BR against Spring Lake, he has coached against the man at the helm for the Lakers.

 

Spring Lake is commanded by 2^nd year coach Cody Mallory. Coach Mallory may sound familiar because he led the Cadillac Vikings from 2015 until 2021. Up north, h won 35 and lost 37. More notably, Mallory’s Vikings were 7-4 in the playoffs with 3 of those wins coming during the weirdo 2020 season when they lost to Detroit Country Day in the D4 Finals at Ford Field. Mallory would lead the Vikings back to the post season in 2021 winning another 2 games before falling to Unity Christian. 2021 concluded his tenure at Cadillac and he made the skip down to Spring Lake last season. In 2 full regular schedules at Spring Lake, he is 10-8 with a 7^th place and a 3^rd place finish in the OK-Blue. 2023 is his 1^st playoff appearance with the Lakers.

Sources indicate Coach Mallory has changed very little from his Cadillac days in terms of scheme.

 

SCHEME

The Lakers have a quarterback who can chuck it. Junior QB Reid Grimmer can use his legs to run and to extend passing plays, and he can throw on the run with accuracy. The yardage of these throws can push 35+ yards without him setting his feet. He has Senior wide receivers Jackson Lemmen and Colin Burt who work down field for chunk plays.

Despite the potential passing game, the bread of butter of Mallory’s offense will be his ground game. The Lakers will use 22 or 23 personnel, which includes 2 and 3 tight ends respectively to add edge blocking for pitches and options to senior running backs Wren Dephouse, Sam Schafer, and Bryce Collins. Collins has received offers to play at Kalamazoo College, Calvin University, and Hillsdale College (reportedly).

 

The strength of the Big Rapids defense is their run stopping making for a potentially favorable matchup. Almost 73% of plays against the Cardinals were on the ground yet only 59% of the total yards they gave up were rushing yards. The front line for Big Rapids, supplemented by the team leader in tackles Senior Philip ‘Cheese’ Wilber at linebacker, worked to funnel the run game into the middle of the field and contain it. If the Cardinal edges can shed blocks and contain and the front line can continue to break through in the trenches, then Coach Mallory’s system may work into Defensive Coordinator Nathan Fricke’s scheme.

 

The weakness of the Cardinal defense has been protecting the pass. Tyler Geer of Chippewa Hills exposed this in week 5 when he bombed 2 TD passes in the 1^st quarter. One can only wonder how that game would have ended up if he didn’t get hurt in the 2^nd quarter. Alma’s Jacoby Dunlap passed 38 times for 247 yards in week 9 as well but his individual stats were over shadowed by the most dominant 3^rd quarter of the season for the Cardinals.

 

KEY FACTORS

The weather and field conditions will impact how this game is played. Vennix can throw for the Cardinals. Foster and Dubowski can catch. Grimmer can throw for the Lakers. Lemmen and Burt can catch. The weather at kickoff in Spring Lake is cloudy, no chance of meatballs, and 60 degrees which would seem neutral for both sides. But less than 200 yards from Spring Lake’s Grabinski Field is a marsh. The field is grass and struggles to drain so the conditions may remain soggy through the night.

If the weather is dry, both teams may put up some serious points. If the weather is wet, the advantage goes to Big Rapids as both teams will rely by the run game.

The key for the Cardinals will be to get off to a fast start on offense. The defense will most likely do their thing as BR has only surrendered 13 points in Q1 all season. Coach Selzer ran the ball more than 70% of the time on offense which will melt clock and force the Lakers to speed up their offense. Control of the clock, as always in a timed game, will be paramount.

 

BRACKET IMPLICATIONS

The winner of this matchup will most likely travel to Whitehall, the region’s #1 seed. The Vikings host Allendale tonight, the #4 seed in the region. Barring the massive upset, the Vikings will hot round 2.

 

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Tonight’s Big Rapids Cardinal football game versus Spring Lake will air on Big Country 100.9, at WWBR Big Country 100.9, and on the WWBR mobile app