TONTOGANY — The Hutton brothers dominated on the first football Friday of the high school season as Otsego rag-dolled Bowling Green, 41-7.
“We know how much the community is going to support football here,” said Otsego head coach Craig Rutherford, “and we wanted to make sure we represented our school and community in a good way. One of the ways we could do that is by coming out and playing hard and giving them a good show.”
The first home game of the year for the Otsego Knights proved to be a memorable opener. With the stands full of black and orange, the Knights defense got to work early, forcing a Bowling Green punt.
On Otsego’s initial drive they marched straight down the field. Capping their first offensive possession of the year with running back Keeghan Hutton punching it into the end zone. A missed extra point put the score at 6-0 and would remain that way at the end of the first quarter,
After a promising BG drive was halted by an illegal motion, Otsego got the ball back at midfield and went straight back to work. The Knights implored a heavy run attack, working into opposing territory. Hutton took a handoff from 18 yards out and made a nice cut to the outside, finding the endzone again. His second score put Otsego up 13-0 with 7:20 left in the second.
On the succeeding Bobcats drive, they seemed determined not to be put away. Bowling Green’s running back Ja’ceous Shannon split the Knights defense for a 40-yard touchdown scamper. Inching his team back into the game and making it a one score affair (13-7).
“We had a lot of respect for how explosive their running backs were,” said Rutherford. “Everything was geared this week on making sure that they had to earn everything they got and not break off the explosive play.”
Good kick-off coverage by the Bobcats pinned their adversaries deep in their own territory.
With the momentum of the game up in the air, Otsego quarterback Kaidyn Hutton found his brother on a bootleg pass. Keeghan caught the ball in the flat and streaked up the sideline for an 86-yard touchdown, thanks to a few key blocks downfield.
Going into halftime the score was 20-7—Otsego.
With the Knights’ ball at the start of the halftime, a roughing the passer call on a long third down kept Otsego’s offense churning. Then a late hit by Bowling Green near the goal line allowed Otsego’s Keeghan Hutton to add another touchdown to his already running tally. This stretched Otsego’s lead to 26-7.
“Him (Keeghan Hutton) running like that really opens things up. It’s just great, hard to stop, he balled tonight,” said senior quarterback Kaidyn Hutton regarding his brother’s performance.
Trailing by 19, BG was faced with a big fourth down. A pass play with promise and a ball sure to be caught was batted to the gridiron by Otsego’s Mason Kramer. His defensive play motivated his offense, for he scored on a wide sweep the very next drive after a few solid runs from Hutton put them in the redzone.
BG’s next drive ended with an interception by freshman Dane Fatzinger. Kramer’s second score on the ensuing drive put the nail in the already buried coffin.
With many games left in the young season Bowling Green head coach Shawn Kiss had this to say following the loss. “They came out and were more physical than us all night. We told our guys they were going to come out and hit us in the mouth and sure enough. We have to be better, we didn’t execute. We just have to go back to the drawing board and figure it out for next week.”
From the very first snap Otsego dominated the line of scrimmage both offensively and defensively. They held the Bowling Green offense to just 124 yards of total offense.
While Keeghan Hutton ran superbly it was his offensive line who was springing holes all night. He finished with four touchdowns (three rushing, one receiving) and was well over 100 yards on the ground.
“The first win is great, it sets the tone for the whole season. There’s been a lot of new changes, so coming out here and doing things well really boosts morale,” said Kaidyn Hutton. “We have high expectations from now on. If it isn’t great we don’t want it. There’s a lot of big games coming up and we’re ready to go out there and compete.”
Both teams are set to be back in action next Friday. Otsego will travel to Tinora to take on the Ramsm while Bowling Green will have their first home bout against Fostoria.
