Grandville beats West in shootout

FROM STAFF REPORTS

September 06, 2008 12:00 am

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GRANDVILLE -- Grandville downed Traverse City West 57-35 in the highest-scoring game in Titans football history.

Both teams' defenses struggled to contain the other.

Grandville rang up 455 yards of total offense, while West had 469.

The Bulldogs ran for 369 yards, led by 167 yards on 12 carries by Chase Sherrod.

Titans coach Tim Wooer said his team was plagued by two problems -- kickoff coverage and missed tackles.

"We continually gave them great field position," Wooer said. "We'll have to regroup and get ready to play a good Kingsford team."

Grandville's Seth Hanenburg returned the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown, and a West fumble gave the Bulldogs the ball at TC's 5-yard line with 7:30 left in the game. Grandville punched it in on a Sherrod 5-yard run on its first play to go up 50-27 and virtually seal the game.

John Purdy ran 42 yards for West's first score to make it 14-7 before the Bulldogs pulled away.

Purdy completed a 42-yard TD pass to Will Kittendorf and a 27-yard scoring strike to Jon Flynn with 52.6 seconds left in the half to draw within 42-21 at halftime.

Cody Scheuerman's 21-yard run with 0.3 seconds left in the third made it 42-27. Purdy added a 19-yard TD run with 4:08 remaining.

Purdy ended with 84 yards rushing and 210 passing, while Flynn added 75 rush yards and Scheuerman had 70.

Craig Wilson led the defense with six tackles and Jordan Michaels had a fumble recovery.

The previous most combined points in a West game was 79, occurring twice -- once in a 41-38 win over Grand Haven in 2005 and again in a 42-37 win over Jackson in 2004.

TC West (1-1) won the JV game 41-14.