Imlay City’s Brady Redd grabs ahold of a North Branch ballcarrier in last Thursday’s BWAC clash.
IMLAY CITY — Imlay City absorbed a 52-7 loss to host North Branch in a Blue Water Area Conference varsity football encounter last Thursday night.
With the decision, North Branch moves to 1-1 and 1-0. Imlay City slips to 1-1 and 0-1.
In Thursday’s encounter, North Branch jumped out to a 15-0 advantage after one quarter.
The middle two quarters saw North Branch amass 30 total points and Imlay City managed none, staking the hosts to a 45-0 lead with 36 minutes gone.
North Branch and Imlay City would add seven points each to their respective totals during quarter number four, leaving the former with a 52-7 victory to celebrate.
A Matt Evans to Kade VanderPloeg 85-yard touchdown pass (followed by a successful extra point kick courtesy of Andrew Cezik) accounted for Imlay City’s points.
For the evening, Evans completed nine of 14 pass plays for 167 yards as Imlay City’s quarterback. He threw two interceptions en route to those numbers.
His successful throws went to four different targets. Their ranks featured Danny Newsom (three catches for 33 yards), VanderPloeg (two receptions for 92 yards), Tanner Land (two catches for 30 yards) and Brady Redd (two receptions for 12 yards).
The Imlay City rushing attack was held to seven yards on 15 totes.
Daniel Rojas (three rushes for nine yards) proved Imlay City’s most productive ballcarrier. The remaining 12 Spartan rushes netted a combined two-yard loss.
Travis DuPont and Newsom (six each) and VanderPloeg (five) registered Imlay City’s highest tackle outputs. They were backed by Land (four) and Redd (three).
The Imlay City defense also registered one takeaway. Land (a fumble recovery) provided that.
Imlay City will look to bounce back this Friday when it travels to Almont for a Blue Water Area Conference battle. That game is slated to begin at 7 p.m.
Kevin Kissane has been covering high school sports for the Tri-City Times since 1985. When not standing on a field or court with his camera and notepad, he enjoys golf, travel and family. Kevin is a 1980 graduate of Capac High School, and is also a grad of St. Clair Community College and earned a degree in journalism from Central Michigan University.
