By Randy Gregory, Michigan Sports Radio
Photo courtesy of Miles Postema
Cartoonist Walt Kelly coined the famous phrase “We have met the enemy and he is us” more than 50 years ago. That saying has never been more applicable than what has befallen Rockford in two of their first three games in the 2026 football season. Rockford committed three turnovers, gave up a touchdown on a kickoff return and had a punt blocked in an uneven performance that saw the Rams fall to 1-2 on the season and 0-1 in OK Red play.
After committing a litany of errors in their opener against Saline, the Rams showed what they were capable of last week as they rolled to an easy win over Muskegon. But rather than building on that momentum, it was more of the same mistakes from the opening loss at Saline against Caledonia on Friday, September 11. It should have been an omen that tough times were in store for Rockford on this night when they fumbled away their opening snap on offense. Caledonia capitalized on that mistake with a short drive and a 23-yard field goal to take an early 3-0 lead.
Rockford had a quick retort in this instance as Casen Whitford hit Owen Holt on a 33-yard crossing route to give Rockford a 7-3 lead after the first of two Connor Vanos extra points with 5:43 remaining in the opening quarter. That was the only time the Rams held the lead all night. The ensuing kickoff was taken all the way back by the Fighting Scots for an 85-yard TD that gave them a 10-7 lead just 13 seconds later. Rockford was then forced to punt and the resultant kick was blocked to set the Fighting Scots up at their own 46. Eight plays later it was a 16-7 Caledonia lead following a five-yard scoring pass. The PAT was wide right and the game stayed at a 16-7 margin.
After another Rockford punt, Caledonia responded with their only long drive of the evening to go up 22-7. The drive was an eight-play 78-yard drive that culminated in a 22-yard TD pass on fourth down and three. The Rams rallied at that point to make a game of it over the final six minutes of the first half. Ryan Kerry did the honors for Rockford at both the 3:43 mark and the :51 second point of the second quarter on runs of one and three yards respectively. The Rams went for two on the last score in an attempt to tie the game but came up just short.
The Rams entered the break trailing by that 22-20 score but were going to receive the second half kickoff and had momentum on their side. But after reaching the Fighting Scot 35 on their first possession, they eventually punted and pinned Caledonia at their own three. But holding penalties on consecutive plays put them behind the sticks and the turnovers began to pile up. A Ram interception gave Caledonia the ball at the Rockford 17 before Ben MacIntosh returned the favor for Rockford with a leaping interception of his own in the end zone to keep the score at 22-20. Rockford then threw another pick on the first legal play from scrimmage to give Caledonia the ball again at the Ram 5. But after stifling the previous Caledonia effort deep in Ram territory, the Fighting Scots made it a 28-20 game two plays later. The PAT again was wide and it was still a one possession game at 28-20.
The Rams again rallied and moved all the way to the Caledonia eight before having to settle for a 26-yard Vanos field goal to make it a 28-23 game with 10:26 left in the contest. Rockford did get the ball back with a chance to take the lead but turned it over on downs at their own 31-yard line. The Scots again took advantage of a short field to score another TD from nine yards out to make it a 35-23 game and pretty much seal the contest.
“We have collectively got to get back to taking care of the football as a team,” said Rockford Coach Brent Cummings. “We can’t just point fingers at one guy, because we had issues with protection to go along with the turnovers. Our preparation needs to get better even though we thought we were ready coming into today. We will get back to the film room and work on the things we need to and be ready to go next week.”
