The Eagles charted a flight path across the state on Friday as they traveled to Mumford High School in Detroit for a non-conference matchup with a tough and athletic Mustangs squad. After a lengthy bus ride, a downpour during warmups, and a lightning delay the GR Christian team was a bit slow out of the gate.

Mumford used physical line play and a grinding running attack to march down the field on the opening drive of the game - 14 plays long that resulted in a three yard touchdown run. Responding quickly, the Eagles needed only 5 plays to answer with an 11 yard pass from Derrek Dykema to Brian Hunter. The remainder of the first half went back and forth, with the Eagles turning the ball over in the red zone and Mumford adding another three yard touchdown run to take a 12-6 lead into halftime. 

The second half was all Columbia Blue & Black as the boys from GR Christian came out of the fog when Adam Sarjo scored a safety on a bad snap and then Ace Thomas put the Eagles in the lead for good with a 8 yard scamper. A drive lead by Junior Ronin Russell-Dixon in the fourth quarter put the game on ice when running back Buddy Hogan found the end zone from one yard out.

Dykema threw for 155 yards with a touchdown en route to completing passes to seven different receivers. The dangerous trio of backs - Ronin Russell-Dixon, Ace Thomas, and Buddy Hogan - split equal carries to tally 166 yards on the ground collectively. The defense was paced by Aidan Bremer with 10 tackles while tenacious nose guard Kanye Elliot pitched in 2 sacks of the Mustang QB.

In the end, the Eagles overcame adversity and navigated a different routine to come away with a hard-fought victory en-route to pushing their winning streak to 3 games. The playoffs begin this week as GR Christian welcomes a physical and well-coached Wayland team to Eagle Stadium on Friday evening at 7:00 PM.