Friday, Aug. 31: Zeeland West @ Zeeland East

This one will no longer have O-K Green implications, as realignment finds Zeeland East in the O-K Black. But that shouldn’t minimize the emotional investment when these next-door neighbors hook up.

Defending Division 4 state champion West scored 58 points in its season opener with Forest Hills Central … and lost, by a point. That’s the msot school has ever allowed and particularly amazing considering in 2011 the Dux allowed 185 points — in 14 games. For its part last week, East rolled up up a 63-28 win over Holland Christian.

Both teams obviously had some silly stats from that one. East ran for 497 yards running behind senior center Andrew Bouwman and senior left tackle Patrick Banks. Junior all-state candidate Spencer Viening scored four TDs , Josh Blauwkamp two and QB Michael Custer two. For West, QB Jordan Lambert handles their renowned wing-T offense and ran for three TDs against Forest Hills Central while their two running backs, Braden Werley and Marcus Lambert, combined for 294 rushing yards.

If West’s defense doesn’t grow up a lot in the week after their first loss in over a year, it could be a rare win for the Chix in this rivalry. The Dux lead 5-2 since the series started in 2005.