By BUTCH HARMON
The Lowell football team has had some outstanding players over the years, but none have accomplished what senior fullback/linebacker Josh Colegrove did this season.
When the Red Arrows came from behind to defeat archrival East Grand Rapids 30-25 in week 3, Colegrove became the first Lowell football player to have played on teams that defeated East four times.
“Josh is a four-year starter, and he never was on a team that lost to East Grand Rapids,” Lowell coach Noel Dean said. “Not one other kid ever can say that.”
Colegrove totaled six tackles and recorded a sack against East while leading the Red Arrows’ defense and also providing strong blocking on offense.
He has been part of some memorable games against East, as three of the four match-ups in which he played were decided by fewer than 10 points.
“It’s been a lot of fun playing against East,” Colegrove said. “We’ve had a lot of close ones that have come down right to the end. Every game has been tough, especially the ones here [East]. You just have to stay mentally strong. We had to stay strong as a team. On defense we had to all meet up at the ball.”
Red Arrows running back Max Dean also came up big in the East game. He scored all 30 Lowell points, as he ran for four touchdowns and scored three two-point conversions. He scored the final eight points with just over 59 seconds remaining in the game.
“We are real proud of Max,” Coach Dean said. “He made a lot of good plays out there. We had a lot of players really step up out there.”
Junior quarterback Ryan Stevens, the latest in a long line of outstanding Lowell quarterbacks, is beginning to establish his own legacy. He connected on 14 of 34 passes for 243 yards against East Grand Rapids and led his team on a 52-yard scoring drive with less than three minutes remaining. He has passed for over 200 yards in three of Lowell’s first four games this season. In the season opener against Canada Prep Academy, Stevens completed 10 of 15 passes for 248 yards. A week later against Chicago Hubbard, he connected on 7 of 13 passes for 147 yards and three touchdowns. He was 13 of 25 for 205 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 40 yards in a week four win against Reeths-Puffer.
“Ryan has been doing a nice job,” Dean said. “He’s hanging in there. Our receivers are also catching the ball and the running backs are running hard.”
Few teams in the state can say that they played a team from another country and a team from another state in the first two weeks of the season like the Red Arrows can. Lowell’s reputation as a football juggernaut has something to do with that, but playing teams from different areas is no problem for the Red Arrows.
“They are all football teams,” Dean said. “It doesn’t matter what planet they are from. I have no idea why teams don’t want to play us. We have sure tried. You just have to go and ask them.”