The Rockford Rams were a bit too much for West Ottawa to handle Friday night as the Panthers fell to 0-3 with 33-23 loss.

West Ottawa made a game of it and kept unbeaten Rockford on its toes. The Rams pulled away in the second half when they capitalized on quality field position to push their lead from seven points to 19, and that was too much for West Ottawa to come back from.

The teams traded punts to start the game. Rockford faced fourth and two from the West Ottawa 27-yard-line, when Zak Ahern hit Calvin Kibbie on a short hook to pick up the first. Kibbie shed a tackle and was off to the races for a 27-yard touchdown.

West Ottawa tied it on the next drive when quarterback Jake Zimmer scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 7-7. Rockford immediately erased that momentum with a 70-yard shovel pass from Ahern to Alex McLean, who was in motion across the formation and went all the way from behind the line of scrimmage. The score was 14-7 to end the first quarter.

That’s also where the half would end, with the Panthers down seven. West Ottawa had two drives go deep into Rockford territory in the second but couldn’t punch either in.

The Panthers also played strong defense throughout most of the contest. Rockford made it 26-7 with two quick scores in the third, but due to a short punt and a blocked punt, Rockford started those drives on the West Ottawa 33 and the West Ottawa 17.

Ahern scored on a 7-yard run, and then hit McLean on a short pass where McLean took it 16 yards for the score to put the Panthers down 19.

West Ottawa answered with a long drive that culminated with another 1-yard score by Zimmer to make it 26-15. The Panthers had a chance to stop the Rams in West Ottawa territory on fourth and four, but the Rams converted. They then turned to the shovel again with Ahern hitting Shawn Sims for a 21-yard score to make it 33-15 with 10:18 to go.

The Panthers drew within 10 on a 5-yard passing touchdown from Zimmer to Blake Bosma with 2:07 remaining in the game, but couldn’t recover the onside kick to keep their chances alive.

Zimmer had a huge game, throwing for 196 yards on 23-of-44 passing, while also carrying the ball 19 times for 87 yards. Bosma had 15 catches for 142 yards in another strong performance.

Eli Permasang led the team with six tackles.

West Ottawa falls to 0-3 on the season. The Panthers are in action next week against Grandville (3-0).