MUSKEGON TWP. – Sometimes in sports, things just go right for a team, and that’s exactly what happened to give the Spring Lake boys soccer team its second straight Division 2 district championship on Thursday with a 4-0 victory over Fruitport at Reeths-Puffer High School.
Nobody would have predicted a four-goal difference in the game between two heated rivals that are both state ranked and split a pair of games earlier in the season.
But Spring Lake did everything necessary to claim an easy win and move on to regionals.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Lakers head coach Jeremy Thelen, whose team lost to Fruitport in the regular season, then got even in the O-K Blue conference tournament. “Sometimes you just have those games where things fall perfectly for you. Tonight was one of those.
“We came into the conference tournament game against Fruitport angry we had lost the first time. Tonight I emphasized to the guys that they’re going to be angry at us. So we had to match that intensity in the first few minutes.”
The Lakers did just that, and quickly got the upper hand when senior Keegan Fritsche scored the first goal to give the Lakers a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute of the game.
In the 30th minute, Fritsche took a corner kick and directed the ball inside the box, where fellow senior Porter Saunders headed it in to extend the lead to 2-0.
“I like it a lot,” said Fritsche about being a catalyst for the Laker offense. “I want to do a lot for the team and keep it going, since it’s our senior year.”
The final goal of the first half came when junior Conrad Bush was denied on a penalty kick with about a minute left. However, a Fruitport defender entered the box early, resulting in a re-try for Bush.
Bush was stopped once again on his second shot, but grabbed his own rebound and found the back of the net, giving Spring Lake a 3-0 halftime lead.
In the second half, Bush capped off the scoring by netting a goal in the 52nd minute.
Fruitport had a chance to score on a penalty kick with 2:47 left in the game, but Spring Lake’s third-string sophomore goalkeeper Ettienne Wallis made the save, sealing the shutout.
Spring Lake outshot Fruitport 7-5 on the night. The Lakers’ starting goalie, senior Aidan Parker, made three saves in the shutout victory.
Both Bush and Fritsche enjoyed winning a district championship, along with taking down archrival Fruitport.
“It’s fun,” said Bush. “We lost the first game, and topping it off by winning the series 2-1 is nice.”
“We just came to win,” Fritsche said. “We heard what they were saying in the news (about beating Spring Lake) and we weren’t having it. It motivated us a lot. It gives you fuel.”
Fruitport finished the season with a 13-3-3 record, and will probably be strong again next year, because the Trojans will only lose six players to graduation.
“Tonight just wasn’t our night,” said Trojans coach Dan Hazekamp. “We didn’t execute some of the ways we typically have, and Spring Lake is an excellent team. But we had a great group of seniors and we’ll bridge the gap and continue to take this to new levels with 16 underclassmen on the team.”
Spring Lake, now 15-2-3, will face Grand Rapids Christian in the Division 2 regional semifinals at Cedar Springs on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
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