NORTON SHORES – The Mona Shores girls soccer team was already pretty good, even before Shay Norden became more comfortable and started scoring a ton of goals.

Now the Sailors are downright dangerous, with a lethal weapon up front who can find the net at any given time.

Norden, a sophomore in her first full season of varsity soccer, showed a lot of promise in the first six games, scoring seven goals.

But she’s really turned it on in the last 11 games, scoring 14 goals to help the Sailors reach the brink of a conference championship.

Mona Shores and Zeeland West tied for the O-K Green title in the regular season, so the issue will be decided in the conference tournament.

The Sailors opened the tournament with an 11-0 win over Wyoming on Tuesday, and will host Reeths-Puffer on Thursday in the semifinals, with the winner advancing to Monday’s championship game.

The winner of the tournament will be the outright conference champion.

Norden has good memories of her team’s first game against Reeths-Puffer this season, when she scored twice to help the Sailors down the Rockets 5-0.

She’s had a total of eight multi-goal games, including three-goal hat tricks against Jenison, Grand Haven and Grand Rapids Union, two goals against Wyoming in two different games, as well as two goals against both DeWitt and Fruitport.

With production like that, it’s surprising that Norden did not play on varsity for her entire freshman season, but Mona Shores had several seniors who scored a lot, so she wasn’t called up until late in the year.

“She was a 20-plus goal scorer at the JV level, and it got to the point where we just had no choice but to call her up,” said Mona Shores Coach Dylan Darga. “She earned that. She absolutely dominated on the JV team.”

Darga knew his team would be good this year, but wasn’t sure who the big scorers would be, so Norden’s emergence has been huge for the Sailors, who are currently 11-4-2 on the season.

“Coming into this year we had to figure out who was going to fill that role,” the coach said about finding goal producers. “At first we sort of did it by committee, and it’s still kind of that way, but Norden has really asserted herself. She’s done a wonderful job of being that presence for us on top.

“I think she just kind of found her role. She figured out the kind of system we play, and how to use her natural ability within that system. She’s really come a long way.”

Norden’s biggest physical gift, according to Darga, is her speed. She can outrun just about any player in any game, which is a huge advantage when it comes to getting open for scoring chances.

“We use GPS technology, and she has reached 19.6 miles per hour, which is by far the fastest I’ve ever seen,” the coach said. “Of course just having speed, without any control or poise with the ball, will not bring much success, but she has both.”

Norden said her speed is a genetic gift from her mother, who was a track standout at Central Michigan University.

“My mom is super fast, so I think it’s just kind of there,” Norden said. “I’ve always had speed, and I have learned how to control it with the ball.”

Norden said doing so well as a sophomore, and playing on such a good varsity team, has been a lot of fun. She said she gets along very well with all of her teammates, including the upperclassmen, which has helped her adjust to the varsity level.

“I actually work super well with the seniors,” she said. “That’s another thing that helped me gain confidence. They have all been really nice and we connect really well together.”

Norden says she is hoping the Sailors can get past Reeths-Puffer on Tuesday and possibly earn a rematch with Zeeland West in the conference tournament finals.

Mona Shores and Zeeland West tied 1-1 in the regular season, and the Sailors went away feeling they could have done better.

“I don’t think we played our best game,” Norden said. “We scored in like the first five minutes then kind of slowed down. We’ve definitely grown a lot since then.”