Earlier in the season the Fruitport soccer team was pretty good, but not good enough to beat an outstanding Hudsonville Unity Christian squad.

The Trojans lost that game 4-2 on Sept. 11, and nobody was really shocked.

Forward to Wednesday, when the two teams had a rematch in Hudsonville in the semifinal round of the O-K Blue conference tournament.

Unity Christian came in with a 15-1 record and a No. 2 ranking in the state. But the Trojans showed up with a sense of confidence they didn’t have a month ago, sparked by a six-game winning streak and a seven-game shutout streak.

Just like in a good movie script, the upstart Trojans pulled off the upset, beating Unity Christian 2-0 on a pair of second-half goals. It was their seventh straight win and eighth straight shutout, dating back to a 0-0 tie against Reeths-Puffer on Sept. 16.

Fruitport, now 14-2-2 on the season, will visit Holland Christian on Monday in the O-K Blue championship game. Unity Christian and Holland Christian are the only two teams to beat the Trojans this season.

Fruitport Coach Dan Hazekamp admitted that his team is much improved since the last time it played Unity Christian.

“I would say there are some qualities that have been maintained, like our unselfishness and hard work, and I think we have continued to improve with positioning and tactical adjustments,” Hazekamp said. “I think the boys did a really good job of executing the plan we had in place tonight.”

The game was scoreless until midway through the second half when Isaac VanderMolen found the net to give the Trojans a 1-0 lead.

Jorge Burgos-Yack sealed up the victory with a goal with about 12 minutes left. He was assisted by goalie Logan Werschem.

Unity Christian had a 10-6 advantage in shots on goal, but Werschem and the Fruitport defense turned in another great performance and kept yet another opponent from violating their net.

“He stood tall,” Hazekamp said about Werschem. “Our back line was lights out again, too.”

With so many things going well for his team, Hazekamp said it would be easy to sit back and be impressed – but the players are not ready to celebrate their accomplishments quite yet.

“Early on we knew there was a lot of great potential with this team,” the coach said. “There are times when you think, we’re just very proud of them for what they have done, but the page is quickly turning and the guys are looking for the next one.

“We will celebrate our accomplishments at the end. In the meantime we are really just focused on getting better each day.”