FRUITPORT – It was sort of an odd night for the Fruitport soccer team.

The Trojans beat Whitehall 5-2 on Wednesday in their home opener and improved their record to 4-0 in the young season.

Any way you slice it, four wins in four tries is pretty good.

But the Trojans also gave up two goals, something that hadn’t happened in quite a long time.

Last season they drew a lot of attention for going 13 games without giving up a single goal. That streak was not broken until they lost 1-0 to Grand Rapids Christian in the Division 2 regional finals.

Before Wednesday, Fruitport had not given up two goals in a game since September 11 of last year, when they lost 4-2 to Hudsonville Unity Christian.

Allowing the goals was not what bothered Trojans coach Dan Hazekamp, however.

It was more how his team seemed less than at its peak at times throughout the contest – maybe even a little lethargic.

That didn’t sit well with Hazekamp at all.

“Credit to Whitehall and their goalkeeper,” Hazekamp said. “We had a lot of good opportunities (to score), but then I thought we got kind of stagnant and played kind of uninspired for a while, for large amounts of time.

“I don’t think it was our best overall effort.”

Fruitport blitzed Whitehall with 10 shots on goal in the first half and could have taken a commanding lead, but a bunch of great saves by the Vikings’ goalie left the Trojans with a 2-0 halftime advantage.

The second half was much more even, with Whitehall outshooting Fruitport 9-8 and scoring both of its goals.

The Trojans answered with three more goals to secure the win, but Hazekamp was not very impressed when it was over.

“I’m not going to put it just on the defense,” Hazekamp said. “From front to back, for whatever reason, it wasn’t all there tonight. We talked about making sure we are accountable and stay humble. We know that if we take nights off, bad things are going to happen.”

Early on it seemed like the game might end early due to the mercy rule.

Fruitport’s Ryder Merkins opened the scoring with a goal less than a minute into the game, after taking a pass from Jorge Borgos Yack.

Satchel Norwood found the net for the Trojans about midway through the first half, giving the home team a 2-0 lead.

The Trojans had lots of other quality shots in the first half, but the Whitehall goalie, whose number was not listed on the roster, was jumping and diving all over the place to make save after save.

Borgos Yack, the Trojans’ small but fast and acrobatic junior forward, scored about 15 minutes into the second half, putting Fruitport up 3-0.

Then the game got a little wild, with three very quick goals and very little defense on either side.

Whitehall’s Keegan Frees scored with 14:53 left in the game, making the score 3-1.

Fruitport’s Braylon Richards scored just 17 seconds later and the score was 4-1.

Whitehall’s Carter Burrous scored just 23 seconds after that, pulling the Vikings within two, then the Trojans wrapped things up with a goal from Isaac VanderMolen with 4:34 remaining.

After the game, Coach Hazekamp talked about moving on to the next contest and getting a better effort from his team.

The Trojans will visit Belding next Tuesday in their very first game in the new O-K Silver conference.

“Hopefully we can come out with a little more purpose and focus and play a full 80 minutes,” Hazekamp said. “We’re 4-0, which is a great start, but we’ve set the bar very, very high for this group. We’re playing against opponents, but we’re also playing to a standard.

“We’re going to find out more. I expect that everyone will prepare accordingly (to play next week). Hopefully we can come out and be ready to roll.”