FRUITPORT – The Fruitport soccer team was more than ready to snag a victory, after coming home empty-handed last weekend from the season-opening Boyne Mountain Invitational.

Their determination was obvious on Tuesday, when the Trojans came out flying in their first home game and waltzed to a 3-0 non-conference victory over an always-good Ludington squad.

The Trojans improved to 1-3-2 on the season, which seems odd for a team that went 20-1-1 last year and advanced to the state quarterfinals.

With many of the same players back from that great team, some people were probably surprised to see Fruitport struggle out of the gate.

But the tough opening weekend was kind of what head coach Dan Hazekamp had in mind. He said he purposefully got his team scheduled into the Boyne Mountain tournament, playing a bunch of really good teams from around the state, to toughen the guys up a bit.

It’s good to remember that losses can happen, after a full season with only one of them.

“To be honest, I told the guys last April that I scheduled this tournament for them to lose games,” Hazekamp said. “We were playing teams that win state titles, and we want to compete against really good teams.

“The scores looked one way, but to be honest we were a few minutes, or an opportunity here or here, from coming home 3-1-1. But I got a pretty good idea what these guys are made of, and I knew that they could handle it.”

That being said, Hazekamp was very happy with what he saw on Tuesday, when the Trojans controlled the ball for most of the evening, got some timely goals, played good defense, and had solid goaltending from the team’s new keepers.

“We had a really good session yesterday at practice, we transferred that onto the field tonight, and it was good,” the coach said. “Ludington is a good team.”

The Trojans kept the ball in the Ludington zone for most of the first half, and while they didn’t have a ton of shots on goal, they kept creating opportunities until the goals finally game.

All three goals came before halftime, starting about seven minutes into the game, when Ryder Merkins nailed a shot from outside the box that found the back of the net.

Fruitport scored again with 14:13 left when Carter Gregor was taken down inside the box, was awarded a penalty kick, and drilled his shot home to make the score 2-0.

The final goal came with 4:09 left in the half when Jorge Burgos Yack launched a long shot that snuck into the left corner of the net.

It was the first goal of the season for Burgos Yack, an All-Stater who led the Trojans with 18 goals last season, but went scoreless in the five games at the weekend tournament.

“Up north he was a little bit snakebit,” Hazekamp said about Burgos Yack. “He had some shots that I couldn’t believe didn’t go in. It was good to see him find the back of the net tonight.”

Ludington mounted more of an attack in the second half, outshooting the Trojans 4-1, but couldn’t get on the scoreboard.

Fruitport goalies Mason Kettel and Sebastian Sweet combined for the shutout, making several tough saves and stopping eight Ludington shots over the course of the game.

Kettell played the first half and the first part of the second, before being relieved by Sweet.

That was a good sign for the Trojans, who had to replace All-State goalie Logan Werschem, who graduated in the spring.

“They were very composed, vocal and leading in back,” Hazekamp said about the goalies. “It was a good effort. Overall there were spans of time tonight when we had good efforts across all three areas of the field. That’s a really good sign.”

The Trojans will host Cedar Springs on Thursday in another non-conference game.