GRAND RAPIDS – All streaks must come to an end, and sometimes not in a pleasant way.
The Fruitport girls soccer team had been on an impressive six-game winning streak over the past month, without giving up a single goal.
That ended abruptly on Monday, however. The Trojans, competing without a few injured players, were a bit overmatched in a 3-0 loss to NorthPointe Christian in an O-K Silver conference showdown for first place in the standings.
[1]
[2]
With the loss, Fruitport falls to second place in the conference with a 3-1 record while NorthPointe Christian sits in first with a 4-0 mark.
The Trojans are 7-3 overall on the season.
Before Monday, Fruitport had not given up a goal since March 27 in a 1-0 loss to Spring Lake. The Trojans had outscored opponents 23-0 since then.
It didn’t take NortPointe very long to end that run, however. They scored just 22 seconds into play when Stella Oviatt found the net to give her team a 1-0 lead.
[3]
[4]
Oviatt extended the lead to 2-0 in the 22nd minute when she scored her second goal of the night.
The score remained 2-0 at halftime with NorthPointe Christian holding a 6-1 edge in shots on goal.
“It kind of takes some wind out of your sails,” said Fruitport head coach Kyle Hall about the rough start to the contest. “But that’s kind of the game. We’ve got to keep playing because we still had a ton of game left. But we just didn’t put it all together tonight.”
[5]
[6]
In the second half, Oviatt took a corner kick and got the ball to teammate Grace Post, who made it 3-0 about nine minutes into the action.
Fruitport was able to control play a bit more after that, ultimately outshooting NorthPointe Christian 2-1 over the rest of the game, but the Trojans could not get on the scoreboard.
In total the Trojans were outshot 8-3 on the night.
[7]
[8]
Fruitport will hope to get back to its winning ways on Wednesday when it travels to Calvin Christian for another conference matchup.
The Trojans are also hoping to be healthier
“We were missing some players with injuries today,” Hall said. “We had a few others pushing through, so we had to switch some things up. But it’s just one game. Hopefully we can get to see them again in the conference tournament. They’re obviously a great team and a great program.”
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]