Everyone around the Fruitport boys soccer program knows that junior forward Quincy McDaniels is capable of scoring a lot of goals.

It was just a question of when they were going to start coming in bunches.

McDaniels went a long way toward answering that question on Saturday, netting a pair of very early goals to provide all the necessary scoring in a big 2-0 victory over archrival Spring Lake on the Lakers’ home field.

The victory left Fruitport with a 10-1-2 record on the season. The Trojans have won three straight games and four of their last five.

“He’s lightning in a bottle for us,” Fruitport head coach Dan Hakekamp said about McDaniels.

“He’s an extremely hard worker, he had great technical skill, and he’s really quick and had a really good first step. He causes opposing defenses a lot of issues with his pace and skills.

“He’s been generating a lot of good scoring chances for us this year, but he’s been a little snakebitten here and there, with some of his shots going high and wide. I am really proud of him for finding the net in a big game. It was a great shot of momentum for us.”

Beating Spring Lake is always a big deal for the Trojans, and it’s something they have done a few times in recent years – at home, at least.

But the Fruitport boys had not beaten the Lakers on their home field since way back in 2015, so Saturday’s victory was extra fun.

“It’s been a while,” Coach Hazekamp said. “They have a great program that has produced a lot of good teams, and it’s just a hard place to win. We’ve gone in there a few times and had good opportunities, and left with close losses or ties. Even our team from a couple of years ago, that was 21-1-1, had its one tie at Spring Lake.”

The Trojans have a not of new players on varsity this year, and they took it upon themselves to go in and break the long slump.

“We have a pretty young roster, and we we talked to them about leaving their mark and doing something that a lot of guys before them had not done,” Hazekamp said. “We are proud of them for going in, starting fast and sustaining.”

McDaniels got his work done very quickly on Saturday, scoring within the first minute of the game, with an assist from Gavin Wilson, and again less than four minutes later when he deflected the ball into the Spring Lake net.

After that the two teams played to a scoreless tie, but with Fruitport’s pretty amazing defense, and solid goaltending from Sebastian Sweet (6 saves), that was good enough.

The Trojans have only given up six goals all season, and only one in their current three-game winning streak.

Coach Hazekamp saluted Sweet, the defensive back line of Hudson Hazekamp, Hayden Taylor, Conner King and Roger Camp, and defensive midfielder Cole Luker, for shutting down the Lakers, and so many other opponents.

The really amazing part is that five those six players are first-year starters, but have been playing like veteran varsity standouts.

“We decided long ago that the backbone of our program is going to be team defense, being really stingy and making it really difficult for other teams to score,” the coach said. “These guys have stepped up, embraced that mentality and done a nice job. They have continued to build on what we feel is part of our DNA and tradition.”

With the Spring Lake game in the rear-view mirror, the Trojans will not turn their attention to a pair of huge O-K Silver conference games this week, both at home, against Calvin Calvin Christian on Tuesday and NorthPointe Christian on Thursday.

Fruitport and NorthPointe Christian are both 3-0 in the conference standings while Calvin Christian is 3-1.