SPRING LAKE – The high-flying Fruitport boys soccer team had a possible trap game in its district tournament opener on Wednesday night.
Not only were the Trojans playing their rival Spring Lake, in a matchup where you can always throw out the records, but they were also playing on the Lakers’ turf field, which has given them a lot of trouble in recent years.
Fruitport forward Quincy McDaniels was not the slightest bit phased by the Lakers or the playing surface, however. The junior speedster lit up the scoreboard with a hat trick, leading the Trojans to a big 3-1 victory in the quarterfinal round of the Division 2 district tournament.
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Fruitport, despite fielding a team with a lot of first-year varsity players, improved to 16-1-3 on the season.
The Trojans will now play the winner of the Allendale-Coopersville game in next Wednesday’s district semifinals, again at Spring Lake, with the survivor advancing to the championship game on the following Saturday.
“He’s a problem (for other teams) and he’s a dude,” Fruitport head coach Dan Hazekamp said about McDaniels, who has been scoring a lot lately. “He was a little snake-bitten early on this year. He was getting good looks, just not finding the net, and I am proud of him for battling through it. It was a good night for him.”
Hazekamp was proud of his entire team for going into the always difficult environment at Spring Lake and keeping its season alive.
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“Spring Lake has been playing really good soccer, and their record is misleading,” the coach said about the Lakers, who had an unusually sub-par season. “We knew we were going to have our hands full tonight, coming into this environment with a younger team.”
“I am proud of our guys for responding to the adversity and playing through it. We found a way to manufacture some stuff to earn another week of soccer.”
The Trojans set the tone early when McDaniels took a pass from Jyles Smith right in front of a wide-open net and tapped it home, less than two minutes into the contest.
The game remained 1-0 for most of the first half, before Spring lake’s Ben Zimmerman scored with just under eight minutes left, knotting up the score and giving the home team some hope.
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The Trojans came storming right back, however, pulling ahead for good with just over two minutes left in the first half.
McDaniels took a pass just as he passed a lone Laker defender, broke through toward the Spring lake net and scored, giving the Trojans a 2-1 lead at halftime.
“I got a good ball over the top,” McDaniels said. “It took a good touch to slide it past the keeper.”
The Lakers had a big scoring chance five minutes into the second half, but Fruitport goalkeeper Sebastian Sweet stopped a shot from going in near the right pole with a diving save.
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The Trojans closed out the scoring three minutes later when McDaniels tallied his third goal by popping in a rebound following a shot by Roger Camp.
“If you would have told me what our current record would be, with 17 kids that had never played varsity soccer before, I would have said you were crazy,” Hazekamp said. “The bar that has been set for these guys, and the tradition that paved the way for these guys, is something they have lived up to. They believe that they belong.
“We have unrealistic expectations for them, but they are growing and continuing to push themselves to reach those new heights.”
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