MUSKEGON – Daniel Morgan is only 18-years-old with another year of high school remaining, and has never played much soccer above his age level before.

But the Holland Christian High School goalie stood tall when his first big chance came with the Muskegon Risers last Friday, then played even better on Sunday.

Now the Risers have reached the National Premier Soccer League semifinals and will host Seattle-based Crossfire Redmond on Saturday at Oakridge High School at 7:30 p.m., and Morgan will be back between the pipes.

If the Risers win and earn a berth in the league championship game, there’s every reason to believe that Morgan will start in that game, too.

Just to be clear, the NPSL is a coast-to-coast, 96-team semipro league, and most of the players are college-aged or older with tons of skill and years of experience against elite competition.

Crossfire Redmond, according to Risers head coach Stu Collins, is a “huge club from Seattle, with a high-level youth club and men’s and women’s teams at the top – it’s a pretty storied club.”

Stopping Crossfire sounds like a big assignment for an 18-year-old high school kid, but Collins is perfectly comfortable with Morgan guarding the goal.

“To be honest, I haven’t even thought about it,” Collins said. “He’s gonna play and that’s it. All the boys trust him, and I trust him. He’s a big presence – about 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds – he’s been coached the right way, and he’s got a good level of game intelligence.”

Morgan, for his part, is taking the challenge pretty much in stride.

“It makes me a little nervous, but I’m just real excited to play,” he said. “I try to think about it as just another game.”

Morgan comes with very solid credentials for a goalie his age. He earned Division 2 All-State honors at Holland Christian after his sophomore and junior seasons and has played a lot of big games in several different states for Midwest United, a travel team based in the Grand Rapids area.

He recently joined the Michigan Rangers, a travel club managed by Collins, and will play his first season for that program beginning in November.

A few weeks ago, when regular Risers goalie Mason Maziasz went down with a forearm injury, Collins added Morgan to the roster, although he didn’t dress or see any game action.

But when the playoffs rolled around last Friday, and the Risers had to play a tough Duluth FC squad in the Midwest Region semifinals, Collins gave him his first start, ahead of Akani Miyambu, another young goalie who played several games in Maziasz’ absence.

“I was pretty surprised, but it was an awesome opportunity,” Morgan said.

Morgan got off to rough start against Duluth, giving up two goals in the first few minutes of the game.

He came out of the goal at one point to play the ball, but a Duluth player zoomed in, stole it, got behind Morgan and scored an easy goal.

A few minutes later Duluth had a long free kick from about 40 yards out, and the ball somehow found its way past the defense and Morgan and into the goal.

Coach Collins wasn’t rattled by the early goals. He said the first mistake was one that any goalie could make, and the second was the result of poor preparation by the entire team.

“We didn’t start the game well enough as a team,” Collins said. “We didn’t protect him. The second goal was not his fault. He was trying to organize the line. We weren’t quick enough getting organized defensively, and they took the free quick quickly and caught everyone off guard.”

What impressed Collins was how Morgan mentally processed the early errors, pulled himself together and stood tall for the rest of the game, keeping Duluth from scoring again.

Meanwhile the Risers roared back, scoring twice in the first half to tie the game, then adding three goals in the second half to take a 5-2 victory.

“On Friday, I told him that he learned more in those 10 minutes than he ever would have learned in 100 training sessions,” Collins said. “That was a baptism by fire. He had to show character and resilience, and he did. It would have been so easy to fold in that situation.”

Morgan was even better on Sunday in the regional championship game, when he registered a shutout with three saves and the Risers beat defending regional champion Cleveland 1-0.

“On Sunday he made zero mistakes,” Collins said. “Down the stretch when they made counter attacks, he was coming out among the men and collecting balls above his head. He made good decisions with the ball and supported the attack.”

After the game Morgan was named the Risers’ “Man of the Match.”

“I’ve been in a lot of big games before, but nothing quite like this,” Morgan said a few minutes after Sunday’s game. “It’s awesome. I never would have thought it.”

He said getting the team honor after the game surprised him, “but I was pretty excited about it. It’s a pretty good achievement for such a big game.”

Morgan mentioned that his parents left for a trip to Italy on the day he learned he would be starting in the playoffs, and said he’s been keeping them updated by text. That means they haven’t been around to see their son’s greatest soccer challenge to date, but Morgan thinks they will be just fine.

“They left on Thursday and I told them about it by text,” he said. “They’ve seen a lot of my games throughout my life, though.”

Now the team is headed for the national semifinals in its first year in the NPSL, and Morgan will remain in goal as the Risers try to pull off a stunner and win the league title.

That’s because Maziasz, a standout during the regular season, remains injured and is not likely to play another game this season, Collins said.

“It’s close to his college season,” the coach said. “He’s focusing on trying to be ready and fully healthy for that. It’s his senior year at Saginaw Valley and he wants to be 100 percent. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t play him, and risk further injury, if he wasn’t 100 percent, anyway.”

That puts a ton of pressure on Morgan, but he doesn’t sound worried when you ask him about the league semifinals.

He admits that the NPSL players are “physically bigger and stronger than anyone I’ve played against,” but said the opportunity came up so quickly, he really hasn’t had much time to worry about it.

He’s just a calm kid who’s determined to react to whatever next challenge is put in front of him.

“I’ve played a lot of soccer in my life, but I’m definitely excited about this,” he said. “It’s just all happened so quickly. I was asked to play and then suddenly there were these two big games.”