NORTON SHORES – With only seven seniors on a 20-man roster, the Fruitport boys soccer team has some youth.

But with that youth comes talent, and that showed on Wednesday night in the Trojans’ 3-2 non-conference road victory at Mona Shores to open the season.

“It feels really good,” said Fruitport head coach Dan Hazecamp about the emotion after the victory. “I have a ton of respect for Mona Shores. They have a great program. So to be able to come here on the road with a young team and pull out a win, we’re really happy with it. We talked about building off of it, but it means a lot.”

Things started out shaky on Wednesday when the Trojans were called for an early foul inside the box and the Sailors were rewarded with a penalty kick.

Fruitport goalie Logan Werschem (in yellow) goes high in the air to try to stop a Sailor attack. Photo/Jeremy Clark

But Fruitport junior goalkeeper Logan Werschem stepped up and dove to make the save, keeping the score 0-0 just over five minutes into the game.

“I was super nervous,” Werschem said about the save. “I just chose my way and had to live with the decision. It came out with a good outcome and their team seemed to get tired after that. That penalty really gave us some encouragement for the rest of the game.”

Fruitport opened the scoring 15:19 into the game when sophomore Ryder Merkins scored with an assist from Brady Brown.

With just 4:37 remaining in the first half, senior Taylen Acocks scored with an assist from Isaac VanderMolen to put the Trojans ahead 2-0.

Just one minute later, Mona Shores netted a goal off a penalty kick to cut Trojan lead to 2-1, which remained the halftime score.

Fruitport enior Elijah Aldridge netted a top shelf goal 13:56 into the second half to extend the Fruitport lead to 3-1.

Mona Shores cut the deficit to 3-2 with 14:44 remaining in the game, but Fruitport held on to start the season with a victory.

Each team had five shots on the night with Werschem picking up the win while stopping three shots on goal.

“It’s going to be more committee scoring this year,” said Hazecamp about having three different players net goals to open the season. “Our attack will look a little different this year, but I think we have some different versatility which will really help us.”

Fruitport will host a quad on Saturday featuring games against Shelby and Ludington.