FRUITPORT – One of the ongoing storylines for the Fruitport boys soccer team this season has been young first-year varsity players maturing early and winning a lot.

So if was fitting that freshman Cam Miller turned out to be one of the big stars on Monday night.

Miller had a free kick on the right side of the field, about 15 yards out, midway through the first half of a scoreless O-K Silver Conference Tournament championship game.

His Fruitport teammates clustered around the NorthPointe Christian goal, hoping the ninth-grader could place the ball somewhere in their midst, so they could poke it in.

Miller executed the play perfectly, lofting a high kick in front of the goal, just to the left, allowing senior Hayden Taylor to head the ball past the NorthPointe goalie.

The Trojans added two more goals over the course of the game and walked away with a 3-0 victory at Doc Pierce Field to clinch the tournament title, as well as the outright conference championship.

Fruitport has now won the O-K Silver boys soccer title for three straight years – every year since it joined the conference. It finished the regular season with a 15-1-3 overall record and an 8-0-1 mark in the conference.

“I talked to one of our seniors, Hudson Hazekamp, and he told me what to do with the ball, and I delivered,” Miller, the freshman hero, said about his big play. “He told me to give them a lob right in the middle, I did it and we scored.

“I was aiming for one of  our big guys, any of them really. It was probably one of my favorite free kicks I have taken.”

Fruitport head coach Dan Hazekamp said Miller has grown throughout the season, leading up to his big moment on Monday.

“Cole has turned into one of our great service players,” he said. “He takes a lot of our corner kicks and set pieces. He has grown a lot. At first the game was really fast for him, but he has continued to develop and he’s going to be a special player.”

Coach Hazekamp admitted that, with such a young roster this season, he was not quite certain, back in August, that this was a team that could win another conference title.

Of the 24 players on the roster on Monday, there were eight juniors, seven sophomores and three freshman. A lot of people probably expected this group to come of age next season, but success has come early.

“It would be fair to say that there were question marks early on, but our young guys have really grown up, we had guys who were kind of role players step up and help us grow, and our seniors have been tough as nails,” the coach said.

“I am really proud of our coaches, too. They really poured everything they had into it. It takes a village, and I am proud of all of them.”

Fruitport came into Monday’s game with at least a share of the championship already clinched, since it finished first in the conference standings in the round-robin portion of the schedule, then advanced to the finals in the tournament.

But NorthPointe could have also earned a share of the title by beating the Trojans, and that seemed entirely possible, since the Mustangs only lost to Fruitport 1-o earlier in the season.

But in the end, the Trojans did all the damage.

Both teams had several scoring chances in the first half, with Fruitport outshooting NorthPointe 5-3.

The Trojans broke the scoreless tie with 22:13 left in the half on Taylor’s goal, set up by Miller’s perfect assist on the free kick.

Each team had one great scoring opportunity within the last 10 minutes of the half.

The NorthPointe goalie made a great diving save of a Fruitport shot, robbing the Trojans of a second goal, then Fruitport goalie Sebastian Sweet did the same thing a few minutes later, and the score remained 1-0 at halftime.

The Trojans took control midway through the second half, when junior Quincy McDaniels broke into the NorthPointe box with the ball, and the Mustang goalie came on to meet him on the play.

But instead of playing the ball, the goalie upended McDaniels, and the Trojans were awarded a penalty kick. Hudson Hazekamp then blasted the shot into the right side of the net, putting Fruitport up 2-0.

Fruitport junior Caleb Chandler put a capper on the evening with a goal with 17 seconds remaining in the game.

Meanwhile, Sweet and the Trojan defense did what they do best, holding an opponent scoreless for the 12th time this season.

Sweet ended up stopping four shots.

“Our guys in the back – Roger Camp. Hayden Taylor, Hudson Hazekamp, Conner King and Sebastian Sweet – have been playing 80 minutes a night, against really talented players on the other side, and they’ve been locking up.,” Coach Hazekamp said. “I would include Cole Luker in that mix, too.

“That’s what we do, play really good defense, then work really hard to try to manufacture goals, and this group has bought into that.”

The Trojans will not have much time to celebrate, because they will open Division 2 district tournament play on Wednesday against rival Spring Lake on the Lakers’ home field.