Soccer roundup: SL wraps up top seed in Lakes 8 tourney

Thu, May 8, 2008

Spring Lake survived a trip to Ludington Wednesday, beating the host Orioles, 4-0, to claim the No. 1 seed in the Lakes Eight Conference going into next week's league tournament.

The Lakers, now 7-0 in conference play, needed the win to remain a game ahead of the Orioles and Fruitport.

"If we would have lost, it would have been a three-way tie at the top of the Lakes Eight Conference," said Lakers' coach Jeremy Thelen. "We needed to prevent that from happening, so I really stressed to them to come out and play hard right away, and we did. We scored two goals in the first three minutes of the game."

Haley Smith scored the Lakers' opening goal, which was set up by nice passes from Tara Lesneski and Lauren Gagnon.

Literally seconds later, Spring Lake scored again as Lesneski stole the ball and fed it to Gagnon, who buried a shot from 25 yards out.

The score remained 2-0 until halftime, when Thelen scolded his team for letting up after the two quick scores.

"I told them I'm pleased and angry at the same time," he said. "I was unhappy because we let up, so we talked about having that killer instinct."

The Lakers started the second half with much more focus, and six minutes in, scored a goal as Smith got behind the defense after a punt from goalie Rachel Kilbry. She slid a nice shot past the Orioles' keeper for a 3-0 lead.

Spring Lake finished off its scoring late in the second half on Emily Clauss' corner kick. Teammate Hayley Beauregard and an Oriole defender both went up for the ball, which hit off the Ludington player and deflected into the net.

The Lakers face a lofty test tonight as they had to Hudsonville Unity Christian to take on the Crusaders, who are unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in Division 3.

Spring Lake opens league tournament action Monday at home against Grant.

JUNIOR VARSITY: Morgan Keating scored on a breakaway with under 10 seconds remaining to give Spring Lake a 1-0 victory over Ludington Wednesday. Katie Smith played a solid game for the Lakers.

TROJANS MERCY T-C

Hannah Saheb and Jamie Adams each recorded hat tricks as the Trojans overwhelmed Tri-County Wednesday, 9-1.

Rachel Hoffman, Julie Reed and Andrea Jonas also scored goals for the Trojans, who are now 7-4-1 overall and finished at 6-1 in the Lakes Eight Conference, earning the second seed for next week's league tournament.

Ashley Newmyer, Rebeka German, Kristine Harig, Shelby Gotaas, Linsye Haan and Andrea Jones each provided assists for the Trojans.

The Trojans are home against Reeths-Puffer Friday, then host Newaygo in the opening round of the league tournament Monday.

JUNIOR VARSITY: All 13 players on Fruitport's roster scored a goal in Wednesday's 14-1 victory over Tri-County.