Panthers bite back in overtime

Thu, May 22, 2008

A tie versus West Ottawa Wednesday would have given the Grand Haven varsity girls soccer team the outright O-K Red Conference championship.

But the Buccaneers refused to settle back into a defensive shell and play for a tie, instead pushing forward throughout Wednesday's O-K Red Conference tournament championship game.

That aggressive mindset, which helped the Bucs go unbeaten in league action this spring, backfired 8 minutes and 54 seconds into the first overtime period as the visiting Panthers scored on a breakaway, giving West Ottawa a 1-0 victory in the championship game of the O-K Red Conference tournament.

West Ottawa's victory forced Grand Haven, the regular-season league champs, to share of the conference title with the second-seeded Panthers. The Bucs beat the Panthers earlier this month, 3-2.

The set-back was a painful pill to swallow for Grand Haven, which dominated the game but just couldn't find a way to put one past Panthers' goalie Katie Overway.

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"When you have that many chances, you have to put one away," said Buccaneer coach Cor Damhuis, whose team held a 3-to-1 advantage in shots on goal. "We knew they were going to try to do a fast break, and they did. We took a chance moving our sweeper forward, and they bee-bopped it over the top and made us pay. When you play a fast team, a good team, things like that are going to happen."

Sweeper Evan Creswell, arguably the Bucs' top defender, was pushing forward to contribute on offense, leaving Grand Haven's defense shorthanded. West Ottawa's Ashley Holmes made them pay as she sent a pass to teammate Jen Kuipers, who streaked past the Bucs' defenders for a one-on-one breakaway with Grand Haven goalie Katie Malnight.

Malnight, who had already stopped one breakaway earlier in the game, came off her mark to challenge the shot, but Kuipers calmly placed a left-footed shot past the oncoming Malnight and into the net, setting off a wild celebration by the Panthers' players and coaches as they battled back to earn a share of the league title.

"She's pretty crafty," Panthers' coach Larry DeLeon said of Kuipers. "I just felt we were really relaxed going into overtime because we've been there before. I felt the momentum was with us going into overtime.

"(Grand Haven) is a great team, and they play on this surface very well. Even though they were possessing very well, I was happy with the way we picked them up inside the box."

Damhuis gave credit to Kuipers for having the composure to put the shot past Malnight.

"They did a nice job of splitting the defense and they caught my sweeper in a forward position instead of a defensive position," Damhuis said. "Then she was able to put a shot past our goalie, Katie Malnight, who is outstanding in breakaway situations."

Grand Haven suffered several bumps and bruises throughout the physical contest. Center midfielder Laura Terry limped off the field and sat on the sidelines for several minutes in the second half after a slide tackle. A few minutes later, the Bucs' second center midfielder, Aliina Weykamp, took a cleat to the leg and was down on the field for several minutes before being helped off the pitch.

Both players eventually returned to the game.

The loss snapped an 11-game winning streak for Grand Haven. The Buccaneers will look to start a new streak next week Wednesday as they host Muskegon in the opening round of the Division 1 district tournament. In other first-round games Wednesday, Rockford faces Grandville at 5 p.m. and Mona Shores takes on Jenison at 7 p.m. Hudsonville received a bye and will play either Mona Shores or Jenison on May 30. The district championship game is May 31 at 1 p.m.

"After the game, one of our captains said, 'We had 11 wins in a row. Let's get this one loss out of the way and go undefeated the rest of the way,'" Damhuis said.

NOTE: According to the Grand Haven athletic department, the girls soccer team's last O-K Red title occurred in 2002, not in 2000 as previously reported.