Soccer roundup: Unity extends streak at SL's expense

Fri, May 9, 2008    to del.icio.us

Spring Lake tried to put an end to Hudsonville Unity Christian's 90-plus game unbeaten streak Thursday night, but came up short in a 3-0 loss to the Crusaders.

Unity, which has one tie (against Grand Rapids Christian earlier this year) and has won three state championships during the streak, scored two goals in less than a minute just prior to halftime. They're now unbeaten in 98 straight games.

"Right before halftime, a ball was played into the box, and their girl played it down with what appeared to be a hand ball," said Lakers' coach Jeremy Thelen. "She scored off it, and about a minute later, Laura Heyboer intercepted a pass back to our goalie and she scored on a breakaway."

Heyboer is Unity's star player who owns the state record for career points.

Unity scored again in the final 20 minutes for the final margin of victory.

"The first half, we played in our defensive half, but we played well," Thelen said. "Down 2-0 at halftime, we just really stressed keeping up the intensity. We adjusted in the second half and we got some attacks. Unity's a good team, and they play hard. We didn't have many scoring chances."

Thelen hopes the game serves as a valuable learning experience for his team, which enters next week's Lakes Eight Conference tournament as the top seed.

"I can't tell if this game was a success until later. Can we match that intensity and keep playing at that level? If we can, then playing Unity was a good thing," Thelen said.

The Lakers host Grant Monday in the opening round of the league tournament.

WARRIORS ROLL

Junior Liz Portenga scored a hat trick to propel Western Michigan Christian to a 6-0 conference win over Hudsonville Freedom Baptist Thursday at Warrior Field.

Portenga found the net three minutes into the game, Chelsea McAllister added a penalty kick and Breanna DeWind scored to give the Warriors a 3-0 lead at halftime.

Portenga added two second-half goals and Erin Knochenhauer finished the scoring for WMC. Lisa Sorensen had two assists.

Sam Kammeraad posted the shut out for the Warriors, who out shot Freedom 36-3.

WMC (6-4-3, 6-1-1 River Valley Conference) faces an important week next week as the Warriors travel to league foes Muskegon Catholic Tuesday, a team they tied earlier in the season. WMC then heads to North Pointe Christian Thursday, the team that gave WMC its lone league loss.

The Warriors finish the week with a non-league game at home against Fremont.