In addition to a district championship and regional final appearance, Spring Lake’s boys soccer team picked up a couple more pieces of hardware this week.
CEDAR SPRINGS — On a different night, Spring Lake might have been celebrating. Slight underdogs coming in, the Lakers hung in against a strong East Grand Rapids team and pretty much matched them for 80 minutes.
As a handful of fall sports continue their state tournaments, it meant a lighter Tuesday for the sports still in their regular seasons.
CEDAR SPRINGS — At the later stages of a state tournament, a goal saved can be worth just as much as a goal scored.
NORTON SHORES – Lulo Mafahla likes the United States a lot.
A busy Thursday mixed with some MHSAA news early Friday:
Spring Lake took on Reeths-Puffer for the fifth straight postseason, and won 3-2 in overtime. Although the Rockets made a staggering comeback to tie the game in the last four minutes, Ben Bush scored with 2:44 left in overtime to win the match.
FRUITPORT — Spring Lake was nervous and cramping late in their overtime with Reeths-Puffer.
FRUITPORT — Junior goalkeeper Aidan Parker generally has no reason to leave his penalty box. It's a safe place for goalies.
Volleyball, swimming and soccer teams were all in action on Thursday night, with a mixed bag of results in store.
FRUITPORT — Reeths-Puffer has now knocked out local boys soccer teams in consecutive years, as they beat Fruitport 3-1 on the road Thursday night in an opening-round district game.
GRAND HAVEN TWP. — If there was a team Grand Haven probably didn’t want to see in its district opener on Wednesday, it was probably Rockford.
There’s been a touch of adversity for local boys soccer teams as they prepare for the state playoffs, which kick off Wednesday.
SPRING LAKE TWP. — It hasn’t been too often that Spring Lake soccer has had to tighten up and play defensively. Usually, they’re spending their second halves adding to a lead.
GRAND HAVEN TWP. — Even at this late stage in the season, there is still a little work to be done for Grand Haven soccer to replicate their district title success from a year ago.
It was a busy Tuesday of local high school sports action, as all four schools had teams in action.
SPRING LAKE TWP. — The Spring Lake boys soccer roster for 2020 remained largely the same from last year’s group. That’s definitely a positive – last year’s team went undefeated in conference play and did so in dominant fashion.
Thursday saw plenty of action across the board ahead of a pair of Homecoming football games.
FRUITPORT — Until Thursday, there had been just one other Erny Field anywhere across the globe, and longtime Fruitport Ken Erny knew about it.
Just a handful of local teams were in action on a wet, windy Wednesday evening.
GRAND HAVEN TWP. — The Grand Haven boys soccer team slid into third place in the O-K Red on Tuesday with a comfortable 2-0 win over West Ottawa.
A busy Tuesday of local prep action featured all four schools.
Results and more from a light Monday of local prep sports:
Plenty of local teams were in action on Thursday, with wins on the soccer field and in the pool for a handful of area programs. Results and more from Thursday’s loaded slate of competition:
SPRING LAKE TWP. — There’s a good chance Fruitport and Spring Lake boys soccer will get a couple more opportunities to play each other this year.
Spring Lake's junior varsity soccer team hosted Fruitport on Wednesday, with the Lakers coming away with a 2-0 victory in the rivalry matchup.
FRUITPORT — A pair of identical set pieces made the difference for Fruitport soccer on Monday night, as they recovered from a first-half deficit to tie Coopersville 2-2.
Most weeks during a normal fall season, football is the only thing going on a Friday night. With schedules compressed by COVID-19 delays, that might not be the case every week this time around. A handful of different events took place across Friday and Saturday.
GRAND HAVEN TWP. — After two close matches to start their conference season, Grand Haven soccer got the win they were looking for on Thursday night in a 3-0 home win against Caledonia. Joey Fischer scored two first-half goals before Emarrean Banks finished things off a couple minutes after h…
Wednesday was a day of practice for most area teams, but those that did had excellent weather for play.
Monday is not always a busy day on the calendar, but with the compressed schedules brought about by delays at the start of the season, there was plenty of action to be found.
GRAND HAVEN TWP. — One thing about the pandemic’s timing was that it wiped away the club seasons of a handful of sports. Volleyball and soccer teams often use the spring and summer to travel and compete.
Thursday was as normal a night on the high school schedule as we’ve seen in months. Soccer, swimming and volleyball matches were all part of a busy night, along with the fall sports that had a full start to their seasons.
Wednesday marked the official start of the season for a handful of area teams. While many of them weren’t in action until Thursday evening, a handful of sports were in play on a cool Wednesday night.
FRUITPORT — After weeks of uncertainty, the O-K Blue soccer season finally got underway on Wednesday.
Western Michigan Christian boys soccer opened their Division 4 state title defense at home on Tuesday, with a 4-0 win over Manistee serving as its first game action since November.
Grand Haven’s cross country season is still young, but it’s about to get a lot busier.
Following a new executive order from Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday, the MHSAA has reinstated football into the fall sports calendar.
NORTON SHORES — Western Michigan Christian has plenty of positive momentum, even at a time where that’s tough to come by.
A meeting of the MHSAA’s Representative Council Friday yielded little change to current guidelines governing play for boys soccer, volleyball and girls swimming.
Social distancing restrictions in the state of Michigan may be the only thing separating players and fans from a high school soccer season.
Those awaiting good news on the fate of three fall high school sports – boys soccer, girls swim and dive, and volleyball – will have to wait a little longer to find out if they can face opponents this fall.
Try as they might, they just couldn't get it done.
Generally, a multi-sport athlete has a good chance at winning Spring Lake’s Len Fase Award for the top male and female Lakers of the year. That would have been the case again this summer, as award winners Zach Keyser and Phoebe Saunders had plans for big senior seasons in their spring sport …
GRAND HAVEN TWP. — Graduation party season has become another rite of passage for teenagers across the country.
GRAND HAVEN TWP. — Even as the state starts to slowly open up, it would be very tough to justify hosting a large outdoor event like a semi-professional soccer match.
Ben Buursma had always kept an eye on the coaching job at Western Michigan Christian.
While the spring sports season for Michigan’s high-school athletes was taken away by the coronavirus pandemic, there is still plenty of hope that the fall will be able to go on.
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