Local Sports Journal

Dylan Mines turned his first Warrior Weekend into a memorable one on Saturday at Warrior Field.

Mines, a freshman, scored two goals and led the Western Michigan Christian Warriors to a 3-1 nonleague soccer victory over the Whitehall  Vikings.

Mines scored two goals in a first half in which the Warriors (5-4-1) had a 2-0 lead.

Senior Chaise Schuiteman, who scored four goals in Thursday’s victory over Grand River Prep, added an insurance goal with 30:57 left in the second half. Ben Mast assisted on both of Mines’ goals.

Whitehall sophomore Daniel Dubois headed in a crossing pass from Andrew Jennings in the early stages of the second half. At that time, that goal narrowed WMC’s lead to 2-1.

“I love what we’re seeing from working together,” WMC coach David Hulings said. “A lot of team stuff happened right there and a lot of people maybe didn’t see. Forwards are starting to work well together and different forwards scoring in different games.”

Defensively, the Warriors were able, for the most part, to shut down the Vikings speed up front. Seniors Alex Rop and Jacob Kempster were solid along the back line and the Warriors also welcomed back Matt VanderPloeg from injury

“Our backs are doing a real good job and we’re still down a back,” Hulings said. “I like what I saw.”

Mines scored with 13:47 remaining in the first half and again with 2:45 to go. That staked WMC to a 2-0 lead.

With slightly more than 4 minutes gone in the second half, Jennings sent a centering pass from the left wing corner that found the head of DuBois in front of the Warrior net.

Just 5 minutes later, Schuiteman unloaded with a hard, low shot from 22 yards out that found its way into the net.

“We had a very fragmented offense today,” Whitehall coach Bryan Mahan said. “Lots of nice individual or one- or two-person combinations, but we didn’t get together as a group. This has kind of plagued us with a young team.”

Whitehall is 10-3-1 and faces Spring Lake on Monday.