Local Sports Journal

David Hulings delivered a “let’s get focused” speech at halftime of Wednesday night’s nonleague soccer game between his Western Michigan Christian Warriors and the visiting  North Muskegon Norsemen.

The Warriors, who took a 1-0 lead into halftime, scored two goals in the early minutes of the second half and went on to a 4-0 victory.

“We did not come out real focused,” Hulings said. “Sometimes we do that and that’s just our youth and not being ready t9 play all the time.”

Cody Thiele, Will Deur, Dylan Mines and Ben Mast scored goals for the Warriors (6-4-1).

Thiele began the scoring by hustling to a loose ball in front of the Norseman net. He chipped the ball past on onrushing Jesse Dunn, the NM goalkeeper, and the ball bounced into the goal.

Less than 1 minute into the second half, senior sweeper Alex Rop launched a long throw-in to the goalmouth and Deur was able to push the ball into the goal for a 2-0 lead.

Two minutes later, Mines, a freshman, made a strong individual move after taking a pass from Chaise Schuiteman. Mines was able to beat several defenders and moved into close range before firing the ball into the back of the net.

“We wanted to come out and the guys were working together better up top,” Hulings said.

Schuiteman also set up the Warriors’ final goal with a pass that found in onrushing Mast in front of the NM goal.

WMC had a 16-6 advantage in shots on goal.

“We’ve been making the same mistakes all year long,” Tjapkes said. “It’s just a young team making inexperienced mistakes.”

NM is 2-10-1.