Local Sport Journal
It doesn’t happen very often, but it did on Saturday morning at Warrior Field.
The Western Michigan Christian Warriors captured a lopsided 5-1 soccer victory over rival Muskegon Catholic Central. The one-sided victory was a rarity in a series that usually ends up in a one-goal outcome, one way or the other.
In the teams’ previous meeting at Muskegon Catholic, WMC won in a shootout.
But on Saturday, the Warriors went on a three-goal scoring binge in the span of just 2:14 to gain quick control of the game.
Ben Mast scooped up a loose ball and scored with 34:06 left in the first half with assistance from Eli VanderVelde. While Will Deur did not assist on the goal, it was his hard work along the right sideline that made the whole scoring chance possible.
Just 21 seconds later, senior Chaise Schuiteman fired a low shot that found the back of the net. Matt VanderPloeg assisted.
The third goal, which came less than two minutes after the second goal, was scored by Deur with an assist from Schuiteman.
“We’ve been injured so much we haven’t been able to play as a unit very much,” WMC coach David Hulings said. “Attacking in the beginning of the year, you don’t score a lot of goals. We just got everybody back healthy and there are starting to understand everyone’s roles.
“And hopefully we’re going to be ready by tournament time,” Hulings said.
In the latter stages of the first half, WMC went up 4-0 when Mast found freshman Dylan Mines running free toward the Crusader net.
The Crusaders got on the board less than 7 minutes into the second half on a header goal by Erik VanFossen.
However, it took the Warriors just 3 minutes to answer that tally. A corner kick bounced around in front of the Crusader net. Schuiteman popped the ball in front and senior Alex Rop headed the ball past MCC goalkeeper Connor O’Neill, who is playing in place of injured keeper Todd Hall.
WMC had an 18-5 advantage in shots. Christian Rogers was the winning keeper for WMC (8-7-1).
