By Brendan Samuels
LocalSportsJournal.com

HART – Things got out of hand quickly in Hart’s boys soccer home opener on Monday as the Pirates fell 7-0 to Suttons Bay.

Putting a cohesive unit on the field has been somewhat of an issue for head coach Joe Gilbert to start this season. Most of that is growing pains from graduating nearly the entire starting lineup from last year, but poor attendance during summer conditioning certainly didn’t help.

“You can see (the inexperience) all across the pitch,” Gilbert said. “Guys aren’t understanding where they need to be and we only have four defenders right now. On top of that, our only senior didn’t have his physical done by the time the season started. I did more conditioning for them in the summer than I’ve ever done before and only five guys showed up which means we have to make soccer a priority now rather than in the summer and do a lot more work during the season.”

Photo/Brendan Samuels

The lack of unity was on display to start Monday’s bout with Suttons Bay. A mixture of little to no communication on the field and some heavy legs dug the Pirates into a deep hole in the first half.

It took the Norsemen just over three minutes to work their way through Hart’s defense and notch the first goal of the game. Two minutes later, they did it again – catching junior keeper JJ Bizon out of position multiple times.

For the next 20 minutes, Hart was able to keep Suttons Bay from increasing the bleeding. That was in big part due to the play of junior captains Adan Cruz and Tyler Larios-Mendez. Both were effective in the midfield, but were unable to carry the load and set up scoring opportunities for younger players around them.

Suttons Bay opened the scoring back up with nine minutes left in the first half, spelling the end of Bizon’s day in net. Sophomore Miguel Escamilla was called on in replacement, recording seven saves on the night. That didn’t stop the Norsemen from adding their fourth and final goal of the half nearly a minute later.

“They were at least talking when we beat Muskegon Catholic Central, but today we were flat footed and not talking. We got shell shocked in the first five minutes,” Gilbert said. “The way we played in the first, we should’ve been mercy ruled in ten minutes.”

After a wake-up call in the halftime huddle, the Pirates seemed to enter the final four minutes with some spring in their step. There was an obvious shift in effort level, leading to more aggressive play.

“We told them, we’re at home and these fans are showing up for us. We need to show up for them and at least make it hard for Suttons Bay,” Gilbert said. “We wanted a response and they showed it to start. We saw a better team performance in terms of stopping goals.”

Any shift in Hart’s mindset had a damper quickly draped over it, though, as Suttons Bay struck again, just two minutes into the second half. The deflated Pirates fought to stay competitive, but the Norsemen added another goal at the 15-minute mark and then junior defenseman Carter Ramseyer had an unlucky deflection bounce into his own net to put the Norsemen in front 7-0.

The contest crawled to a close after that, but Hart’s work didn’t end there. The entire Pirates’ squad could be seen lining up by the goal, where they did plenty of running.

“We’re going to be conditioning throughout this week,” Gilbert said. “We’re going to hammer defense and learn how not to stab. We have a tough conference, it’s no joke. If we show up like this against Ludington, Montague or Whitehall, we’re not going to play a full game.”

The Pirates will begin their conference schedule at 5 p.m. next Monday when they host last year’s WMC champs, Ludington.

Photo/Brendan Samuels