Laker soccer cruises in second half, beat Unity Christian

Sep. 14—SPRING LAKE TWP. — If there is hardware to come at the end of their season, Spring Lake's boys soccer team will have ACT testing to thank.

Feared by many a student, it may have given the Lakers a winning formula, which they continued with a 3-0 home victory on Monday against Hudsonville Unity Christian, the top-ranked team in Division 3.

"On Saturday, I was planning on using Porter Saunders in the back, but his testing ran long," coach Jeremy Thelen said. "So we put Link [Dephouse] back there, and so far, so good."

Two games and two shutouts are a strong string of results against any team, let alone blowouts against district rivals Reeths-Puffer and Unity Christian. Prior to Monday, the Crusaders' only loss came against Holland Christian.

It took until the second half, but the added defensive stability let the Laker attack roam free. Keegan Fritsche, Jonathon Deal and Conrad Bush added the goals for Spring Lake as they try to climb back into the OK Blue title picture.

"Early in the season, we were prioritizing scoring," senior goalkeeper Aidan Parker said. "We had all these guys up top, but now we're a little more flexible."

For the first two-thirds of their season, Parker was the one yelling direction from his position in the Laker net — instead, with Link Dephouse moved back to the defensive line, Parker hasn't had to say quite as much.

"He and I are a lot alike," Parker said. "I know I don't need to say as much, and I love having him back there."

Unity Christian tested the Lakers early, a shot from Grant Mulder skimming the crossbar and bouncing away, but for the next 70 minutes, Spring Lake had things under control. The first half ended scoreless, but the momentum from some Laker pressure led to a goal just after halftime.

Fritsche's goal came following a pass from Bush just outside of the Crusaders' penalty box. The Unity defense was a step late in blocking the senior's view of goal, and his right-footed shot found the bottom corner to open the scoring.

"We're starting to believe in each other," Thelen said. "Now guys are starting to know their roles and keep each other accountable. The other nice thing is that we've had multiple different scorers in the last few games."

After Isaac Rudd had a smartly-finished goal chalked off for offside, Spring Lake's Jack Mulder was alert to prevent a goal, deflecting a Unity pass away from an open attacker as Parker was left stranded by a pass.

The Lakers continued to threaten, but it wasn't until the final quarter of the game that they got their second. Following a goal kick, Fritsche had space to pass into, and Deal made a long run to collect the ball. His one-on-one shot hit the Unity goalkeeper in the hand but was hit just hard enough to trickle in and double their lead.

"That's a goal that should go in 90 percent of the time," Deal said. "That's how good the pass was. We're starting to gel a little bit and really work together as a team."

A second goal made the closing minutes elementary, but there was still time for Bush to score the highlight goal of the night. With seven minutes to go, he collected a pass from senior Brayden Dillon before sidestepping a defender. His curled shot flew into the top-right corner of the Unity net to add some gloss to a hard-working victory.

"They're a really solid team," Bush said of Unity. "In the second half, we just worked that little bit harder and earned the goals."

The win is a third in a row for the Lakers following their loss to Fruitport at the start of the month. They still trail the Trojans and Holland Christian by a pair of games, but the momentum will be important as they head into the second half of their conference schedule.

"Starting off 0-2 and getting these wins are huge," Parker said. "Every single one of them is just about fighting back and giving ourselves a chance to win this thing."

Fruitport heads to Holland Christian on Wednesday in a meeting of the conference's top two teams. Spring Lake hosts Coopersville on Wednesday, and will be off until a trip to West Catholic next Monday.

You can email Kyle at kturk@

grandhaventribune.com or find him on Twitter @KyleTurkGHT.