EAST LANSING, MI – A year ago, Hudsonville Unity Christian let a late lead slip away in a 3-2 girls soccer state finals loss to Williamston.
This year, there would be no let down, as the top-ranked Crusaders dominated for a full 80 minutes and defeated No. 10 Grosse Ile, 3-0, in Friday’s Division 3 finals at Michigan State’s DeMartin Soccer Stadium to capture their first state title since 2016 and 11th in program history.
“Pretty good; pretty good,” Unity Christian head coach Randy Heethuis said of the feeling of capturing the 11th championship in his 34 years atop the program. “It’s been a while – what since 2016 since we won the last one – and I can’t be prouder of this group of girls.
“This group of seniors, three years ago, we lost in penalty kicks in the semifinal. Last year we lost in the final, and to be able to cap it off this year with a title, I couldn’t be prouder of the girls, and we had two seniors score, so that was icing on the cake.”
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After a scoreless first 37 minutes, Unity Christian got on the board thanks to senior Stella DeSmit, who buried a shot from 6 yards out after receiving a pass from junior Emily Timmer.
Unity Christian controlled possession and tallied five corner kicks in the first half, but couldn’t quite beat Grosse Ile senior goalkeeper Cailey O’Farrell until the final minutes of the opening half, and when they did, it allowed the Crusaders to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
“To be honest with you, Grosse Ile had us a little rattled the first half,” Heethuis said. “That first half was played almost exactly like Grosse Ile wanted to play the game, and we’re flustered a little bit. It was kind of like, ‘Is that goal ever going to come? Is it ever going to come?’
“We really wanted to get the ball out wide, and we didn’t do that enough. It was too much down the middle, and their goalkeeper was really solid, but then Stella getting that goal for us allowed us to just take a deep breath, and then continue to go at it in the second half.”
Although Grosse Ile struggled mightily to generate offense, a one-goal lead didn’t put Unity Christian in the clear, and the Crusaders only needed to look back at last year, when they let a 2-1 lead slip away in the final 10 minutes of their 3-2 championship-game loss to Williamston.
Fortunately for the Crusaders, their pressure was rewarded 10 minutes into the second half, as sophomore star Ava Lutke launched her team’s seventh corner kick into the box, where senior center back Brianna Rose got her head on the ball and put it past O’Farrell to take a 2-0 lead.
“It’s definitely reassuring being up two goals, rather than one, and I think it allowed us to play more peaceful and more chill,” Unity Christian senior Jenna Schreiber said. “That really helped us out.”
Schreiber added more insurance six minutes later, when she received a short pass from DeSmit and placed a shot inside the far post and past O’Farrell’s outstretched arm.
Senior goalkeeper Morgan Scholten didn’t need to make any saves to log Unity Christian’s sixth clean sheet in six postseason games, making the Crusaders the 11th team in state history to log at least six shutouts in a single tournament.
“That’s a very defensive-minded Grosse Ile team, but we didn’t give them any looks the entire game, and I think that’s a credit to all three defenders (Brianna Rose, Ella Bosscher and Kirstin DeKock) and our goalkeeper, but also to our entire team,” Heethuis said. “We just play team defense, and when we don’t have the ball, we want them to defend, and I think that’s one of the keys to our success.”
Unity Christian outscored its playoff opponents 35-0 and allowed just eight goals all season, which ranks 28th in state history.
“It’s our defense and how strong and connected we are as a team and how we just keep talking,” Scholten said of the keys to the shutout streak. “I give a lot of credit to our defenders for their ability to get the balls out and not letting the forwards get in deep.”
With its 11th state title, Unity Christian (21-1-2) moves within one of the state-record 12 held by Madison Heights Bishop Foley, and though Heethuis has been at the helm for each, he credits his players for getting the job done.
“It’s all about the girls and what they do, and I’m extremely privileged to be able to head this operation up, but great players make my job really easy,” he said. “I can’t say enough about those kids, and I’m going to guess that at the end of this game, there were a few tears of relief because they rode that No. 1 ranking for almost the entire season, and they had a big target on their back, and the thing we always talked about was this was a goal to get here, and then finish it off, so I’m extremely pleased with them being able to do that.”
Grosse Ile wraps up its season at 17-3-4 and graduates six seniors from its first state finals appearance in program history.
“It was a great senior class,” Grosse Ile coach Kyle Esperance said. “Obviously, Natalee Kirk up top led our team in scoring with 35 goals. She had a couple moments today where you were able to see her quality, but the chances were so few and far between that you weren’t able to get a real picture of how good she is.
“My other seniors, they worked so hard. I have Mia (Pascuzzi) in the middle, who kind of lead the team mucking it up and organizing the middle, center back Delaney (Arndt), who did a great job, and Sofia (Pinkowski) out wide, and then Cailey (O’Farrell), who played the game of her life in goal. I put in another one, Gwen (Mehall), in the second half, and she works hard and has a great attitude.
“They’re great leaders out there, they work hard, they’re quality on the field, and I’m glad we were able to get over the hump and make it this far, but obviously, we would’ve loved to win it, too.”
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