Warriors Advance 3-0

Charlie Alfree puts the Warriors up 2-0. Photo By Randy Riksen, LocalSportsJournal.com

Fremont’s Byrne delivers 2 assists in regional win

And then there were 8.
After putting together an outstanding regular season that included a Lakes 8 title West Michigan Christian has torn through the tourney leaving no prisoners in their wake.
Four games and four shutout victories for the Warriors and Tuesday the Norsemen of North Muskegon became the latest team to be blanked 3-0. The win left WMC as one of 8 teams remaining in the hunt for a state championship, a quest that continues on Thursday  when they face Calvin Christian at home in a match that is scheduled to begin at 7pm.

Warrior Coach David Hulings:
“Tonight was such a great game and our boys came together in harmony.  We have been playing with such unity and passion for the last couple of weeks and are gelling at the exact right time.  The captains have worked hard all season to bring this group into a band of brothers and that hard work is really paying off right now.   

“The scoring started on one our first set pieces of the game in the ninth minute,. Brevin Byrne sent a great ball to the back post.  Our senior captain, Brandon Fles, went for the header and it skimmed past him. He then hit a shot going away from the goal, twisting, turning and placing the ball in the top of the net.  After coaching this game for over 30 years, I thought I had seen everything. That was the most amazing shot I have seen and only Brandon can move his body the way he did to make that shot. 

“That one goal led stood for most of the half until we made a bad defensive error in their box and gave away a well earned PK by North Muskegon. Jamison Goorman made a huge save on the PK that was not just a save to keep NM off the board, it seemed to solidify our resolve to keep the sheet clean.   

“In the second half, we didn’t seem to want to score and did a lot of protecting a 1-0 lead until the 21st minute when Brevin got another assist by sending a nice ball into Charlie Alfree.   Charlie did a great job of simply finishing simple, but placing his shot well, something Charlie has been working on all season.   

“The last goal came in the last minute of the game.  Owen Varnado did a great job of not allowing their team to stage for a long flighted ball out of their defending third.  His hard work and left footed cross was put away by Alfree for Charlie’s second goal of the game. Charlie got the goal and made the nice run to the back post, but Owen did a lot of hard work to simply disrupt their distribution of the ball.   The young sophomore did a great job to finish off our game.”

Standing in the way of a trip to the semi-finals in Kentwood to face the winner of the Dansville/Kalamazoo Hackett contest are the Squires of Calvin Christian.
This will be a classic matchup of two strong, state ranked  programs as #1 Calvin makes the trip into Warrior country to face #4 WMC.   

“We look forward to the challenge, added Coach Hulings. “ They have great speed and great confidence and have allowed only 8 goals all season while scoring over 80.”
“We will have to bring our best game to keep this run going.
The Warriors are now 16-2-3 on the season.