MONTAGUE — Montague measured up well against a tough Fruitport squad Friday, battling the Trojans to a 0-0 tie despite being without three starters.
Montague (10-5-2) entered the game shorthanded on offense because of an injury to forward Ella King and the move of fellow offensive force Lilly Rice to the defensive end to cover for Elle Moran being out sick. While those absences kept the Wildcats from getting a major offensive push, defensive focus helped keep the Trojans out of the net.
“I felt like we played too much defense, but our defense did do a very good job today,” Montague coach Chris Aebig said with a chuckle. “They rose to the occasion. Abby Dyer and Anna Woller, those guys were so strong for us. Grace (Reavey) was on the outside, she was playing well for us.
“Lilly said, ‘I’ve never played defense before,’ but I told her in the postgame, ‘You wouldn’t know you’d never played defense, because you played such a great job back there.’ All of those guys protected each other. They communicated well.”
While Fruitport is not a high-scoring team, it entered the game 3-0 against West Michigan Conference foes, including second-place Ludington, so for the Wildcats to play the Trojans to a draw was a solid result.
Fruitport came close to scoring two times in the first half, sending shots wide left on each occasion, but keeper Claire Aebig maintained a clean sheet. In the second half, with previous starting keeper Addison Pranger nursing a tender ankle, Aebig moved Pranger between the posts, and she maintained the shutout with some help from strong defense.
“This is a big game for us - every game’s a big game - but at the end of the day, districts are what’s most important, so we need to put people where they need to be to get them healthy for that district run,” Aebig said. “Claire did a great job for us in the first half and Addison did a great job for us in the second half...I’d love to see a little more offensive attack, but at the end of the day, we didn’t let anything in between our pipes, and we had some scoring opportunities as well, so you can’t ask for more than that.”
The Wildcats earned the #2 seed in the upcoming district tournament opposite top seed Fremont. Montague was set to face Fremont Wednesday in a potential preview of the championship matchup.
“I want to see what we have,” Aebig said, looking forward to his team’s first crack at Fremont. “I feel like we can beat anybody. These girls, when they play their game, they keep their shape and they do what they know how to do and play their aggression, they’re going to run with anybody. We also know that Fremont is somebody we could see later.”
