MUSKEGON — Reeths-Puffer certainly wanted to win Wednesday’s season opener against returning Division 2 runner-up East Grand Rapids, but coach Kody Harrell looked at the matchup as “a win-win” for his team.
“You either surprise people and turn some heads and win the game or you get to play a very quality opponent,” Harrell said after the Rockets took a 4-0 defeat. “We get some high-level film to grow off of now, and that’s a win for us.
“I’m a competitive guy. I’m playing to win every game, but there’s a difference between expectations and goals. The expectation is not to beat a team like EGR right now with this youth. The goal is to (beat them), because we believe in the talent...But we’re young, and playing under the lights in a big game like this in your first high school game is something you’ve got to get used to.”
The Rockets were a veteran group last year, led by experienced stars like Sophia Hekkema, Billie Tryska, Ava Klopp, Brooke Bradley and several others. Those players have graduated, and in many cases it’s not yet determined who exactly will replace their production - nor was it expected to be this early.
“Our big slogan this year is to compete by committee,” Harrell said. “We’ve got a committee of girls. We’ve got four or five girls that we’re going to be leaning heavily on. Jaslynn Kops and Ashlyn David gave us some amazing minutes up there as freshmen. I think those are some girls that’ll be putting the ball in the net as the season goes on. Ashley Bradley’s a sophomore. Abby Hill’s a sophomore. Those are some girls that started the game at the striker and left winger positions. Those four girls, along with a handful of others, they’ll be scoring some goals this year. But I just listed four underclassmen.”
Despite the inexperience - 11 of the 21 players on Wednesday’s roster were playing their first varsity games - the Rockets showed some exciting signs of things to come, mainly in their grit. While EGR largely controlled play and generated more scoring chances, R-P was largely equal to the task of turning them aside. Of the Pioneers’ goals, one came on a 40-yard lob shot that would’ve been hard to defend under any circumstance, another was a penalty kick after a foul in the box, and a third came completely by accident - an attempted cross that instead somehow sailed into the net. The first goal came directly off a corner, with Madeline Horenziak heading it in - a sign of the team’s inexperience, with Harrell ruefully noting that the team focused on defending corner kicks all week in practice.
Still, that the goals were the results of either flukes or correctable mistakes was, in its way, a reason for optimism. The Rockets were not outclassed; they did in fact create a few chances of their own late. They just aren’t the complete versions of themselves yet.
“Being in D-1, the whole goal is not going to be the record or where we sit in the conference,” Harrell said. “It’s going to be, are we truly playing our best soccer come the middle of May?”
A key factor in that will be the play of keeper Sara Carlson. Harrell said the sophomore Carlson won an open competition to replace four-year keeper Klopp. She has huge shoes to fill, but Harrell saw bright spots from her too.
“Sara’s done a great job,” Harrell said. “She was amazing (in our scrimmage) on Saturday, and we know she’ll make those saves and she’ll continue to get her bearings and get situated and get comfortable. She had a lot of other good saves tonight, too, that she came out (to get) that they could’ve easily scored on.”
Things probably don’t get much easier; Harrell said this year’s schedule might be the most difficult he’s seen since coaching in the girls program. However, he’s looking forward to seeing how the team grows together over the course of the season.
“For me it’s just to continue to see that growth, continue to see them playing with the passion and love for the game that I know they have,” Harrell said. “The wins will come. The goals will come. Losing to East Grand Rapids by four is not the end of the world, because there’s going to be a handful of other teams that probably lose to them by three or four as well.”
