WHITEHALL — Whitehall finally shook the North Muskegon hex of the
past few years Monday night with an impressive showing in a 2-1 victory
to open West Michigan Conference action.
The win was a result,
in part, of the Vikings' approach to the early season. Whitehall knew
the Norsemen would be its first league opponent, so it scheduled three
top foes for mid-August to get itself ready for the challenge. All of
those games - Fruitport, Allendale and Mona Shores -were losses, but the
approach paid off.
"Those are two Division 2 schools and a
Division 1 school," Whitehall coach Adam Prince said, noting the trio's
combined record is 11-3 so far. "We
tried to see if we could boost up the beginning to get us ready to play
this game, because they've had our number for quite a
few years now, and we wanted to get the tide turned back to our table."
The
heat - temperatures were above 80 degrees at kickoff, necessitating two
hydration breaks during the game - probably kept the Vikes (1-3, 1-0
WMC) from deploying the speed advantage they felt they had on the wings,
but ball possession was strong for most of the first half. An early
goal by Mason Mulnix, less than nine minutes into play, was a big
confidence boost.
"That helped my morale out through the rest of the game," Mulnix said. "Every single time I
get a goal, it helps me build up my intensity and helps me throughout the
year."
Whitehall's possession only improved throughout the
first half, and it cashed in with 5:43 left before halftime when Ian
Hinze fed Mulnix a terrific centering pass that created an easy tap-in
for Mulnix and gave Whitehall a 2-0 lead at the break.
The
Norsemen were awarded a penalty kick on a foul in the box and scored on
it early in the second half, but couldn't capitalize on it. As the
second half progressed, they began attacking and creating scoring
chances, but the Viking defense kept any of those opportunities from
being clear shots at the goal. Prince credited Keegan Frees, who had a
pivotal slide tackle on the defensive end late in the game, and Royce
Freed with clearing the ball aside several times before the Norsemen
could seriously threaten keeper Andon Palmer.
"The best way to say that is we weathered a giant storm," Prince said. "They brought
everything they had to try to tie it up. We
didn't do our best job of clearing the ball out of there, but we did
just enough to not give them any clean looks. I don't think they had a
clean shot on goal for the last 10 minutes. They had a lot of
opportunities, but never got anything clean to
look at.
"It makes Andon's job a lot easier, and Andon's playing out of his mind.
He's had four good games. He gave up four or five goals (each of) the first
two games, but he
still made probably 37 saves."
Mulnix credited the team-wide
chemistry for the cohesive offensive attack Whitehall was able to put
forth. The Vikings returned almost their entire roster from a year ago.
"All of our goals are a team effort," Mulnix said. "Every single time the ball comes
from the defensive end to the
forward. It's not just our offense up there. Those great passes have to
come from the midfield. Those great passes to the midfield have to come
from the defense."
