Montague soccer sneaks away with 1-0 rivalry win over Whitehall

MONTAGUE — Montague students stormed the field to celebrate a dramatic 1-0 Wildcats' win over rival Whitehall Wednesday night, the team's seventh straight win and fifth in the West Michigan Conference. Halfway through the league schedule, the Wildcats are undefeated.

It's a position the program has never been in, which a happy coach Brandon Mahoney said makes it "a scary spot to be. Exciting, but scary."

Montague (10-2, 5-0 WMC) earned it by holding off a relentless Whitehall offensive attack for the final 20 minutes of the game. While keeper Robby Smith was never in serious danger of giving up a goal, it was only high-stress defense and Smith's own aggressive play that kept Whitehall out of the net.

"Robby, for a kid that has never played keeper until this year, came to us from football, (and has been) a phenomenal keeper," Mahoney said. "I wish we could have him four more years. It's been an amazing year."

The 'Cats scored the only goal of the game in the first half when Trevor Trevino, who again drew all the defensive attention, found enough daylight to feed teammate Javari Aldridge with a great crossing pass, which gave Aldridge a relatively easy tap-in goal. It was sweet redemption for Aldridge, who missed a similar chance in the team's previous win over Orchard View.

"He made the right choice," Mahoney said of Trevino. "That's what a good striker and good leader does. He made the right choice up top to pass that ball to Javari. We gave (Javari) a little bit of grief because he missed an open look at OV and shot it high, and today he buried it in the back of the net."

While Whitehall came out on the short end of the scoreboard, coach Adam Prince continued to be impressed with his squad's effort, especially given the situation. Senior star Mason Mulnix suffered a broken hip late in the Vikings' loss to Ludington Monday, almost certainly knocking him out for the season. Emotions were high among both Mulnix and his teammates, who all wore "All In for #5" on their wristbands.

Mulnix' loss is not only emotional, but practical; he was among the league's top scorers, and left Whitehall without an established go-to guy on offense.

"You put him up there, it's probably a whole different ball game," Prince said. "Now they're trying to play for him, and to not be able to finish, they're high school kids so they take it more emotionally than we as adults do, because they're still trying to learn. I appreciate the fact that they give that much and they're that into the game."

Xavier LeBlanc has so far been the player Whitehall looks to in Mulnix' stead, and Prince is optimistic as time goes on and the Vikings continue to adjust to that absence, offensive results will improve. In the meantime, he said, he can hardly be upset; Whitehall (2-5, 2-2 WMC) has two league losses, but both are by one goal to top teams in the league, and the Vikings do still own an impressive win over North Muskegon.
"Overall, I'm ecstatic at how much we put out tonight," Prince said. "Our biggest goal now is to get to the district (finals) back here. It looks like it'll probably be the two of us playing in a district final unless one of us gets beaten early...We'll probably both be up at the top of the conference."

The crowd was packed not just for the rivalry battle, but for the Sept. 11 memorial tribute prior to the game, which honored local first responders in a similar fashion to last year's 9/11 anniversary contest, as well as a joint fundraiser for Hope Squads at both schools. At halftime, Jenna Sorensen, who administers the RunIt 5K, announced that this summer's event raised $16,000 for the two Hope Squads and presented principals of each high school with an $8,000 check.

"It was a great event and it brought out the community," Mahoney said. "It was great to support the Hope Squads for both schools. I love the boys from Whitehall. I've got tons of friends on both sides of the river."