HART – Wednesday, April 16 was not the most opportune time for Hart’s girls soccer team to field a roster that was missing three athletes, while two others recovered from injury and illness. A date with one of the conference’s best teams made for an unfortunate recipe that resulted in a 5-0 loss to Montague.
With two players not even on the sideline and Kailey Edenburn serving a suspension from the team’s previous matchup with North Muskegon, Hart already had some holes to fill. Addison Barefoot also entered the game fresh off a bout with the flu, while a hamstring injury limited the Pirates’ most versatile athlete in Olivia Bradley.
All of that meant a lot of shifting for Hart Head Coach Joe Gilbert. The most notable was slotting sophomore Natalie Rosema on the back line, instead of her usual spot at forward.
Rosema and the back line of Faith VanderVlucht and April Chaffee did their best to stave off the Wildcats’ offense. It worked for a few minutes, but Montague quickly found their groove. That led to three goals in the first half, highlighted by two from Abby Dyer and another on a 1-on-1 situation between Braylyn Bultema and Hart keeper Emma Jeffries.
“Natalie did a great job,” Gilbert said. “She let me know ahead of time that if I need her to help fill in, that she was happy to do that. If you watch her in basketball, she’s a dog of a defender. She doesn’t let anybody by her easily.”
With a 3-0 lead at halftime, Hart tried to find a different gear to set up their offense in the second half. Barefoot and Bradley did a nice job in the middle, kicking the ball ahead for Rilynn Porter, who often found herself with room to work in the corner.
“Olivia plays a lot of minutes, but she’s got a pretty good knot in her hamstring that she was battling through,” Gilbert said. “Normally, she’s a 70 minute player, but I want her for the longevity of the season.”
Unfortunately, the offense around Porter struggled to create space for scoring opportunities. The Pirates hope that will develop with a consistent lineup and improved communication.
“Our strikers have to stretch the back line when we’re in the attacking third, to create a gap around the penalty kick spot,” Gilbert said. “Unfortunately we couldn’t quite do that until it was too late. We started to find it towards the end, but (Montague) started to drop people down to stop it.”
The Pirates fell to 0-4-1 with the loss, and now sit at 0-2 in the West Michigan Conference.
