Page 12/The Sun and News, Saturday, March 23, 2024TK ladies open spring with win at Hastings
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The first goal of the 2023-
24 varsity girls’ soccer sea-
son summed up the Trojans’
whole victory in Hastings
Thursday evening.
Thornapple Kellogg soph-
omore attacker Tealy Cross
ripped a shot towards the far
post on the south end of Baum
Stadium at Johnson Field.
Saxon senior goalkeeper
Dekota Blough made a fabu-
lous save diving to her left.
TK midfielder Paige
Abshagen was there to hit
the rebound into the open net
in the game’s 19th minute.
Blough was outstanding in
net for the Saxons, but the
Trojans created so many
chances that they were boundto get a few by any keeper in
what turned into a 5-
Thornapple Kellogg victory.
Blough finished the ball-
game with 18 saves.
Cross scored two goals of
her own in the win for TK.
She made it 2-0 in the 28th
minute, chasing down a per-
fectly struck long ball ahead
from all-state teammate
Emma Schut and calmly car-
rying it in for a shot by
Blough.
She also scored in the
game’s 57th minute, midway
through the second half, on
another 1-v-1 chance against
Blough off a nice feed from
Schut in the middle of the
field.
Sophomore Madilyn
Chivis added a goal on anoutstanding long shot with
7:10 to go in the first half,
and the Trojans’ final tally
came with 3:26 to go in the
game when Megan
Schuurmans beat Blough to a
rebound and put it into the
net.
The Trojans’ final tally
came with 3:26 to go in the
game when Megan
Schuurmans beat Blough to a
rebound and put it into the
net. Hastings head coach
Tim Schoessel had a big chat
with his girls about that one.
Blough hit a goal kick which
Schuurmans snagged outside
the box and took in for the
score with Blough not get-
ting enough assistance from
her teammates.
“Their keeper [Blough]legitimately, probably kept
that from being a more lop-
sided game. She made a few
saves on Tealy one-on-one.
She made a couple diving
saves.”
“She was lights out, for
what she had to work with,”
Schoessel said of his keeper.
“We have some things to
clean up on defense, but they
improved in the second half
on defense. In the first half,
they were kind of dead on
their feet and things weren’t
going well, but they picked it
up and they cleaned it up.”
The Trojans come into the
season a bit shorthanded, and
were okay with Friday after-
noon’s ballgame with Lowellbeing postponed due to the
snow. TK had just one sub to
take on the Saxons. Senior
honorable mention all-state
attacker Holly Velting
injured an ankle during the
Trojans’ preseason scrim-
mage – knocking the varsity
roster from 13 down to 12
for Thursday at least.
“I think we have a good
core,” TK head coach Ben
Sleeman said. “We only have
two seniors too, Emma
[Schut] and Holly [Velting].
In a way, it is nice because
the majority of our team will
be back for the next couple
years.”
Sleeman, who is co-coach-
ing the Trojans once againthis spring with David Wood,
said there will also be some
up and down from the JV
roster to support the varsity.
“We kind of knew going
into the season that we would
have smaller numbers. It is
going to be a good group,”
Sleeman said. “It is just
going to be if we’re okay
depth wise. That was kind of
our downfall at the end of
last year. We just didn’t have
the depth. We had a good
starting 11 and a couple girls
who came off the bench.
Hopefully, we can make it
unscathed through the rest of
the season.”
The TK ladies will be on
the road at Northview
Monday, weather-permitting,
and then start the OK Gold
Conference season at home
against Cedar Springs after
spring break, April 10.
The Saxons are right back
at it Monday too, hosting
Delton Kellogg.
Captain Raegen Morrison
scored the Saxons’ lone goal,
cutting the TK lead to 4-1 at
the time with 21:29 to go in
the game. Hastings got a
turnover near midfield and
quickly had Morrison going
the other way against TK
keeper Makenna Hoebeke.
Hoebeke and the TK
defense didn’t have a whole
lot to do as the Trojans kept
on the attack much of the
evening.
“This is always a hard
game to start with,” Sleeman
said. “It’s local and it gets
scrappy, and for the girls
you’re confident, and some-
times going into a game
where you’re confident can
be a struggle mentally and
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Thornapple Kellogg’s Tealy Cross (13) and team-
mate Megan Schuurmans celebrate a goal by Cross
midway through the second half of their 5-1 win over
the Saxons at Hastings High School Thursday eve-
ning. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Thornapple Kellogg midfielder Paige Abshagen pushes towards the Hastings
goal as the Saxons’ Jordyn Winters gives chase during the first half of their sea-
son opener inside Baum Stadium at Johnson Field Thursday in Hastings. (Photo
by Brett Bremer)
Thornapple Kellogg midfielder Emma Schut gets her head on the ball in front
of Hastings’ Raegen Morrison and teammate Natalie Borrink during the first half
of their ballgame inside Baum Stadium at Johnson Field in Hastings Thursday.
(Photo by Brett Bremer)