Page 18 — Thursday, October 14, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
Big throws get South out of 2-0 hole against TKHS
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
A soccer ball nicking an arm or bounding
off a hand draw annoyed screams of “hands!”
from opponents and spectators alike, but that
doesn’t mean those body parts can’t be
weapons.
South Christian senior midfielder Levi
DeRuiter and his corner kick like throw-ins
from anywhere in the attacking third of the
field were the key to the Sailors overcoming
a 2-0 second-half deficit and scoring a 4-
win over Thornapple Kellogg’s varsity boys’
soccer team in the finals of the OK Gold
Conference Tournament at South Christian
High School Saturday.
A long throw from DeRuiter on the right
side, just down from his own bench, tipped
off the fingertips of Thornapple Kellogg
junior goalkeeper Luke Kaiser in a crowd
with 4:39 to play and into the net, giving the
Sailors their first lead of the ballgame at 3-2.The Sailors thought DeRuiter had scored
in that fashion in the final seconds of the first
half, but officials ruled that no Trojan had
touched the ball before it found the back of
the net, and TK went into the half up 2-0.
The Trojans dominated the first 30 min-
utes of the ballgame, but as the game wore
on South Christian’s depth and skill took
over. The Sailors’ Alex Leenstra headed in a
long throw in from DeRuiter in the 52nd
minute of play to put their team on the score-
board for the first time, and then Leenstra
tied the score by deflecting in a hard, low
centering ball from teammate Nick Logan
71st minute.
DeRuiter notched his second assist with
two minutes to play when teammate Jordan
Gabrielse finished off another long throw-in.
The Sailors move to 16-0-3 overall this
season with their second victory of the season
over the Trojans. South Christian also took a
3-1 win over TK Sept. 13 in Grand Rapids.
TK is now 14-3-2 overall this season. The
Trojans avenged a loss to Forest Hills Eastern
by scoring a 4-0 win over the Hawks in
Middleville Thursday in the conference tour-
nament semifinals. The Hawks had scored a
4-2 win over the Trojans in their regular
season match-up.
A free kick from just shy of midfield
turned into the Trojans’ first goal Saturday,
just 66 seconds into the match. Junior attack-
er Terrell Jefferson centered the ball and
senior teammate Nacho Hervas was there to
fire a shot that was deflected away from the
net. Sophomore Reece Hoeksma was there to
put the rebound past Sailor keeper Luke
VanTol.
TK moved the ball well on the ground in
the first half, despite getting anxious at times
to boot it forward. Long balls did lead to a
couple of runs on the goal by Hervas.
TK took a 2-0 lead in the 35th minute
when Hoeksma found the net again. A Trojan
throw-in from the left side somehow found
its way between a pair of Sailor defenders to
senior Carson Woods who sent it towards the
right corner for Hoeksma. Hoeksma fired a
shot at the Sailor net that found its way
across the line as Sailor defender Logyn
Huttenga slid in to try and deflect it away.
Huttenga slammed a fist to the ground
lying on his goal-line as the Trojans turned
back towards midfield to celebrate. The
Sailors turned up the pressure from there.
Trojan senior defender Grant Woods had
to head a couple balls off his own goal-line,
with the first coming on a long DeRuiter
throw in with just over three minutes to playin the first half. Leenstra ripped a shot that
went wide of the goal, and then sent another
strong, low cross through the TK box that
somehow found its way through a crowd
without being tapped on goal.
Kaiser did a good job throughout the
match of communicating with his team-
mates, put in the tough position of filling in
for senior keeper Daniel Beyer who could
only watch from the sidelines after suffering
an injury in the semifinal match Thursday.Juniors Austin Chivis and Jackson Curtis
were strong in transitioning the Trojan play
from defense to offense, especially in the
first half.
The Trojans will host Charlotte at 6 p.m.
this evening, Oct. 14, for the opening round
of their MHSAA Division 2 District
Tournament. The winner of that game
advances to the district semifinals which
will be held at Gull Lake High School
Tuesday, Oct. 19.TK spikers focus on mental health at Green Out
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Spurred by senior Cassidy Dole, the
Thornapple Kellogg varsity volleyball team
hosted its first Mental Health Awareness
Night during its OK Gold Conference dual
with the Ottawa Hills Bengals in Middleville
Wednesday.
“A lot of people I know have struggled with
mental health and mental illness. They are too
afraid to speak up or anything, and don’t want
to feel weak to their peers,” Dole said. “One of
my close friends actually committed suicide
about a year and a half ago. That really just hit
home for me and I could relate to what he was
going through and some of the things he was
also experience. I was like, I don’t want to see
another friend family member possibly go
through this. I just wanted to start something
at school that makes it everyone aware that is
okay to feel how you feel and it is okay to not
be okay as long as you get help.”
The event took the place of the Trojans’
annual Pink Out cancer awareness event. The
Trojans wore green T-shirts in place of their
jerseys and a number of their classmates in
the student section had matching shirts or had
painted themselves green to join in the event.
“We thought that this cause is just a great
thing to raise awareness for right now,” TK
head coach Tia Cross said.
“We have actually, our team, has gone
through mental health training. We had three
one-hour Zoom sessions with a mental health
coach, which has been great. We just finished
up today, just changing the girls’ focus, and
mindset and thinking. It has been very bene-
ficial for us, and the girls are using the tools
that they have learned to just kind of help,
even on the court as well as off the court.”
Dole is a part of the Mental Health
Awareness Group at TK which meets every
couple weeks at the high school.
“The past two days we have been at a men-
tal health summit,” Dole said. “It was virtual
this year just because of Covid, but we work
on trying to get ideas together for the upcom-
ing year and planning stuff like mental health
week (which is this week) or games like this.”
On the court, the Trojans helped each other
to a 25-11, 25-15, 25-16 win. The TK ladies
were happy to be able to take some big
swings against the Bengals. Senior Tristen
Cross had an especially powerful blast late in
the opening set, and the Trojans capped off
their set two and three wins with strong
attacks from Peyton Pratt and Thea Zellmer.
“We had some really good hits obviously.
The most fun is just cheering other people on
and screaming, cheering other people on, that
brings me joy and brings the energy up for
everybody,” Dole said.
TK flew right out to a 15-3 lead in the
opening set against the Bengals. A couple big
kills by Tristen Cross and Augustine Abshagen
helped TK finish off the set.
The Bengals kept pace better in set two.
TK led just 16-14 after an ace by the Bengals
Takara SanMiguel and a little bit of miscom-
munication. TK libero Kiah Nichols helped
spark the Trojans a bit with an ace of her own,
and a couple kills by Pratt helped TK win
nine of the set’s final ten points. Jessie
Drenten closed out the set with a four-point
run at the service line.
TK moved in front 9-2 in set number three.
The Bengals fought back to within 11-7, but
TK stretched its lead from there.
“They were having fun. I was able to mix
things up and just really have some fun,”
coach Cross said. “It was go out and play, be
aggressive, be strong and go out and do the
things we have been working on and have
some fun. We also had a lot of our youth vol-
leyball girls in the house tonight. They were
here watching us, and that was good.”
The Trojans returned to conference action
Tuesday at South Christian, opening the OK
Gold Conference Tournament with a tough
three-set defeat.
South Christian won by the scores of 25-7,
25-6, 25-19.
Coach Cross said she was short a couple of
girls and it took until the third set until her
team started to find its groove, but then it was
too late.Thornapple Kellogg senior goalkeeper Daniel Beyer can only watch from the side-
line as time ticks down on his team's loss to South Christian in the finals of the OK
Gold Conference tournament at South Christian High School Saturday. Beyer was
injured in the Trojans' 4-0 shut out of Forest Hills Eastern in the tournament semifinals
Thursday.(Photo by Brett Bremer)
Thornapple Kellogg senior Alexander Harrington is held up by South Christian's
Sam Medendorp as he tries to push the attack forward for the Trojans during the first
half of their 4-2 loss to the Sailors in the OK Gold Conference Tournament champion-
ship game Saturday at South Christian High School. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Thornapple Kellogg senior Augustine Abshagen hits an attack between Ottawa Hills blockers Malana Thocer (3) and Alicia
Robinson (5) during their OK Gold Conference dual in Middleville Wednesday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)TK senior libero Kiah Nichols hits an
attack from the back row as teammate
Tristen Cross looks on during their three-
set win over visiting Ottawa Hills on
Mental Health Awareness Night at TKHS
Wednesday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)