October 30, 2010
South Christian High School extended their season by at least one more game Friday night, winning their Division III regional final over Galesburg-Augusta 5-1 at Hope College’s Van Andel Soccer Stadium and advancing to next week’s Division III semifinals.
Both South Christian and Galesburg had solid wins in their regional semifinal game on Wednesday, with South defeating Dowagiac 7-0 and Galesburg winning over Belding 5-0.
“We knew they had a couple good, skilled players,” Sean Broekhuizen, a senior midfielder for South Christian, said. “But we knew if we played our game, stuck to what we knew, started on defense and worked our way up we’d have a good game.”
South’s offense made Galesburg-Augusta’s defense work throughout the opening minutes of the game. Drew Lockwood got the scoring started for the Sailors, netting a goal seven minutes into the game. South threatened again two minutes later, but Tim Lucas of the Rams deflected the ball away before it could cause any harm. Jacob Nantz also worked hard on defense for Galesburg, kicking the ball away from the goal several times during the game. Blake DeVries also scored for the Sailors in the first half, nudging the ball past Galesburg goalie Dan Boucher. With 4:23 left in the half, Jon Puente followed up on a free kick for Galesburg and scored, marking the first time anyone had gotten the ball past South’s goalie Aaron Bosch in the state tournament and in the past six weeks, putting the Rams within one heading into halftime.
“2-1 going into halftime, we knew they had momentum,” Broekhuizen said. “We knew we had to come out and play like we did in the first 20 minutes.”
The halftime score did not surprise south Christian head coach Bruce Huttenga, having seen strong play from Galesburg before.
“I expected a really close game,” Huttenga said, “I’ve watched them play, I’ve seen some of their scores and those things. They’re a good team.”
Lockwood started off the second half with a strong offensive attack for the Sailors with several shots, but Boucher kept the goal safe each time. With 29:31 left to play, Broekhuizen capitalized off a corner kick, heading the airborne ball into the goal and putting the Sailors up 3-1. Broekhuizen had another shot two minutes later, but it hit crossbar and bounced away. Kevin Doornbos ended up scoring South Christian’s next goal to give South a 4-1 lead, and ten minutes later Lockwood scored the final goal of the night to give the Sailors their 5-1 regional final victory. Galesburg came close to narrowing the lead with five minutes remaining when Max Vanderpool took a direct kick, but Bosch dove on that ball and the follow-up shot to maintain South’s four-goal lead. South now advances to state semifinals, which will be played against the winner of Saturday’s Whitehall vs. Oscoda game.
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