HART – Mentality was the name of the game for Hart girls soccer Monday, May 5 as they won a 3-1 battle over Fremont – the No. 2 team in the West Michigan Conference (WMC).
Hart Head Coach Joe Gilbert addressed his team pregame, remaining steadfast in regards to the Pirates’ chances at upsetting the Packers. That faith in the talent of his team was rewarded with countless effort plays that proved his team wanted it more.
“Words can’t describe this feeling right now. This was an immaculate victory,” Gilbert said. “We knew it was going to be a battle coming in because Fremont is fast and physical.”
The first half started with Hart’s offense maintaining possession on Fremont’s side of the field. After nearly 20 minutes of watching the Pirates find opportunity after opportunity to score, the Packers woke their offense up.
That allowed them to start pushing the ball toward Hart’s defense. Though the Pirates’ back line – composed primarily of April Chaffee, Faith VanderVlucht and Kailey Edenburn – fought off Fremont’s attacks well, the Packers were the first to find the back of the net.
After a ball was crossed in front of the net, a scrum of Pirates and Packers battled to gain leverage. Fremont’s most dangerous scorer Mia Clemence ended up with the ball at her feet, pushing a soft tap away from Hart’s freshman keeper Baleigh Klotz.
Now trailing 1-0, Hart did its best to find an answer. That came with just four minutes remaining in the first half.
A moon ball from midfield bounded toward the right post of Fremont’s goal, where Natalie Rosema waited to receive. Rosema cleanly swept up the ball, and rocketed it through to knot up the score just before halftime.
“Nat has been a revelation at our front line and coming in on the wing-back,” Gilbert said. “She’s got an excellent cross, but I actually don’t think I’ve seen her hit a ball that hard actually. It was awesome to see her rifle that.”
Both teams came into the second half determined to break the stalemate, resulting in plenty of runs toward the net for each side. Hart’s back line did tremendous work pushing Fremont’s strikers out of position, turning back multiple free runs toward Klotz.
Edenburn was particularly effective, finding herself one-on-one with Clemence on more than one occasion. When Clemence and the Packers did find quality shots, Klotz – who seemed to gain more and more confidence as the game progressed – cleaned it up with quality saves.
“You look at Kailey (Edenburn) freshman year and see that she’s quick, but she needed to develop a touch and work on passing,” Gilbert said through some emotion. “Her passing numbers from then to now have increased 18 percent and her defensive stops have gone way up. She just shut down an All-State person (Clemence). To hold her to one goal, Kailey has to be considered for some accolades.
“Baleigh (Klotz) has been a trooper. Every game she comes in as that nervous freshman, but when we come out for the second half, she’s an entirely different person. I hope she gets some confidence from today.”
13 minutes into the second half, Olivia Bradley gave the Pirates their first lead of the night. After earning a penalty kick, Bradley went toe-to-toe with Fremont’s keeper. Bradley easily put that one to bed, putting the Pirates on top 2-1.
Just four minutes later, Bradley struck once more, taking an unassisted ball up the middle and placing it in the top bin for her second goal.
“Olivia’s been a little low on herself lately,” Gilbert said. “She’s been struggling with form, but for her to come in and rifle that shot… the keeper could barely move. She hit it with authority and emphasized our win.”
Fremont tried to pick up the pace with a two goal deficit, but Hart transitioned to a defensive game. Running just one true striker for the majority of the game’s final 20 minutes, Hart clogged the lanes and wreaked havoc on the Packers’ offense.
The Pirates improved their overall record to 7-4-3 with a 4-2-1 mark in the WMC. That slots them in fourth out of 11 teams.
Hart now turns its attention to a rivalry matchup with Shelby Wednesday, May 7. The Tigers have won every regular season meeting between the two since the 2018-19 season and are 5-0-1 against the Pirates in that same span.
“It’s going to be an underdog mentality for us,” Gilbert said ahead of Hart’s matchup with Shelby. “Shelby has beaten us more times than not. I don’t think we’ve beaten them since before COVID. We’ve got to go take it to them on their turf.”
