MONTAGUE — Montague surrendered two unfortunate goals late in the first half that proved to be the difference in a 4-3 West Michigan Conference defeat to Hart, but coach Brandon Mahoney said he'd leave the game smiling.
That's because he saw his young team respond well to adversity. Down a player for the last 25 minutes of the game after a red card was issued, the Wildcats cut a 4-2 deficit to one goal and created several other scoring chances besides in that span.
"I am happy with the outcome," Mahoney said. "We always want the win. That's what we play for, but at the end of the day, I'm not going to go to bed grumpy. I'm going to walk out of here with smiles because I feel like they worked as hard as they could and, put in a tough situation, they're going to succeed."
Hart broke a 1-1 tie by scoring a long-ball goal late in the first half and getting another when a handball on Montague in the box awarded the Pirates a penalty kick, which they cashed in. The former was an unfortunate break - and a reality of playing a freshman keeper, Chayse Maddox, who's a growth spurt away from being able to more easily stop the ball from getting over his head. The latter was just the result of an aggressive play on defense.
Noah Raeth unleashed a terrific shot 10 minutes into the second half after breaking away from the Hart defense to cut the deficit to 3-2, but only 90 seconds after that, the Pirates' Isaiah Carreon responded with a similar goal from 20 yards out.
Despite all of that, Mahoney saw it as a game of growth for his team and compared it to a regular-season loss to Fremont in 2024, which the Wildcats avenged in the district finals. Hart is in Montague's district this year.
"I'm okay with the loss today because moving forward, we're going to be stronger," Mahoney said. "If we got to play them again down the road, I see us rolling them...I'll take the loss during the season, and come the districts, I'll take the win then."
