MUSKEGON — A 2-0 loss to Cedar Springs Friday, the Rockets' first of the season, did nothing to concern Reeths-Puffer coach Kody Harrell's long-term outlook for his team - an outlook that he thinks is likely to include the Red Hawks, a favorite in the district in which both teams will compete in May.
"We've kind of known since January that as long as we take care of our business - and you've got to play the game, so with all due respect to the other teams in the district - our district's going to come down (to) us and them," Harrell said. "It's a really good team. They beat us 3-0 last year and 2-0 this time. Hopefully we keep getting a little bit better and maybe even flip it in our favor when we see each other again."
While the score doesn't show it, it was a game Harrell thinks was essentially "a 50/50 game," and the numbers back him up - each team had six shots on goal.
The visiting Red Hawks scored once in each half. With 23:56 to go in the opening half, Brylee Alber broke free for Cedar Springs on a play Harrell said caught the Rocket defense flat-footed and fired it past keeper Ava Callender. Callender made an aggressive play to try to force an errant shot by Alber, but her aim was true.
The second goal was somewhat of a fluke. Callender, who's off to a terrific start this season, made a save a couple minutes into the second half but lost the ball while gathering it in. Aubrey Crawford of Cedar Springs made a great hustle play, racing to the ball to fire it into the net before Callender could collect it.
"That's the beautiful thing about this game when you do lose to really quality opponents on little plays," Harrell said. "It's not like we got dominated by any means. The shot chart was 6-6, and I think we had better opportunities in the second half."
R-P (3-1) indeed put the pressure on Cedar Springs over the final 10 minutes. After Gracie Callender made an excellent play to stop an open shot by the Red Hawks, R-P created multiple chances down the stretch. The Rockets just weren't able to finish them off. One opportunity saw leading scorer Jaslynn Kops, who faced double-teams all night, get caught from behind by a Red Hawk defender, and another ended with a shot directly at the keeper, which Harrell described as "a Christmas gift in March."
"Those last 12 minutes, if someone would have drove by or walked up and watched the last 12 minutes with no words on the scoreboard, just numbers, I'll bet people would have thought we were the team winning 2-0, the way we were dictating the play," Harrell said. "I'm happy with the girls and how they responded."
The game provided some lessons learned on how to attack the Red Hawks the next time around, presumably in May with much higher stakes. Harrell broke out what he admitted is a coaching cliche about the L in the Rockets' win-loss record standing for Learn, instead of Loss, but there's a meaning behind it, too.
"I think that's just the big thing that we build on," Harrell said. "I said the same words today. That's not the first time they've heard me say it. It gets a giggle out of them and we leave the night smiling and laughing and we go forward from there. We'll be able to learn. There's a ton to learn in our attack.
"It was just those two or three moments. That's what it takes at this level. You've got to play near a perfect game defensively to beat teams like that. There will be a few things we can learn from that."
