SHELBY — Facing opponents as good as Fremont, a squad that had mercy-ruled all its West Michigan Conference foes so far this season, necessitates taking gambles. Shelby coach Joe Gorton kept that in mind when he noted the extremely windy conditions for Monday’s game and decided that, given the choice, he’d take the wind in the first half rather than the second.
The Tigers did get the choice, and while the wind advantage didn’t result in a goal, perhaps that aggressive mindset contributed to Shelby’s impressive performance in a 0-0 tie. The outcome firmly established the Tigers as a team to be reckoned with in the WMC.
“I try not to think about it, but I could tell you I thought a lot about it during that JV game,” Gorton said of the wind. “I knew how much of an offensive powerhouse Fremont has been, so I gambled and said, if we can, I want the wind in the first half...We really wanted to try and poke one in in that first half and put them back on their heels.”
In a somewhat ironic twist, both teams ended up having their best scoring chances going against the wind. The Packers actually did put one in the net near the halfway mark of the first half, but it was waved off for an offsides call. Shelby (5-1-1, 3-1-1 WMC) thought it had a sure goal with just over three minutes to play when Annabelle Stark fired a well-placed shot off the far post at an angle that seemed certain to send the ball into the net. Instead, the ball miraculously stayed outside the goal. Charlee Friedman nearly scored herself mere seconds later on a shot from the edge of the box, but it sailed wide of the post by maybe just over a foot.
Fremont had more chances than Shelby did in the second half, playing with the wind, but keeper Brylee Friedman and her defensive teammates were up to the task. Friedman made 14 saves in her most impressive shutout to date, including one where she dove on a rebound shot to prevent a goal and drew a foul when Packer players attempted to get it out of the scrum while she already had it.
“We just really worked on trying to stop the through-balls and just saying, ‘Mark your girl and make sure you know where they all are at, and try to step on the ball before they shoot it,”’ Friedman said. “(We focused on) not letting them get shots off.”
Shelby’s defense also played well, rewarding Gorton’s faith in them; he said he considered tweaking the lineup to bring a fourth defender back but trusted his usual defensive players to get the job done. They did just that, battling both the elements and the Packers to prevent many clear scoring opportunities.
The wind wreaked havoc throughout the game; whoever went against it saw all their long kicks knocked down and even occasionally turned around midair, and conversely the team playing with the wind often couldn’t maintain control of the ball because it kept sailing past where players were positioned to collect it.
One of the closest times Fremont came to scoring in the second half, in fact, wasn’t a shot at all, but a relatively routine ball that took a funny hop, aided by the wind, and bounced over Friedman’s head in the final minutes. Fortunately the Tigers’ senior keeper kept her head and reeled the ball in.
“I was just like, ‘I hope I catch it,’” Friedman chuckled. “’Hopefully the ball’s not slippery.’”
On the offensive side, even though they didn’t produce a goal, Gorton said he was very pleased with the forwards’ work, especially Stark and Kylie Brown, the Tigers’ striker duo.
“We’ve obviously got that top-end speed so that breakaway counterattack that we’re able to create is always there, but against a quality team...Annie and Kylie were really working really well together and making some plays that I haven’t seen them make yet this year, and we saw the result of that,” Gorton said.
Fremont was hardly the last tough opponent Shelby will face in the WMC. Last year’s top two finishers, North Muskegon and Ludington, remain on the schedule, and archrival Hart shut out its first three WMC opponents as well.
However, banking a result against a program of Fremont’s caliber should do wonders for the confidence of a Tiger team hoping to stamp itself as being worthy of inclusion in that elite grouping.
“To be able to not only make it 80 minutes (against Fremont), but really make them sweat, we needed a game like this to really prove to ourselves that we belong in the top tier of the league this year,” Gorton said. “I’m just so proud of them and the way they stepped up today.”
