South Christian rides defense to OK Gold boys soccer championship

Dean Holzwarth | The Grand Rapids Press, October 14, 2010 12:36 a.m.

GRAND RAPIDS -- It wasn't surprising to see the South Christian boys soccer team prevent Forest Hills Eastern from scoring a goal in Wednesday night's OK Gold Conference tournament championship game.

The Sailors' defense has been stout all season.

South Christian combined its defensive supremacy with a quick-strike scoring attack in the second half to beat the Hawks, 5-0, at the South Christian Sports Park.

The victory gave the Sailors their second consecutive league championship. They surrendered only three goals in finishing conference play 9-0-1.

"Our defense has been really solid, and what we really tried to work on is discipline," South Christian coach Bruce Huttenga said. "And I think we're getting to the point where I trust them, and we're pretty big, physical and fast. It's a good combination and they've played well all year."

Seniors Drew Lockwood had two goals and two assists and Sean Broekhuizen a goal and two assists for South Christian.

The Sailors (18-2-1), ranked No. 1 in Division 3, haven't lost since late August.

"This is my last year and I wanted to win (conference) again," Lockwood said. "And winning it 5-0 against our rival was fun. We've been playing a lot better toward the end of the season and we work well together. We have a lot of chemistry and our defense holds everything together."

While the defense helped maintain a slim 1-0 lead at halftime, South Christian's offense exploded during an 8-minute span in the second half.

The Sailors added four unanswered goals to seal the win. Lockwood, Broekhuizen, senior Dan Miedema and freshman Marlon Bykerk scored in the spurt.

"That's kind of been us," Huttenga said. "We've played well in the first half and not really put any goals up and we've come out in the second half and scored some goals. I'm not quite sure why that it is, but if we can keep doing it then I will take it."

FHE (10-5-3), which lost to the Sailors, 4-0, on Sept. 21, couldn't recover from South Christian's relentless pressure.

"Coming into halftime, I thought we might have a good chance in the second half because we were attacking well at the end of the first half," Hawks coach Paul Rosenbrook said. "But they came out and scored that first goal and kept going.

"We were on our heels and lost our composure, but they are a good team all over the field. They earned the conference championship from the first game to this one."