A Look Back at Year 5:  2008

By Paul Rosenbrook

Fresh off a trip to the 2007 State Semifinals, where we lost a heartbreaker in overtime, the players worked hard through the off-season to prepare for the 2008 campaign.

We had graduated a wealth of talent from the year before.  With only four seniors, the team was young, but not inexperienced.  Returning starters Josh Schultz and Zach Myers stepped into captains roles for their Senior seasons and Alex Zuhl and Andrew Nesselroad (transfer from Creston) rounded out the fourth-year group.

The Junior class was especially strong, as returning starters included:  Ben Thomas, Brandyn Hockstra, Lawrence Murray, Kyle Haverkate, Fred Smyser, and Graham Wallace.  Adam Hoffhines, Zach Retterath, Miles Vincent, and Alex Stuart would play prominent roles in the 2008 team, along with Sophomores Mitchal Rosendall and Brandon Underwood.

Our opening match was at Rockford and was as frustrating a game as I can recall.  We outshot them 8-3 in the first half, but found ourselves trailing 2-0.  Zach Retterath scored in the 57^th minute, but we surrendered another goal three minutes later.  Brandyn Hockstra scored in the 70^th minute to get us within one, then we proceeded to bombard the Rockford goal.  We ended up losing 3-2, despite owning an 18-6 shots at goal advantage.

We had nearly a week off to stew about our opening game, then came out firing against Catholic Central in our conference opener.  We had no trouble finishing in this game, as we were up 4-0 in the first 16 minutes on two goals by Ben Thomas, one by Brandyn Hockstra, and one by Zach Myers.  Ben Thomas completed his hat-trick in the second half and Alex Stuart rounded out the scoring in our 6-0 win.

We continued our momentum in a conference game at Caledonia, where we played a fantastic match, winning 4-0.  We followed that with wins over Hastings (3-1), Wayland (9-1), and Ottawa Hills (9-0).

We met up with South Christian on September 11, 2008 for an epic home game.  South’s Joe Broekhuizen scored just 1:13 into the game, then sat back and defended for the most- part.  The strategy worked as they went into halftime with a 1-0 lead.  In the 56^th minute, Brandon Underwood served a ball into the 6-yard box and Mitchal Rosendall would finish to equal the score at 1-1.  The game remained tied, despite our relentless attacks on their goal, and we went to overtime.  Josh Schultz was fouled on the wing in the 107^th minute, set the ball for a quick free kick, and drove a beautiful ball across the box to the far post, where Zach Retterath was waiting to head in the game winner.  Fantastic finish.

After a couple of sub-par wins versus Middleville TK (5-2) and Catholic Central (2-0), we entered a particularly tough part of our schedule.  First up was Portage Central, always a solid team.  Brandyn Hockstra put us up on a ball slotted from the endline by Josh Schultz in the 6^th minute, but PC would equalize in the 34^th minute on a header from a corner kick.  The game remained a stalemate until Zach Retterath would again score a clutch goal:  Lawrence Murray lofted a free kick into the box that Retterath struck, on the volley, with the outside of his right foot to the lower right corner to win the game with 39 seconds left.

Our next game was at East Kentwood, the defending 2007 Division 1 State Champs and eventual 2008 State Champion.  We were very motivated for this game and wanted to use it as a measuring stick to see where we stood.  We exhausted every bit of energy in our bodies that night:  we won the transition game, won the 50-50 game, even held the edge in shots on goal (3-2).  It ended in a 0-0 tie, and we walked off knowing that on any given day, we had the talent to play with anyone.

Emotionally-spent from the previous night, we had our rematch with Caledonia.  We outshot them 36-11, but settled for a 2-2 tie, in which Scots goalkeeper Blake Higley tallied 14 saves.

Following wins over Hastings (5-1), Wayland (9-1), and Ottawa Hills (9-0), we again met up with South Christian.  We carried a 12-1-2 record into the game and had been ranked #1 in the state for the first time.  South Christian was also ranked #1 in the state for Division 3 that night.  It was a game that lived up to its billing and the atmosphere was fantastic.  South scored on a through ball in the 11^th minute and Zach Retterath equalized on a pass from Brandyn Hockstra in the 17^th minute.  South scored in the 54^th minute to take the lead and we sent the house at their goal for the remainder of the second half in an attempt to tie it up again.  But, it was South who would put the game on ice with 7:41 remaining on a counter-attack.  The final was 3-1.

Our final regular season game was an 8-0 win over Middleville TK and carried a 13-2-2 record into MHSAA tournament play.

We met up with Middleville TK again just five days later for our first District game.  Ben Thomas scored four of our first six goals that day and we won by a score of 8-1.

In our second District game, we outshot Lakewood 44-0 and finished the game 8-0, with eight different players scoring the goals.

We met up with Grand Rapids Christian in the District Final, the first meeting between the two teams.  We found ourselves in big trouble at halftime, down 2-0 after goals in the 11^th and 31^st minutes that came from long throw-ins, the trademark of that year’s GRCHS team.  We spent the week preparing ourselves to defend those throw-ins, but still managed to give up a goal on the first one!  Our Seniors were determined that their careers would not end here:  Zach Myers scored in the 47^th minute, Josh Schultz in the 65^th minute, and again in the 68^th minute as we took the lead on a long throw-in of our own from Brandyn Hockstra.  But the lead would last just 3:27 as GRCHS equalized in the 71^st minute to send the game to overtime.  The score remained tied through the overtimes and we went to penalties.  I recall turning to Assistant Coach Chris Barlow and telling him that we were sending up a ‘murderers-row of penalty takers’.  GRCHS made two of their first four PKs, and meanwhile, our guys continued to step to the penalty spot and calmly put their shots into the side-netting with cool finishes.  Lawrence Murray, Fred Smyser, Mitchal Rosendall, and Zach Myers all made their shots and we walked off District Champs after a 4-2 PK shootout result.

In our Regional game at Cedar Springs, we met up with Petoskey.  They were a hard-working group who prided themselves on winning in transition and owning the 50-50 balls.  They did just that, scoring in transition on a beautiful 1-2 combination to walk in 1v1 and finish past goalkeeper Graham Wallace.  We put a great deal of pressure on them in the second half, but were unable to muster many good scoring chances.  Petoskey would go on to win 1-0 and become state champs that season in Division 2.

We finished our season at 16-3-2 and a #4 final state ranking.  Zach Myers was named 1^st Team All-State and was voted MVP by his teammates after being 2^nd in team scoring despite playing the stopper position.  Juniors Ben Thomas and Lawrence Murray were named 2^nd Team All-State.

This is the fifth in a series about our program's history.  I hope this helps the current players and families understand how we got to where we are and link our present to our past...