HART — Hart coach Guillermo Ortega spoke before the season about
his team's aggressive, scrappy mentality, and the Pirates have already
shown it off multiple times this season.
A few days after
rallying from two goals down to tie Glen Lake last week, the Pirates
again responded to an early deficit, defeating Montague 4-2 to open West
Michigan Conference play with a win.
"These boys don't give up," Ortega said. "That's very different than what I've seen in the past, even being a
player
myself. It shuts teams down (sometimes), but these boys never give up. We've seen it
here...Being down doesn't faze us at all."
Montague scored
only four minutes into the game, but Hart responded within five minutes
itself, tying the score with a goal that took a fortunate deflection off
a Wildcat defender and bounced in.
Later in the half, senior
captain Logan Dean showed off his own resilience, slicing through the
Montague defense to chase down a rebound of his own shot and heading it
over the keeper for the go-ahead goal. Hart led the rest of the game.
Hart's Anthony Parra defends Montague's Jonah Henderson during Monday's WMC game at Hart. Parra scored a penalty kick goal in Hart's 4-2 win.
"Every day, we talk about
being very aggressive," Ortega said. "These boys are very scrappy, and I
love that. They want to go get that ball. They want
to put as much effort on defense as they do on offense, and that really
is what gets us goals and what gets us wins. All
I've got to do is tell them 'pressure,' and they get hyped."
Hart
(3-0-1, 1-0 WMC) asserted full command of the game coming out of
halftime. Adriel Belmares, the team's other captain, broke free from the
Montague defense for a breakaway goal just a few minutes into the
second half, and shortly after, Anthony Parra converted a penalty kick
after Montague was called for a foul in the box.
Parra's goal
made it 4-1, and while Montague pushed back and managed a goal late in
the game, Hart's defense was effective at neutralizing many scoring
chances. Pirates keeper Kaleb Edenburn made some solid saves throughout
the game as well.
Despite the youth of the team - over half
the roster are freshmen - Ortega has been pleased to see their ability
to develop an on-field rapport.
"The big thing we have going on with this team is trust," Ortega said. "They
trust each other, and they do their jobs, and they stay disciplined. They
hold each other accountable. Sometimes I can just
sit back and watch them play and not tell them anything, which is
really nice.
"I'm truly blessed with the boys I've had come in this year. I think overall, they play for the name on the front of
the jersey, (not) the number on the back. They want to play for the team."
