HART — Communication issues and simple bad luck afflicted Montague
Monday in its West Michigan Conference opening game against Hart, as the
Pirates took advantage of some confusion on the Montague defensive zone
to score pivotal goals in a 4-2 Wildcats' defeat.
Hart went
ahead for good late in the first half when the Pirates' Logan Dean
chased down a rebound that settled in no man's land near keeper Ethan
Balon. With Balon and the Wildcat defense both uncertain of whether they
were the right people to go for the ball, Dean threw caution to the
wind and headed it over Balon for the go-ahead goal to make it 2-1.
The
Pirates added a breakaway goal early in the second half and a penalty
kick goal a few moments later. Hart's first goal was bad luck for
Montague as well, as a shot deflected off a Wildcat defender and
skittered into the net.
Hart's Adriel Belmares (16) tries to chase a ball down as Tyson Schattenberg pursues for Montague during Monday's WMC game at Hart. The host Pirates won, 4-2.
Montague (2-3, 0-1 WMC) struggled at
times to deal with the Pirates' aggression, both in going for the ball
and their willingness to play physically.
"They're a good
team," Montague coach Brandon Mahoney said. "They played well for what
they have. It wasn't a situation where I felt like we played down to
someone's level. I think we were a little nervous with the physical
play. That's the piece
where we have to get used to it, and we did. It just took
us a whole half, or a good portion of that first half, to get used to
it."
The 'Cats opened the scoring when freshman Mason Anderson
made a nice feed to Isaiah King across the box, which King turned into a
goal only four minutes after kickoff. The lead didn't last very long,
though, as the Pirates got that deflected goal less than five minutes
later. They controlled most of the rest of the first half.
The
second half, despite Hart scoring two of the three goals, was a bit
different. Montague created solid scoring chances, but was turned back
by some good saves from the Pirate keeper and other times just didn't
make the final connecting pass necessary to get a clear shot on net.
"I'd
have to go back and look at the (film) to see how many shots (we had)
compared to theirs," Mahoney said. "They outshot us the first
half, there's no doubt, but I felt like that second half, we
really had some good possession on their side of the field. Good shots,
good possession, good passing. We were putting it together. It just came
too late."
Montague made a brief run at Hart late in the
game, and with 12:16 to go, Anderson added a goal to his earlier assist
by firing a high-caliber shot into the top corner of the net, but the
Wildcats couldn't find another goal after that.
"We
definitely had some times, some
situations where you could see we were moving the ball well," Mahoney said. "We were
trying to finish. We definitely had some really good opportunities
at the end...It still was not something I was super
disappointed in."
