By Luke Schrock, WKTV Intern
A foggy night housed a nail-biting district final between the South Christian Sailors and the Hudsonville Unity Christian Crusaders that ended in overtime, 3-2, on Oct. 22. Starting with the opening kickoff, both sides would go back and forth, with each recording the first goal about 10 minutes into the match.
South Christian head coach Jason Boersma praised senior Jeff Herrema for both goals in regulation, in the 10th and 73rd minutes, by causing fouls in the box leading to successful penalty kicks shot by fellow senior Thom DeVries.
“At the end of the day Jeff Herrema created both of those penalty kicks,” Boersma said to WKTV. “He was the one that got into the box and was making the moves to get into the goal. … Jeff is usually our penalty kicker.”
Herrema, however, suffered a shoulder injury after the second foul which lead to DeVries’ penalty kick.
Unity Christian didn’t go down quietly, however, first tying the score in the first half, 1-1, with a goal from junior Jaxson Krygsheld. Next, the Crusaders would strike again with a long shot by freshman Gavin Sage in the 74th minute to re-tie the match going into the final minutes — where a near miss would have given Unity Christian the district title.
In overtime, though, it was the sophomore Sam Medendorp who was the hero for the Sailors, as his goal was enough to the district title and send South Christian into a regional match-up with Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
“Winning is an expectation,” says Boersma on his South Christian team earning their seventh district championship.
But the Sailors coach had nothing but praise for Wyoming Lee and Unity Christian, two teams South Christian had to beat to move on to regionals.
“When you got a loaded district like we got this year, we got Wyoming Lee on one side who’s one of the top teams in the state, my heart hurts for them,” Boersma said. “They lost a game that I would call a district final.”
South Christian will take on Catholic Central on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at South Christian High School, with kick off at 7 p.m.
