Hamilton soccer tops Holland in districts; Zeeland East falls

MIDDLEVILLE - For the second time in the past three seasons, the Hamilton girls soccer team is advancing to the district finals.

Despite the 90-degree heat on the field at game time, the Hawkeyes were unfazed, dealing Holland a 2-0 victory in the Division 2 district semifinals at Middleville Thornapple-Kellogg High School.

Both the Hawkeyes and the Dutch began the game sluggish, struggling to maintain possession of the ball and get the ball into the net. It wasn’t until after the first water break at the 20 minute mark that the tie was broken.

Senior Mari DellaVecchia broke through the Dutch defense and found the back of the net to give Hamilton a 1-0 lead going into halftime. However, she wasn’t done there. Early in the second half, she found the net again, this time off of a missed shot by her teammate, scoring her second goal and extending the lead.

“We’ve counted on Mari (DellaVecchia) to be a goal scorer for us and to create up front,” coach Tyler Robinson said. “She’s been dinged up lately, came back pretty well today, she had two goals, and those were the winners for us.”

For the remainder of the game, the Hawkeyes’ physical style of play took a toll on Holland, as they constantly stopped them from reaching scoring distance. Robinson says winning the 50-50 balls battle is crucial to their game plan.

“Physicality is something we’ve always been known for,” Robinson said. “I give credit to Holland, they’re always a scrappy team, too, so it was just two physical teams going at each other. We narrowly won that battle.”

Despite the loss, the Dutch put up a valiant effort. Their record may not seem like the team had much success this season, but coach Greg Ceithaml is proud of the way his team performed both in this game and throughout the season.

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“On paper, the final record may look disappointing, but I was happy with the way the team grew and improved throughout the year,” Ceithaml said. “I was proud of their effort and the way they listened in practice. With so many skilled young players, I think the future is bright.”

While the physicality of the game was high, the two teams played a clean game in penalties, the referees did not have to pull out any cards. The same cannot be said for the second game of the semifinal round.

Zeeland East’s matchup with Middleville Thornapple-Kellogg had a completely different feel from the previous game, both teams got overly physical early and continued to do so as the game progressed.

Back-and-forth the Chix and the Trojans went, making a run on the offensive side to no avail for the first 32 minutes of the game. The scoring finally broke open following a ricochet being put back into the net. Zeeland East took this 1-0 lead into halftime.

With just 40 minutes left to play with the chance to clinch a spot in the district finals, the Chix spectacular defense collapsed in the second half, allowing back-to-back goals to the Trojans. Ten minutes later, Thornapple-Kellogg put the game away, scoring another goal, ending the Chix’ season with a 3-1 loss.

“I think we had our tactics right, we went up 1-0 at half, and I credit (Thornapple-Kellogg), both of their first two goals were similar, right up the middle,” coach Joe Grit said. “I thought both teams competed well, played hard and played physical, quality soccer. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get it done.”

The loss was a devastating end to Zeeland East’s season, but Grit is looking forward to seeing what his squad can accomplish next season.

“First I want to thank all of my seniors, we had a great group,” Grit said. “Looking forward to next year, a lot of the younger players took a lot of big steps forward this season.”

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hamilton soccer tops Holland in districts; Zeeland East falls