MUSKEGON TWP. - There wasn’t much chance that the Reeths-Puffer and Caledonia soccer teams were going to play to another scoreless tie on Thursday, like they did a few weeks ago.
Something was bound to give, and the Rockets were hoping they would be the team to cash in, particularly after scoring 15 goals in their last three games.
Unfortunately for R-P, it didn’t turn out that way. Caledonia scored two first half goals within two minutes of each other, and used that outburst to hand the Rockets a 3-1 home loss in O-K Green conference play at Eric Marcil Field.
The loss ended the Rockets’ three-game winning streak. They are now 10-4-3 overall on the season and 4-3-1 in the conference standings. Caledonia improved to 8-5-4 and 4-2-2.
R-P's Owen Ritsema (13) crashes the net and gets a shot past the goalie. Photo/Jeremy Clark
The Rockets have been feeling much better lately, after breaking out of a long scoring drought that left them without a goal in four out of five games, with only one goal in the other.
They scored twice last week in a win over Jenison, five in a win over Northview, and eight in a win over Muskegon.
They looked like a team ready to score some more on Thursday, keeping pressure on the Caledonia goal early in the game, and frequently throughout the second half.
But the pressure did not lead to many shots on goal. R-P was outshot 8-4, with only one shot in the first half. Every time the Rockets got a threat going, it seemed like there was a Caledonia defender blocking the ball.
R-P goalie Liam Copenhaver goes high to snare the ball in traffic. Photo/Jeremy Clark
“They did a really good job of blocking channels in the box,” said R-P head coach Kody Harrell. “They were very well positioned defensively tonight. Their defenders had like 10 blocked shots. They had more than the goalie.”
The Rockets had a pretty amazing 10-1 advantage in corner kicks, but could not convert any of them into goals.
“You can tell a lot with corner kicks, about who’s around who’s goal more,” Harrell said. “I was proud of our guys for keeping up the pressure tonight.”
The game was scoreless for about 22 minutes, then Caledonia’s Owen Mancusa broke in from the right of the R-P goal and blasted a shot into the net from about 15 yards out.
He scored again from just outside the box about a minute and a half later, and suddenly the Fighting Scots had a 2-0 lead.
R-P's Adryan Jackson, right, tries to get past an opponent. Photo/Jeremy Clark
The Rockets got on the scoreboard less than a minute into the second half when Owen Ritsema took a shot that was blocked, then crashed the net and booted in his own rebound.
Ritsema has now scored in two straight games and has eight goals on the season.
The talented senior had 12 goals last year, and scored five right off the bat at a season-opening tournament this season, but, like his teammates, went quite a while without finding the mark.
“He is such a competitor, so focused on being the heartbeat and leader of the team, and he was being hard on himself,” Harrell said about Ritsema. “But he just kept working at it. It’s really nice when arguably your best player is also your leader when it comes to work ethic. Nobody outworks Owen.”
R-P's Carson McCollum charges up the field with the ball. Photo/Jeremy Clark
The Rockets pushed hard to tie the game, but Caledonia got the final goal with 17:22 remaining when Corbin Ryder’s high, hard shot from about 20 yards out was tipped and found its way into the R-P net.
The Rockets will have a busy week coming up
It starts on Saturday when they visit winless Grandville in a non-conference game, then continues on Tuesday when they visit rival Mona Shores in the annual Causeway Cup game.
R-P will host powerful Byron Center, the O-K Green conference leader, next Thursday.