CEDAR SPRINGS - It’s hard to imagine how Reeths-Puffer freshman goalie Ava Callender must have been feeling on Friday night, after playing a full soccer game and two intense overtime periods without the issue being settled.
Her Rockets had battled Cedar Springs hard for 60 minutes for a district championship, only to emerge in a 1-1 tie. It all came down to an overtime shootout, with five players from each team going one-on-one with the opposing goalie, to determine the winner and the champion.
Callender had never been in a shootout in a varsity game, and now it was all on her.
She gave up three goals on the first three shots she faced, which is not unusual, because the shooters have a huge advantage when blasting the ball from only 12 yards out. Luckily Callender’s teammates scored on their first four chances, leaving the Rockets with a 4-3 edge.
R-P's Ava Callender makes the big save of the game. Photo/Jeremy Clark
Callender dug deep as the next Cedar Springs shooter approached the ball, knowing that a stop could make a huge difference. She guessed that the shooter would launch the ball to her right, so she dove in that direction with perfect timing and made a sprawling save, in what turned out to be the play of the night.
That set up the crowning moment just seconds later when R-P senior Mallorie Messer scored on the next shot, clinching the shootout 5-3 and giving the Rockets a thrilling 2-1 victory at Cedar Springs High School and a Division 2 district championship.
It was the first district title for the R-P girls team since 2014.
The Rockets, 12-7-1, now advance to the Division 2 regional tournament at Mount Pleasant High School, with their first game set for Tuesday at noon.
Callender and Sara Carlson celebrate the victory. Photo/Jeremy Clark
“At first, whjen I realized we were going to a shootout, I was super nervous,” Callender said. “I was really shaky. And then my coach was like, ‘You got this, you got it. Just be confident in yourself, do what you can do. We've worked out us all week, all season. You just gotta stop one or two. Let your teammates do the rest.’”
Callender said she was able to calm down after a moment, and was not upset when the three shots got past her.
“It was just like, my teammates know what they're doing, I just gotta get one," she said. “I just told myself, you know, they had just gone to the left three straight times, and a lot of righties tend to shoot to the left side, which is my right side, and she was a righty, so I just dove, and I got it!”
Messer, a senior, also had a great deal of pressure on her. If she had missed her shot, the shootout would have continued and anything could have happened.
R-P coaches Kody Harrell and Ben Ritsema celebrate. Photo/Jeremy Clark
But she made it, keeping the Rockets’ season alive and her varsity career going for at least one more game.
“I was nervous, but I wasn't like insanely nervous, just because I've done this before,” said Messer, who will be graduating on Tuesday night. “ I've taken so many PKs throughout my soccer career.
“I usually go both sides, depending on what I'm feeling that day. And I was watching the goalie as I was winding up to kick, and she just didn't move. So I just placed it where I knew I could make it.”
The championship was extra special for Reeths-Puffer head coach Kody Harrell, who coaches both the boys soccer team in the fall and the girls in the spring. His boys team has not won a district title since 2022, and the girls had never captured one in his five years of leading that program.
R-P's Ashley Bradley winds up to blast a shot. Photo/Jeremy Clark
Harrell is always reminding his players about the importance of focusing on districts, partly because R-P competes in the O-K Green conference, which has a lot of great soccer teams.
He sees the tough conference games as opportunities to sharpen up for districts and cash in during the postseason. A lot of years that plan has not panned out, but this year it definitely did.
“All we care about is the end of May,” Harrell said. “You can’t let those (earlier losses) ruin the whole season.
“You preach so much to these kids, if you do the right things, good things will happen, so when they actually get to experience that big success, it brings tears to your eyes. They are like, this is what the coach was talking about, this is what it means to be selfless and put in that extra work to earn something special.”
R-P's Abby Hill fights off an opponent. Photo/Jeremy Clark
The dramatic shootout followed a hard-fought game, where both teams had multiple chances to score, but the only goals in regulation came on two very odd plays.
The first came almost halfway through the first half, when R-P senior Sara Carlson sent a very high, soft shot that somehow floated just above the outstretched arms of Cedar Springs goalie Joslyn Rosenberger and bounced into the net, giving the Rockets a 1-0 halftime lead.
“I was kind of just hoping that it would get on frame,” Carlson said about her shot. “It was just one of those, you know, you just kick it and hope that it goes. I didn't even know it went in until I saw my teammates celebrating. It was really cool. It was kind of just a fluke goal.”
Cedar Springs evened the score midway through the second half when Ella Peck lofted a long free kick from near the sideline, about 20 yards out, and it bounced around untouched and landed in the R-P goal.
The Rockets pose with their championship trophy. Photo/Jeremy Clark
The Rockets seemingly scored and took the lead with 15:25 left in regulation, but the goal was disallowed because an R-P player was called offside on the play.
With only 40 seconds left, a Cedar Rapids shot hit the crossbar of the R-P goal and bounced away. If it had been an inch or two lower, the Red Hawks would likely have won.
The two 10-minute overtime periods were scoreless, leading to the shootout.
Ashley Bradley, Jaslynn Kops, Ash David and Carlson all converted their shootout shots, putting R-P up 4-3. Then Callender made her big save, Messer made her game-winning shot, and the celebration began.
“We were in the same situation my freshman year against Spring Lake, but we ended up losing that one,” Messer said. ”This just feels so amazing, knowing we're going out and making school history. This, and beating Mona Shores for the first time in nine years, just really proves that Reeths-Puffer soccer is coming back!”