Second Title Just as Sweet for Sailors
November 3, 2012
By Dean Holzwarth
Special to Second Half
KENTWOOD – Two years ago, Kevin Doornbos was a sophomore when the South Christian boys soccer team won the program's first MHSAA title.
Following Saturday afternoon's Lower Peninsula Division 3 championship game, Doornbos had reason to cherish this one even more.
He booted the lone goal of in a thrilling 1-0 double-overtime win against Williamston at Pat Patterson Athletic Field.
“This is the second time for me, and this one feels even better since I got the game-winning goal,” said Doornbos, whose twin brother, Kyle, also plays on the team.
“I knew we were going to be able to do this because we have a great team. We have such great depth, and I had confidence in my team that we were going to come out with the win.”
Amid a defensive struggle that resulted in a scoreless regulation and first overtime, Doornbos delivered a booming shot from 18 yards out that soared past Hornets' keeper Charlie Coon with less than six minutes remaining in the second overtime.
“I was trying to create space between myself and the defender,” Doornbos said. “I think I took my time a little too much, but I was waiting for the perfect shot, and I'm pretty sure I got the perfect shot there. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
South Christian coach Jason Boersma knew the potency of Doornbos' left foot, and became excited when he lined up for the shot with little pressure surrounding him.
“Kevin has a cannon of a shot, and when I saw them letting him set up to the left, I thought they were playing smart defense, but they don't realize that he is a lefty,” Boersma said. “When the ball hit the back of the net, the emotion was amazing. It was an amazing moment, and I just watched my guys go crazy.”
Boersma said his assistant coach, Ben Cook, predicted that Doornbos would be the hero.
“He actually told him before the second overtime that he thought he was going to get on here,” he said. “He has kind of been like Nostradamus all season, calling out whose going to get that opportunity.”
While South Christian (21-2-3) celebrated its second crown, it ruined the Finals debut of Williamston.
The Hornets (19-7-1) were making their first appearance in a title game after winning the program's first Regional title.
They defeated Elk Rapids 2-1 in a shootout to reach the Finals.
“This team made history,” Williamston coach Brent Sorg said. “Twenty-three years in the program, and this was the first time ever advancing to the state finals. That is something they will remember 10, 15, 20 years down the road.”
The Sailors' defense allowed few scoring chances, and posted their 18th shutout of the season. They blanked their third straight opponent in the tournament after also shutting out Otsego in the Regional Final and Grosse Ile in the Semi.
“Our defense has been hard to score on all season, and most of them are coming back next year,” Boersma said.
Coon, a senior, kept the Hornets in the game with stellar play in goal. He made eight stops, including a diving save in overtime on a shot in front of the net by South Christian's Cody Kok.
“He is an all-state goal keeper, and he had made some tremendous saves for us,” Sorg said. “He kept us in many games all year.”
The Sailors closed the season on an 11-game winning streak.
“What a fun opportunity for these guys,” Boersma said. “They played their hearts out, and Williamston played a fantastic game. I thought they had a few chances, and we had a few chances, and it was just a good battle between two good teams and we're blessed to be on top of this one.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Rapids South Christian players hoist their second MHSAA championship trophy won over the last three seasons. (Middle) South Christian's Kevin Doornbos (11) charges ahead as Williamston's Phil Erickson gives chase moments before Doornbos scored the game's only goal.
Performance: WMC's Jameson Goorman
November 1, 2019
Jameson Goorman
Muskegon Western Michigan Christian senior – Soccer
The Warriors’ senior keeper is the first to credit the defenders in front of him for Western Michigan Christian’s five shutouts in six Division 4 tournament games over the last three weeks. But he deserves ample credit as well, and came up with a number of key saves in last week’s 2-1 shootout win over top-ranked Grandville Calvin Christian to help his team to the Semifinals and earn the MHSAA “Performance of the Week.”
Fourth-ranked WMC will face No. 2 Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett in Saturday’s Division 4 Final, and it can be argued no team has traveled a tougher road to the season’s final day. After blanking three District opponents, Goorman helped the Warriors to a 3-0 shutout of No. 3 North Muskegon in the Regional Semifinal. Next was Calvin, and Goorman made two saves during the second period of overtime and two more during the shootout, including on Calvin’s final shot to ice the win. He then had another shutout as WMC defeated No. 5 Dansville in Wednesday’s Semifinal, his 14th shutout this season, which took his goals-against average down to 0.57. Goorman joined the varsity for the District as a freshman and then was the part-time starter for the first part of his sophomore year before taking over when his partner in net was injured. He made the Division 4 all-state third team in 2018 and over his career has logged 45 shutouts, seventh-most in MHSAA history.
Goorman also has played baseball and basketball during his high school career, although he has decided to not play basketball this winter. But the court certainly has had a major impact on Jameson as an athlete, directly and indirectly – his grandfather Jim Goorman led WMC’s boys basketball varsity to 504 wins and five Class D titles from 1980-2012. There’s also a family background in soccer championships – Jameson’s dad Jamie was on the Warriors’ 1988 Class C-D title-winning team. Jameson is hoping to continue playing soccer at the collegiate level and also carries a grade-point average approaching 3.5. He plans to study either nursing or accounting.
Coach David Hulings said: “He knows the game and is able to interpret what he sees so quickly that he’s able to do what he needs to do. This year he had two really great saves, one against Reeths-Puffer that kept us in the game and allowed us to finish with a tie. The other was against Leland in the last five minutes of the game. He made a tremendous save and we won 1-0. … In our first game against Orchard View, they had seven breakaways and Jameson saved every one of them. Those were give-me goals, and he stopped them. I don’t know of a goalkeeper in my nearly three decades of coaching who is better 1-on-1 than Jamo.” (Comments first appeared in the Local Sports Journal.)
Performance Point: “I think since we got to the playoffs, we’ve been playing our best soccer,” Goorman said. “I haven’t had to make a ton of saves, other than the PKs, so most of the credit should go to my defense. (Opponents) haven’t had a ton of opportunities. Against Grandville Calvin Christian we went to a PK shootout. I’ve always been pretty good at PKs, so I just go in there thinking I’m going to save every single PK. For me, I was pretty confident going into it. … My sophomore and junior years, we lost in PKs both years in Regionals. We did not want to go out on PKs again, so we’ve been practicing that all year. I was getting pretty confident in our chances in that. My sophomore and junior year I felt really nervous, but going into the last shootout I felt really confident; I didn’t feel that nervous . I was more excited than I was nervous.”
It’s the guys in front of me: “Brandon Fles, I think he’s one of the top two defenders in the state if not the best defender in the state, in my opinion. He’s been phenomenal since sophomore year. Him and Jake Betten, Isaiah Visker and Brandon Eenigenburg, the whole back line has played really well. I think most of the credit should go to them. There haven’t been too many teams that have challenged me a lot. There’s been some shots, but a lot of them have been from far out and not too hard to handle.”
Playoff path: “Calvin, North Muskegon and Dansville were all really quality teams. … With our team, it’s probably a little different than with any other team. We really like to stay loose, relaxed and just be ourselves for the games. And during practices we stay loose; we have fun. We’re just enjoying every minute of it. … It’s definitely not easy to have fun and stay loose and play hard and keep the intensity up, but I think that’s something we’ve just learned to do well going into the postseason. We’ve been trying to prepare ourselves all year for this, so I don’t think it’s been too hard to bring our best game every single game.”
Grandpa taught us: “It’s awesome being in a family with him. He’s really showed me how to win and how to have confidence, but also not (to) be overconfident and cocky. (He) showed me how to be humble, and I think I really appreciate that – and just how always to have good sportsmanship.”
Pitch play: “(Soccer has) probably come the most natural to me. I’ve had to work harder in baseball to get good at that – I’ve worked at that my whole life. I think soccer has come more naturally, and I’ve put more time and effort into that. I started playing club soccer my eighth grade year. It helped me so much with my feet, helped me get going, and then I started to really love soccer. I played it a lot more, so it became really fun for me, and I love my team. … I think after my sophomore year, I really just started to realize that I loved it more and I enjoyed playing it and I was getting better at it.”
– Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Past honorees
Oct. 24: Austin Plotkin, Brimley cross country - Report
Oct. 17: Jack Spamer, Brighton cross country - Report
Oct. 10: Kaylee Maat, Hudsonville volleyball - Report
Oct. 3: Emily Paupore, Negaunee cross country - Report
Sept. 26: Josh Mason, South Lyon soccer - Report
Sept. 19: Ariel Chang, Utica Eisenhower golf - Report
Sept. 12: Jordyn Shipps, DeWitt swimming - Report
PHOTOS: (Top) Muskegon Western Michigan Christian's Jameson Goorman lines up a kick downfield. (Middle) Goorman makes a save during the Warriors' Regional Final shootout win last week over Grandville Calvin Christian. (Photos by Randy Riksen.)