The O-K Green conference has a bunch of very strong soccer teams, and the Reeths-Puffer Rockets were reminded of that again on Tuesday night.
After the long holiday weekend, the Rockets had to rally in the second half to salvage a 1-1 tie at home with a scrappy Grand Rapids Union squad they thought they should have beaten.
The only thing that separated R-P from defeat was a pretty goal midway through the second half by junior standout Liam Smith, who now has 13 on the season.
The Rockets are now 3-1-2 overall and 1-0-1 in O-K Green play, with the bulk of the grueling conference schedule still ahead of them.
R-P's Owen Ritsema tries to gain control of a bouncing ball with a Union player right behind.
Union continued to frustrate the Rockets, who have not beaten the Red Hawks in the last three seasons. R-P lost the matchup last year, and the teams tied in 2000.
“Even though we scored the last goal, the tie felt like a loss because of all the talent we have right now,” said Reeths-Puffer head coach Kody Harrell. “I told the boys, I’m glad we have high expectations for ourselves and felt like we should have won, but at the end of the day it’s a very tough conference.
“Before the game their coach told me that they had a lot of new guys and were kind of rebuilding, but he's a real good coach. He always has his kids well organized. They are always scrappy and they always work hard.”
Union had a good strategy to contain Smith for much of the game, bottling up the middle with defenders and giving him little room to function inside the Red Hawk goal box.
R-P's Conner Mammen battles for the ball with Union's Zachary Kuerth.
With Smith temporarily handcuffed, the Red Hawks were able to control the offensive tempo for the first half. The Red Hawks collected an early goal from Abraham Samukai on a long kick within the first few minutes, outshot the Rockets 4-1 and took a 1-0 lead into halftime.
“They had an interesting defense,” Harrell said. “They knew we had more competent players on the ball, so they packed all four defenders inside the 18 at all times, and there was no space. It’s really hard to score from corner angles.”
Reeths-Puffer turned the tables in the second half, outshooting Union 4-1.
Smith had more room to operate after Harrell moved him out to a wing, and that gave him the space to maneuver and score the tying goal.
The Rockets congratulate Liam Smith, center, after he scored the tying goal.
That came with 22:05 left in the game when he got the ball about 15 yards out to the right of the net, weaved past a defender and lofted a high shot that found the far corner of the goal.
He missed a chance to score what would have been the winning goal in the final minutes when a similar shot floated just wide of the net.
Smith also had a free kick with nine seconds left on the clock and sent the ball into the scrum of players in front of the Union net, but a final shot was stopped by the Union keeper with five seconds remaining.
“It was a good game,” Smith said. “I’m proud of the boys for battling through. I think we should have won it, but at the end of the day we came back and tied it. It wasn’t a loss. It just wasn’t our day today.”
The Rockets will travel to Wyoming on Friday for another conference game before hosting Spring Lake on Saturday in a non-league matchup.
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