Exciting match tonight from the kick-off. The first-half was played in the middle of the pitch with the time of possession tipping in Ionia's favor. Lots of action in the first half but we struggled to find our groove and as a result the half ended scoreless. Our defense was holding strong but our attack wasn't focused. Still, after talking things through at half-time the players felt it was only a matter of time before they broke the deadlock.

The second half was when the boys started to connect the dots. We controlled the play more and started squeezing their defense with our runs into the final third of the pitch. Tonight was Zane Sarka's night as he scored 2 goals within minutes of each other on assists by Gage Flanner. At that point I think the guys let off the gas and Eastern pounced on our lackin of focus with a nice goal to pull back to within one. Things started to get a little bit nervy but then Sarka struck once more to raise the stakes. Somewhere in all of that Eastern was awarded a penalty and although they felt confident they were about to score - Ionia keeper Matt McCoy kept his composure and made the save to deny the goal. Let the record show he is 100% in penalty saves. Eastern did end up climbing back to within one with another goal, but Zane Sarka dashed their hopes with a determined run at the defense to collect his fourth goal of the night. Final score 4-2.

Join us for the next match scheduled for Monday Aug. 21, home against Lansing Everett with JV kick-off at 5:30 pm followed by Varsity at 7pm.

Stats at a Glance
Ionia 4 - Eastern 2
Shots: 14

Goals:
Zane Sarka 4

Assists:
Gage Flanner - 2
Zion Harris - 1 (1st career assist)

Matt McCoy - Gets the win in goal with 3 saves (1 penalty save). 

Overall Record: 2-0-0
Conference Record: 0-0-0