Wednesday, August 21, 2024 
Ionia 1-1 tie vs Lakewood 

First conference matchup of the season saw Lakewood come to town. It's always a  good rivalry match between these two and tonight's contest did not disappoint.It was a spirited back and forth as each team was trying gain the upper hand. We struggled to maintain a consistent, possession-based game in the first half. As a result Lakewood were able to pick up a penalty toward the end of the half. They put it away to take the lead at 1-0.

Not too much to change in the 2nd half. We needed to do a better job at moving the ball around and we needed to have more of a presence in the midfield during transitional play. We had to just keep at it and be patient as we played our way back into the game.

With just under 20 minutes in the game Ionia really started really stringing passes together and turning up the pressure on Lakewood. With that pressure came several opportunities and soon after we were able to convert from a corner to level the score.  Our early season work on set plays already paying dividends as Santana curled a beautiful ball toward goal with Brady Diebel shouldering it into the back of the net.

The players showed a lot of GRIT tonight, never giving up and in fact, cranking up their level of play in search of a way back into the game. Damon Lautenbach and Derrick Santana kept the motor running all game long while our emergency goalkeeper, Caiden Sayers, put in a fantastic shift and held Lakewood to one goal. And that was from a penalty.

Quick Stats:

Score: Ionia 1 - Lakewood 1

Shots for: 3
Shots against: 7

Goals - 
Brady Diebel (Junior) - 1

Assists:
Derrick Santana - 1

Goalkeeper: Caiden Sayers
Saves: 6 
W - L - 1T

Overall Record: 1W-1L-1T
Division Record: 0W-0L-1T

Next Match: Wednesday, August 23 vs Belding @ 6 pm JV; 7 pm Varsity