Michigan high school girls soccer D-3 final: Hudsonville Unity Christian wins 12th title

EAST LANSING — Two is now company when it comes to the record for Michigan High School Athletic Association girls soccer titles.

Junior forward Ava Lutke was the offensive catalyst with a goal and two assists as Hudsonville Unity Christian repeated as Division 3 champion — its 12th in school history — in a repeat of last year's final: an identical 3-0 triumph over Grosse Ile.

The Crusaders, now tied with Madison Heights Bishop Foley for most state crowns, dominated in all phases of the match outshooting the Red Devils 32-3 to finish the season at 22-1-1 overall.

DIVISION 1:Rochester Adams blanks Hartland, 2-0, for first title in 25 years

Leading 1-0 at halftime, the first 10 minutes of the second half proved to be target practice for Lutke as she fired off four straight quality shots — although they were all saved by Grosse Ile junior goalkeeper Monica Arndt.

But the dam finally broke when Lutke notched her 19th goal of the season to make it 2-0 in the 61st minute.

And the Crusaders, ranked No. 1 all season, put an exclamation point on the victory on sophomore Tessa Ponstein’s goal, with an assist from Lutke, her 17th of the season.

“It’s amazing, we’ve done really well at rebuilding this year,” Lutke said. “There’s a lot of new girls on varsity this year, but everyone stepped up and did their role on this team and we’ve done really well growing as a team and getting better throughout the season."

Barely two minutes into the match, Lutke rang a shot off the crossbar from 25 yards out.

And with 25:33 to go in the first half and the Crusaders applying heavy pressure, sophomore Emma Vruggink scored off an as assist from Lutke to make it 1-0. It proved to be the game-winner.

“When Stella (DeSmit) got the ball, she could see it was wide-open on my side, I screamed at her to play it, and once she passed it through, I knew it was in on goal,” Lutke said. “I just saw Emma back-post and if I just slipped it, she had the goal.”

Lutke, who provided a big piece to the Unity Christian puzzle this season, rifled off a match-high 11 shots over the two halves against the Red Devils.

“She struggled a little bit earlier in the year, but she played in different positions,” Unity Christian coach Randy  She prefers to play up-top, which she did three-quarters of the time today. She can play at the midfield and she does great there. Sometimes she went back in a more defensive-minded midfield spot. She’s just a gamer. She’s extremely competitive. She just wants to do what she can to help the team win. And that’s a credit to her, and not bad either. She kind of showed what she was capable of today.”

It was total domination during the first 40 minutes for Unity as they outshot the Red Devils, 12-1, while dominating on corner kicks, 4-0. The Crusaders maintained possession almost 80% of the time.

The only real scoring opportunity for the Red Devils (17-3-5) came with 22:42 left in the match when junior Aubree Korody’s laser-like attempt was denied on a diving save by Unity Christian senior goalkeeper Anna Newhof, who notched her 10th shutout.

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Grosse Ile coach Kyle Lesperance ranks this year’s Unity Christian squad as “very close” to its 2023 state champs.

“Maybe they dropped it off a tiny bit, or we picked it up a notch,” he said. “We had a little bit of possession and a little bit of an counter attacking team whereas last year we only crossed midfield like maybe two times. This year we had those moments where we were able to counter attack and at least give them a scare or earn a couple of corner kicks. But they’re so dangerous and they’re so fast-paced. They’re technical on the ball. They’re very well coached in their positions and their ball movement. They’re a beast in this division.”

Arndt, under siege most of the match, was outstanding in a losing cause, finishing with 12 saves.

“The past two years I’ve had very special keepers ... a game like this can go south very quickly if your goalie is having an off day,” Grosse Ile coach Kyle Lesperance said. “Monica played fantastic today. There wasn’t a single goal that was her fault or that she should have had. Losing this game 3-0 — it could have been 6-0 or 7-0 — if she was off.”

It was Grosse Ile’s second straight state finals appearance.

“Last year was like an unexpected run where we were just happy to be here,” Lesperance said. “This year we expected a deep run and that was the goal this season. We weren’t going to be anything but happy if we didn’t get back to the final."

Meanwhile, it was also the 12th state title for Unity Christian coach Randy Heethuis, who is 642-105-42 over in his 35 seasons.

“We had 12 seniors graduate from that state championship title team last year and I think 15 kids who did not return total,” Heethuis said. “So, the kids who came back – it was a good, solid core – and they did a great job of leading us back here this year. And the youngsters came along. I think they have grown up seeing the system, how we play and what we like to do. They fit in very well and pretty much every challenge we threw at them.”

After starting the regular season 16-0, the Crusaders tied D2 finalist Spring Lake (1-1) and lost to Hudsonville, the top-ranked team in D1 (3-2).

“We had a tough schedule and they answered the bell, and they competed,” said Heethuis, who owns the coaching mark for most girls state soccer titles. “Even the last week of the season we played No. 1 Hudsonville and battled them to the last five minutes for our only loss of the year and turned around and played that Spring Lake team right there. After defeating them 3-0 earlier in the season . . . I couldn’t be prouder of these kids because when the season started – although some of these girls said they wanted to come back and win a state championship . . . I know that there were some doubters. And I don’t know how many of them deep down inside thought it was possible, but they just kept plugging and plugging away, got better each and every day and every game . . .  if I could just sum it up – the kids did what we asked of them. It was never a me-first kind of thing. It was team first.”