Rematch Goes to Calvin Christian Again
June 14, 2014
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
MASON – A nearly identical repeat Saturday created a three-peat for Grandville Calvin Christian in the MHSAA Division 4 girls soccer championship game at Mason High School.
For the second year in a row, Calvin Christian wiped out a one-goal deficit against Clarkston Everest/Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes and then held off a barrage of shots late in the second half to win the title with a 2-1 victory.
It was the third consecutive year that Calvin Christian defeated the Lakers in the Division 4 championship game.
“It was so similar to last year,” said Calvin Christian coach Tim TerHaar, whose team finished 24-1. “They hit the crossbar late last year, and our keeper came up big.
“I said it last year, and I’ll say it again this year: The margin between winning and losing between two great teams is so small.”
This one was no different. After a scoreless first half, Calvin Christian held a 4-1 lead in shots on goal. The first shot on goal was not taken until the 16th minute.
The scoreless tie was broken in the 50th minute when Clarkston Everest/Waterford Our Lady defenseman Claire Lasceski got the ball in front of the net and beat the Calvin Christian goalkeeper to the left for a goal.
It did little to dampen the confidence of the Squires, and it wasn’t solely because of the same situation from last year’s title game. Calvin Christian trailed in its Semifinal against Muskegon West Michigan Christian on Thursday before rallying for a 3-1 victory.
“We were down in the Semifinal in the pouring rain, and we spoke of our confidence at halftime, knowing that we were still OK,” TerHaar said. “I think that experience on Wednesday night meant a lot to us.
“We haven’t had a lot of close games – the game on Wednesday night was the first time we had to come from behind – and I’ll be honest, I think that helped us at least believe. You preach that you believe when you get down, but until you do it, you don’t know how your team is going to react.”
Ten minutes after Lasceski’s goal, Calvin Christian tied it when sophomore forward Whitney Koets scored on an unusual shot. Lakers goalkeeper Megan Luttinen was drawn out of the net to challenge Koets, who was unable to get off a solid shot. Instead, it trickled past Luttinen and made it to the net.
“I still don’t believe it; it was pretty surreal,” said Koets, whose goal was her 25th of the season. “Hilary Curry did a head past me right into space, and all I thought was to just get something on it, so I did what I did.
“It seemed like it took a long time to get to the net. I thought someone was going to come up and take it out of there.”
The game-tying goal added momentum to Calvin Christian, and just three minutes later, junior midfielder Emily VanVliet scored the go-ahead goal as she shot to the left side of the net from the right side of the box.
“Every coach teaches you to shoot toward the back post, so that is what I did; I shot to the back post looking for that open net,” VanVliet said of her 17th goal of the season.
From there, the remainder of the game was frantic, especially for Squires goalkeeper Allison Keizer, who had the majority of her eight saves in the final 10 minutes.
Clarkston Everest/Waterford Our Lady was relentless in its attack, forcing Keizer to come up with a handful of huge saves, including some off corner kicks, down the stretch.
“It was stressful,” Keizer said. “They were pressing hard, and we were really going at it. We stepped up our game, and we really stuck with them and battled.”
Keizer pointed to one save in particular that she felt was huge.
“I think the one where I had to deflect it out of the end was pretty scary because I made a mistake and started coming out for the ball when I shouldn’t have,” she said. “I ended up backing up trying to fix it, and I ended up being able to fix it.
“It’s scary for me because my heart starts pumping.”
The player who threatened to score the most for the Lakers was senior forward Anna Robb, who came into the game with a team-high 19 goals.
“I wish we had taken more shots earlier in the game, but their keeper did a really good job,” Robb said.
Keizer’s heroics late in the game did not go unnoticed by either coach.
“Allison came up huge to snag a few balls late that could have been goals,” TerHaar said.
First-year Lakers coach Courtney Shegos was pleased with the way her team finished but was disappointed with a few defensive lapses.
“I told the girls to push up, push up, and we got hungry, and their keeper kept them in the game,” Shegos said. “She made a couple of prime saves, so really that was all we could do – to try to put some pressure on them and try to find the net. It could have gone either way.
“We made two mistakes in our coverage, and they capitalized on them. It’s as simple as that.”
The Lakers finished 17-2-1 and will wait until next spring to continue their pursuit of a first MHSAA championship since 2010.
“I wanted it for them, and I wish we could have done it, but I couldn’t have been prouder of the way they played.” Shegos said.
TerHaar praised the play of the Lakers.
“It’s a cruel game, really,” he said. “I don’t think they deserved to lose, based on the game that they played. I’m super-proud of our ability to come back from being down, but boy, they played a great game.”
TerHaar had a more difficult time explaining how it feels to coach in three consecutive championship games.
“It’s hard to put into words, to be honest,” he said. “We’ve been a good program for a long time, but it took us a while to fight through the South Christians and Unity Christians of the world in our Districts.
“I’m proud of our players. At the end of the day, it’s about having a team that, as a coach, you enjoy coaching, and that starts with girls who just enjoy playing and enjoy playing for each other. This team defines that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Tessa Glashower (3) works to get past Clarkston Everest/Waterford Our Lady’s Anna Robb on Saturday. (Middle) Calvin Christian’s Camie Rietberg takes a big swing as Alex Troy (3) moves in to defend.
'The Beast' Powering Traverse City St. Francis Into Contenders Conversation
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
April 25, 2025
Her teammates don’t call her by her nickname, but they’re quite aware of why she’s earned it.
Her coaches definitely use the nickname, and fondly.
And opponents … well, they just know she fits the description when on the soccer pitch. They often employ double and triple teams to try to stop her.
Her name is Sidney Peters and she wears number 14 for Traverse City St. Francis. She was an all-state selection last year as a sophomore, leading St. Francis to the Regional.
She’s now well-known as “The Beast.”
“She is just so physically sound and she’s not afraid to go body to body, and she’s not afraid to take over the game and control it just by moving out of the way and not taking on contact,” said her coach Scott Conway. “She always has her head up, always looking to distribute first and then if she has to hammer, she takes it over — that’s what I love about her.”
Despite sitting out one of the Gladiators’ eight games this season to nurse a lingering ankle injury, Peters has seven goals and a team-leading 12 assists.
The Glads got off to a 5-0 start this year before taking a couple of tough losses. They got back on the winning track this week at Kingsley. They’re looking to pick up three wins this weekend at the Big Rapids Invitational as they take on Gaylord, Ludington and the host Cardinals.
“I think it was hard coming off a win against Williamston and then playing two tough teams,” Peters acknowledged. “There was a lot of reflecting lately coming into the game with Kingsley about our performance and what we need to do to get better. We wanted to really control the game a little bit more than we did the last few games.”
Peters took control in the 5-0 win over Kingsley on Wednesday. She dominated possession and worked the passing lanes while picking up assists on four of the Gladiators’ five goals.
That win is helping Peters and her teammates look ahead to this weekend’s tournament and also matches against bigger schools down the road including Midland, Marquette and Pontiac Notre Dame Prep. Now 6-2, the Gladiators have found themselves ranked in the top 10 all season in Division 3, including at No. 7 this week.
“I am really looking forward to those games that are super important,” said Peters. “It’s showing people smalls schools can do it. When we go against big schools — even if it’s a loss — if we put up a good fight and show we can hang, that’s something to be proud of, I think.”
Peters plays competitive travel soccer in the fall and trains all winter. She’s always striving to grow her game and improve. Among her strengths, Conway noted, is her ability to maintain composure under pressure while constantly striving for success.
She was stoic and calm growing up, with high levels of mental strength and toughness. Her family and coaches believe that those traits, paired with her physical strength and aggressiveness, make Peters a perfect fit for the sport.
“Sid is playing out of her mind,” said Conway, now in his sixth year at the helm for St. Francis. “She’s my top player. She’s already coming out strong with her stats this year, and I expect them to improve.”
Becoming “The Beast,” so the story goes, happened during her youth soccer days. Her spectacular freshmen year led Conway to go public with the name. And while her teammates don’t say the name, they do acknowledge it with their actions in practice.
“They definitely don’t like to go up against me in practice,” Peters said of her teammates. “They’re like, ‘She’s going to push me over’ or whatever, but I’ve never heard it (the nickname).”
Among her favorites aspects of soccer is the physical play, Peters admitted. It started in her center back playing days in youth soccer. She began receiving attention from opponents as she was named all-state honorable mention as a freshman.
“Coming from my freshman year where I wasn’t known to my sophomore year where people start to know you playing you two times per season, and it’s like, ‘Let’s put a girl on her and try to mark her’ and after that it started to be ‘try to take her out, let’s foul her,’” Peters said. “It’s part of the game — when two or three people are going at you, it is going to get physical.”
Peters isn’t the only reason the Gladiators are looking forward to great things this season. They are coming off an 18-2-1 finish a year ago and are led in goals scored by junior Riley Collins with 12, while senior Lillian David has added 11.
And they have a strong defense led by center back Grace Rowe and stingy goaltender Paisleigh Upshaw, who was second-team all-state as a sophomore. The Glads have allowed only six goals this spring.
“We’ve got some of the top players in the state, especially D3,” Conway said. “I am very blessed to have them part of the St. Francis program.”
After St. Francis won its first Lake Michigan Conference girls soccer title last year, the league was disbanded. The Gladiators are playing as independents this spring.
That has the Glads focused solely on a run through the Regional. They’ll have to repeat as District champions first, heading to the Hart District where they could face Clare, Kingsley, Manistee, Reed City, Remus Chippewa Hills and the host Pirates.
“The expectation is for us to continue to develop and get better as a squad,” Conway said. “And then make a nice postseason run, and I truly believe with this group of girls we shouldn't have any problem doing that.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Traverse City St. Francis’ Sidney Peters (14) controls possession against Kingsley. (Middle) Peters and teammate Reese Muma (4) exchange high-fives during their game against Williamston. (Photos by Julie English.)