Unity Shuts Down Powers, Adds to Streak
June 18, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Hudsonville Unity Christian junior goalkeeper Emily Ponstein had both arms around the championship trophy and clutched it to her chest.
“I think I’m going to take it home with me,” she said.
Ponstein wasn’t going to let go of the trophy, much like she didn’t let go of any ball that was sent in her direction Saturday afternoon at DeMartin Stadium on the campus of Michigan State University.
Ponstein made seven saves as the second-ranked Crusaders defeated No. 1 Flint Powers Catholic 2-0 in the MHSAA Division 3 girls championship game.
It was the third Finals championship in a row for Unity Christian (22-2-1), which has won 10 of the past 12 Division 3 titles. Flint Powers has been the runner-up in four of those championship games and defeated Unity Christian for the title in 2011.
Unity Christian coach Randy Heethuis, in his 27th season leading the Crusaders, heaped a ton of praise on his junior keeper.
“She made at least three or four fantastic saves. She basically stood on her head and kept Powers off the board,” he said. “That was by far her finest game she has had for us, and what a great stage to do it on. It was neat.”
Ponstein was at her best about 10 minutes into the second half when she stopped two shots directly in front of the net. She added a diving save to her left later in the half.
“I saw her coming in, and I was like, ‘No, not today, sorry,’” Ponstein said of the first shot. “The second one was tougher because it was in the air and it was a quick reaction save. The one I had to dive for came in a lot quicker than I expected. It was a great shot, and they are a great team.”
Flint Powers (21-2-1) outshot Unity Christian 16-3 and had the edge on corner kicks 5-1. But Ponstein clearly was the difference.
“I give a lot of credit to that goalie,” Flint Powers coach Art Moody said. “She made some amazing saves. If one of those shots goes in, it’s a different game.”
Ponstein said seeing so many shots actually might have worked in her favor.
“The constant pressure makes you really tired at the end of the game, but I think it keeps me on my toes,” she said. “Since I don’t get a break, I don’t have a chance to lose focus.”
Junior midfielder Alaina VanZalen gave Unity Christian a 1-0 lead in the 29th minute of the first half. She found the net from the left side of the top of the box and beat the Flint Powers goalkeeper on the short side. It was the first shot on goal of the game for the Crusaders.
“I shot it, and I really didn’t think it was going in,” she said. “I was shooting at the short side, and (the keeper) was there but it kind of snuck under her. It was a great surprise.”
It also was something that was part of the game plan.
“I saw a goal that somehow slipped under their keeper,” Heethuis said. “We talked about it at practice and said we want to test this keeper on the low side. I was screened out, so I couldn’t see it, but I saw Alaina shoot, and I just saw it stayed on the ground and went in. How it went in, I’m not exactly sure.”
The game stayed 1-0 until late in the second half. Sophomore Alexis Ponstein, younger sister of the goalie Emily, dribbled more than 50 yards on a breakaway and scored unassisted in the 78th minute to basically put the game away.
Ponstein, the goalie, was emotional talking about her little sister scoring a goal.
“I’m so proud of her,” she said through tears. “She has worked so hard.”
Most of the Unity Christian team actually did not want Alexis Ponstein to take the ball to the net.
“When she got the ball, there was part of us on the sideline saying, ‘Take it to the corner,’ ” Heethuis said. “That’s not in her DNA. She took it and realized she had one player to beat, and she got around her. Give that defender credit. She got a foot on the first shot, but then Lex just cleaned it up and nicely passed the ball into the side netting.
“We’ve been getting on her about hitting the ball too hard sometimes, and she didn’t that time. She took something off it and neatly tucked it into the corner. She must have been listening.”
She might have listened about the hard shots, but she didn’t listen about going to the corner late in the game.
“I was going down the center, and Coach is screaming at me, ‘Go to the corner, waste time, go to the corner, so I picked my head up and the last girl just stabbed, and I went around her and realized it was just me and the goal, so I just went for it,” she said
It was the final game for two-time all-stater Maddy VanDyke, who last year scored the game-winner in double overtime to give Unity Christian the Division 3 title. She was just as happy this year to win even though she did not score.
“We still won it. I don’t care who scores; we win, and it means a lot,” said VanDyke, who will play on the same field next season for Michigan State University. “I have a lot of memories here for high school, and I hope to make a lot more for college.”
VanDyke went out a three-time champion.
“Maddy VanDyke showed what kind of player she is,” Heethuis said. “She got a little dinged up, but I couldn’t be prouder of her.”
Defense has been the key all season for Unity Christian, which had shutouts in 10 of 18 regular-season games. The Crusaders became even stingier in the tournament, posting shutouts in six of seven games, including the title game. They allowed more than one goal just twice and gave up 11 goals total over 25 games.
Ponstein gave up only seven goals playing the majority of the minutes this spring and finished with 15 shutouts.
“We’re disappointed that we didn’t generate more corner kicks, but we just defended and defended,” Heethuis said. “A lot of people could look at this game and say we got outplayed, but the fact of the matter is that we won. We’ll take it. We’re going to enjoy it.
“There are no style points in soccer.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Unity Christian's Maddy VanDyke (14) pushes the ball past a pursuing Flint Powers player Saturday. (Middle) The Crusaders celebrate their ninth championship.
Success Comes with Stories as Portage Central Surges Toward Postseason
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
May 21, 2025
PORTAGE — The urge to play varsity soccer was so strong for Allison “Ricky” Rearick that as a sophomore she agreed to become an obstacle while opponents tried to boot balls past her into the net.
A defender all her life, the Portage Central senior had to completely change her game to become a goalkeeper, using her hands instead of her head to advance the ball.
She also had a problem trying not to duck when the ball came blitzing at her.
“That was my biggest problem coming in,” she laughed.
Three years later, Rearick is an old hand in net for Portage Central, allowing just 11 goals over 14 games this spring while leading the Mustangs to a 12-3 record. She has seven shutouts.
As Portage Central readies for its Division 1 District opener Tuesday against Mattawan at Kalamazoo Loy Norrix, Rearick's story is among those that have made this a special season.
Her comfort in net was not always the case.
“We were just joking with her the other day,” coach Tim Halloran said. “Her first game was against Hudsonville, at Hudsonville, the No. 1 team in the state at the time.
“She had been training for six or seven days. Right before the game, she went to my assistant, Ashleigh Garrod, and said ‘Can I practice punting the ball? I don’t know how to punt the ball,’ which is a big part of the game.”
That’s when the team’s goalkeeper coach, Brad Conway, stepped in.
"He helped me my whole sophomore year,” Rearick said. “When we got to Districts and Regional time, I was starting to feel pretty comfortable.”
Halloran said he knew Rearick would be able to handle the new position.
“Through her freshman year she played defense,” he said. “She’s tall (5-foot-9) and she played basketball, so she can use her hands.”
Rearick said the transition from defense to goalkeeper was easier because “after basketball, I knew how to catch a ball, which was good. The jumping aspect of basketball also helped.”
It all came together in that first game at Hudsonville, a 2-1 Portage Central win.
“I was so nervous, probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life,” she said. “I was so scared. I was still very nervous the next couple games, but it was so much fun.”
Even more fun was being named all-state honorable mention her junior year after giving up just eight goals all season.
As she winds down her senior campaign, Rearick said, “This group of girls, playing with them has been amazing. I’ve actually learned to enjoy the position.
"It’s a lot of pressure at times, but when you have a big game you’re able to help your team with a big save. It feels amazing.”
Senior teammate Kaeli Mason appreciates having her buddy in goal.
“Ricky’s just amazing,” Mason said. “She saves us so much. She’s an overall great person, so it’s great to have her back there.
“We all talk a lot on the field. Communication is a big part of defense on the field.”
Building a family bond
Portage Central certainly appreciates that back-line bond. Mason has had to work her way back into soccer shape after breaking her leg and missing all of last season.
She played in two scrimmages last spring but knew something wasn’t right.
“Maxing in my weightlifting class and tryouts were the same week,” Mason said. “I think it was just overload.
“I limped and had to keep going back to the doctor until they finally figured it out with an MRI.”
Mason was anxious to get back on the pitch.
“It was a struggle, but going through all our preseason stuff and playing travel helped me get back (into shape), and working out on my own,” she said.
Mason also had her soccer-playing family to support her, including her mom, Tami Mason, who is a 1993 Portage Central grad.
The senior said her mother encouraged her not only to play, but also to make the team a family.
Tami Mason was also a defender in her day, “although they called it stopper back then,” she said, noting that team pictures still line the halls at the school.
“It’s kind of funny because all my kids have gone there and they say, ‘Oh, there’s Mom,’” she laughed.
Looking back at her high school days, Tami Mason said soccer was the highlight.
“The camaraderie with all my teammates, they were like family,” she said. “It was such a high going out on that field, knowing you had to do whatever you could to win those games and do your best.
“It was literally my favorite part of school. I’m still pretty close to a lot of the kids I grew up playing with. I still have a photo album with all the clippings from back in the day.”
One part of this year’s Mustangs team is a throwback to Mason’s era.
“It’s funny because (this year’s team) calls themselves the P.C. Bad Boys," she said. “Back in the day, there’s a cop song “Bad Boys” so we used to walk out on the field back then with a jambox on our shoulders playing that.
“It’s so funny to see that now they have T-shirts and refer to themselves as that. I’m like, that started back in the day with us. It’s kinds of surreal.”
In a quirky twist, Halloran also coached Tami Mason, although it was on a travel team, not at Portage Central.
Reality check
While Kaeli Mason worked her way back to the team after rehabilitating her broken leg, Halloran has returned from a scare that was much more serious.
Doctors discovered he had kidney cancer in August 2021.
“They took the whole kidney, so I am cancer-free on the inside and I have skin cancer on the outside from 30-some odd years of being out in the sun,” he said. “Luckily, I didn’t have to do any radiation or chemo. It was just learning to live with one organ fewer than I had.”
That also changed his perspective on life.
“I got married (in December, 2021, to Tammy Dykema-Halloran) and I think I’ve taken a step back,” he said. “We were together for 12 years and we said, ‘Hey, cancer is something we’re not going to mess with.’
“You don’t know what’s going to happen. So we got married, and it’s been a very calming influence. I’m still very passionate about being out here and I love doing this, but I’m sure I took it way too seriously in other points in my career and lost a lot of sleep and a lot of hair and have a lot of gray hair from worrying about stuff.”
***
Besides Rearick and Mason, Halloran has five other seniors on the team: Lauren Tooley, Anna Pellegrini, Kyra Gardner, Katie McLaughlin and Madison Cutler.
Juniors are Sophia Sanborn, Janelle Yao, Claire Pierce, Delaney O’Reilly, Ella Bish and Maya Moulton. Sophomores are Ally Areaux, Kaitlyn Lam, Lily Dimick, Addison Giebel, Lily Grueter, Jenna Dietzel, Jillian Mills, and Claire VanderRoest; and the two freshmen are McKinley O’Reilly and Marley Righter.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Portage Central keeper Allison Rearick, far right, prepares to launch the ball during a game against Kalamazoo Loy Norrix. (2) Rearick considers her options with a teammate and opponent in front of her. (3) At left, Kaeli Mason plays this season and walks arm-in-arm with her mother Tami, also holding the trophy at far right during her playing days. (4) Portage Central coach Tim Halloran. (Rearick photo by Jim Cottrell. Mason photos courtesy of Tami Mason. Halloran photo by Pam Shebest.)