HART – Back on Thursday, Oct. 10 - just one week prior to their meeting in the district quarterfinals - Hart dropped a rivalry contest with Shelby in shocking fashion. On Tuesday, Oct. 15 the two teams met in a win-or-go-home match that ended with the Pirates getting their revenge in a 1-0 victory.
Shelby has often been a thorn in the side of the Pirates’ boys soccer program, so much so that Hart hadn’t claimed a win in the series since 2017. Thursday’s fight changed that as Hart came out with a renewed focus that allowed them to take control of the game.
“That first game (against Shelby), people want to call it an upset because we had a better season,” Hart Head Coach Joe Gilbert said. “When you look at the record between Shelby and Hart, they’ve beaten us more times than we’ve beaten them – for sure since I’ve been here. I told the boys that we were the underdogs and we had to play like that. We had to chase, be physical and play hard because we’re the ones that have everything to fight for.”
Unlike their first meeting, it was Hart that showed aggression from the opening whistle. The Pirates took possession of the ball and rarely let Shelby maintain any quality looks of their own.
“We were on our field, which is the actual size for a pitch. We had the space to play the way we want to which helps us out tremendously,” Gilbert said. “We made a couple of personnel tweeks and talked about changing formation to counter (Shelby). That worked out tremendously.”
Adan Cruz and Emmanuel Ortega were vital pieces in the Pirates’ game plan, as they served as the distributors through which the offense flowed. Shelby struggled to keep those two in check, resulting in plenty of mismatches in the midfield.
“One of our changes was moving Emmanuel Ortega – who’s a bit quicker and more physical – back into the holding mid spot and moving Rivaldo (Gonzalez) up a little further,” Gilbert said. “(We wanted) to control their opportunities a bit more to give us better space to transition into.”
At 21:29 remaining in the first half, the Pirates were able to strike first. Hart senior Tyler Larios-Mendez sent a cross pass to the back post where junior Adrian Belmares was able to collect and finish past the Tigers’ freshman keeper Josh Vega.
From that point on, Hart dictated the pace of the game with long stretches of possession, making it hard for the Tigers to find any opportunities in front of the Pirates’ net. Hart’s defense kept Shelby to just one shot on target, thanks in part to a defense led by senior Carter Ramseyer.
That led to a 1-0 finish in which neither team found a way to put more points on the board. Hart punched their ticket to the district semifinals where they set up a matchup with state-ranked Elk Rapids in Manistee.
Shelby finished their season at 4-13-2 overall in the first year under head coach Damian Gonzalez. Gonzalez was proud of his team’s efforts in a year where they took their fair share of lumps.
“I’m proud of how the season went in the sense that the majority of us didn’t throw our hands up and quit when things were getting rough,” Gonzalez said. “After we played Orchard View, something clicked and we turned things around. Towards the end of the season we were playing pretty good soccer. I’m still hungry though and I’d like to see how we respond to this and how we show up in the offseason.”
