A cool weather pattern settled in over Middleville which included lots of cold rain, waterlogging players and the brave fans at Bob White Stadium tonight where TK hosted East Grand Rapids. TK started the game strong possessing for the first 20 minutes and keeping the pressure on the Pioneers. When mid-way through the first half on a TK corner kick by Aiden Hannapel found Owen Woods in the Box, who settled the ball with his chest and put the ball in the back of the net putting TK up 1-0. 

After the goal, sporadic substitutions by TK stalled the TK attack. There were not a lot of good goal scoring opportunities to be had by either team and left the score 1-0 at halftime.

The second half, East Grand Rapids came out with a new spirit. They were able to win 50/50 balls early on and put pressure on TK defenders. A goal finally came by EGR midfielder 60 minutes into the game, shooting far post from the top of the 18.TK goal keeper Austin Ruth was expecting a deflection from the EGR striker but the ball sailed through untouched to even the game at 1 all. 

The rain finally stopped and lead to some better organized play by TK. TK had several good looks at goal with some creative passes out of the mid field by Tyler Gheres and Hunter Dehaan. Finally in the 73rd minute Cayden Goudzward received the ball from outside midfielder Logan Moore to put him in a 1 v 1 situation with an ERG defender. Cayden had several good moves to shake the defender and buried a strong left footed shot in the corner of the goal just outside the Pioneer goalies hands.This gave TK the lead back 2-1. 

East put all they had left into one last 5 minute onslaught but TK’s defense and keeper held strong and was able to weather the storm. After the intense 5 minutes TK seemed to regainpossession within the midfield and relieve the pressure with strong play by Pablo (Last Name) and Tyler Gheres, which helped lead to a few more shots by TK to end the game with a 2-1 victory and to put them 1 and 0 in the conference. 

The Trojans take on a tough Grand Rapids Christian on the road Wednesday at 6:45PM.