GRANDVILLE, Mich. — It has been a long 15 years for the Mona Shores boys soccer program since its last district championship.
However, that pain has now gone away as the Sailors took home their first district title with a 1-0 shutout of Rockford on Wednesday night at Grandville high school.
"It's amazing, words can't describe the feeling of it, I'm speechless," said senior Hayden Yaros.
After a scoreless first half it was Yaros putting Mona Shores on the board in what would prove to be the game-winner.
"It's unbelievable," said head coach Mike Apostle, in his sixth season with the program, "this group has been awesome, with all of the weird stuff that has happened in 2020, not knowing if we'd have a season."
Also in the victory, senior goalkeeper Keegan Dekuiper set a program record with his 28th career shutout.
"It feels amazing, especially breaking it tonight for our district championship," Dekuiper smiled, "it makes it that much more special. I credit the defense, it's not just me, I have an amazing defense and I wouldn't trade them for anybody else."
Like all other programs in the state, the Sailors have been through a lot of uncertainty during the ongoing pandemic.
"We were training all year and doing conditioning when we could," Yaros added, "then we were hearing that the season might get cancelled and schools were getting COVID-19, everything was up in the air."
Once the green light was given, the players went right to work.
"When we got the word, for all nine seniors, it was go time," he said.
The program has been close to reaching a district title in the past few seasons, but Yaros says the trophy is for the alumni that build the program for his senior class.
"This is for the alumni that I've been around since I was a freshman," he said, "and since Keegan [Dekuiper] was a freshman, this is for them, it's a great feeling."
The Sailors advance to regionals on Tuesday at Grand Ledge high school and will face the winner of the Holt and Caledonia matchup on Thursday.
