GRANDVILLE, Mich. — “Revenge. I think it’s the revenge tour. We know what happened last year. We have a chip on our shoulder and we’re going to make a change this year,” said senior captain Ross Van Blois.
For the second year in a row, Grandville boys lacrosse will take on Rockford in the regional final. The same team that ended their 2021 season, and they’ve got different plans this year.
“It feels great you know all the hard work we’ve put in. All the pre-season conditioning and all that it just feels great to finally be there,” said senior midfielder Devin Koetje.
“Bittersweet. You know we were there last year. We want to win this time,” said senior goalie Jakob Moske.
The Bulldogs took down Mona Shores last Wednesday in the regional semi finals. This Grandville team has only lost two games so far this year and is led by a massive senior class.
“We’ve had a motto all year which is change the narrative. The typical top teams have been Forest Hills, Rockford, East Grand Rapids and we wanted to show this year that we belong. So I’d say we’ve done a pretty good job of that and a lot of people know that we’re here now and that we’ve arrived,” said head coach Jeremy Strunk.
Historically Rockford has had one of the best teams not only in West Michigan but the entire state. Grandville beat the Rams for the first time in program history back in March, but they know the team they’ll see on Tuesday will be different.
“We just have to play exactly how we played the first time you know don’t take anything for granted because we already beat them. We just gotta go and keep our heads down and keep plowing through and playing good,” said Koteje.
“We’re ready for it and I think all the boys have just been waiting for this moment to take a shot at what we didn’t have last year, get a shot back. We have 12 seniors here that all want it and the younger guys who want it for us and we all love it,” said. Van Blois.
“New team. We beat them earlier in the year and we knew that if we had to play them again that they’ll be a different team. We gotta come out and take them seriously,” said Moske.
“We played them early before spring break. You know I know they have some young talent, some underclassmen that are on varsity. Earlier in the season they didn’t have that varsity experience. They’ve had a long season with a very tough schedule. And watching them earlier today, I can tell they’ve gotten that experience, they’re more seasoned, they’re definitely a different team,” said Strunk.
May 31st is a day the team has had marked on their calendars since the start of the season and they’ll be sure to bring their best in hopes of making it to the state tournament.
“We gotta bring our A game at practice. You got to practice how you play. And that’s the thing, we’re here now. We know that were there May 31st. We know it’s Rockford and we know they’re better than when we played them last. We gotta bring our A game, we know they’ll bring their A game and we gotta be ready to work,” said Strunk.
