HOLLAND, Mich. — 1,2,3 Go Dutch!!
"It's just a blast, it's like recess for us," said Tucker Martinez.
Maybe you would say that too if you were playing college lacrosse with 45 of your closest friends.
Hope men's lacrosse, the 2021 MIAA tournament champions, are looking to bring home a regular season title this year too. They hope their balancing act on offense and defense will get the job done as conference starts.
"Being able to control both sides of the field, we do our job on defense and then our offense feeds on that and then we feed off the offense. Like when they score it just makes us that more hype and ready to play even harder," said senior midfielder Brayden Blackburn.
"I think our defense is very smart in how they approach shutting a team down. And they're very, very disciplined and they've done a good job of running the field for us to give us the transition to offense too so that way they're really a catalist for our offense," said Head Coach Mike Schanhals.
The Flying Dutchmen are now 8-2 on the season as they get ready to start MIAA play right here at home Tuesday night against one of their biggest rivals.
"There's nothing like it, every rivalry game is just a little different than everything else. It just means it's more fun. It's more energy and our fans will come out and be excited for it. We are really pumped I wish we were playing right this second," said Schanhals.
"It's intense but it's always, that's why you come to Hope to play in these type of games. And so I cannot wait," said Blackburn.
"It's what we like practice for, and it's what we dream of honestly. Those opportunites to play in those big games. And have those big moments are a blast," said Martinez.
Van Andel Stadium will be packed Tuesday night. Usually these two team don't meet until later in the year, but the Dutch will be ready for when the Brits come to town.
"It's super fun. I'm expecting a lot of fans to show up. It's like Friday night light for me, back in football in high school. Just, the energy, and vibe is really cool, really fun. Cool atmosphere to be around and it's just a fun game always like it's a hard game and it's intense," said Martinez.
