The goal for the Hollandale Christian School seventh and eighth-grade soccer team was simple: capture the tournament championship that eluded it a year earlier.

Friday, November 19, 1999

The goal for the Hollandale Christian School seventh and eighth-grade soccer team was simple: capture the tournament championship that eluded it a year earlier.

Mission accomplished.

The Hollandale team defeated two opponents and tied another in the recent tourney to take the title that slipped away last year.

In the opener, Hollandale faced St. Paul’s Lutheran of Latimer, Iowa. The locals controlled the action from the start, maintaining pressure on the St. Paul goalkeeper, but the game remained scoreless until late in the first half, when Cory Kuipers took a crossing pass from Jacob Geerlings and knocked home the goal.

Marcus Peterson added the final two goals for Hollandale on assists from Mike Veldman and Jill Wilkie as HCS went on to post a 3-0 victory.

Hollandale’s next opponent was the defending champion, Timothy Christian of Wellsburg, Iowa. It was much closer than the first game, with the visitors taking a 1-0 lead on a breakaway goal midway through the first half.

Just before halftime, Kuipers took a corner kick and found Peterson 6 yards out at the far post. Peterson’s perfect header into the upper corner of the net tied it 1-1, and that’s the way it ended.

In the other round-robin game, Timothy Christian and St. Paul’s played to a 0-0 tie, meaning a win in the final game would give Hollandale the championship. The opponent in the title game, Kanawha Christian, had split in its opening two games.

Hollandale started strong, with Nathan McKenney opening the scoring with an assist from Carl Gaudian.

Moments later Brent Christenson took a pass from Greg Heijerman and knocked it in for a 2-0 lead.

Veldman added an unassisted goal in the second half for a final score of 3-0.

It was the sixth quad-school soccer tournament title in the last seven years for the Hollandale team. HCS will face the same schools in a volleyball tournament Nov. 20 in Latimer.