Livescore
ZEELAND – When the ball is on the foot of a teammate, Macie Moore gets ready.
When the ball leaves the feet of her teammates, the Zeeland East forward takes off.
She uses her vision and soccer IQ to take a direct route, not to the ball, but where the ball will be, which puts her a step ahead of the defender.
Moore’s use of angles makes her seem much faster than she is – not that she is slow by any means, she is quite fast – but she is not able to sprint past every defender.
It just seems like she can.
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In soccer, it just takes one move like that to change the course of a game – especially a rivalry game.
Moore used her quick feet and quick attack on the ball to score twice in a 3-2 win against Zeeland West on Tuesday at Zeeland East.
“This is a very big win for us,” Moore said. “I got my confidence back and knew it needed to get done and I got it done for my team. It is a big part of things (anticipating the ball). It gives me an extra step knowing where to be.”
First-year Chix coach G Hunderman knows how much of a weapon Moore can be.
“Her speed and ability to turn it on and read the game is huge,” Hunderman said. “When she locks it in, we have it good.”
While her speed might sneak up on some teams, Zeeland West was well aware of her strengths having faced her the past two seasons. Moore is a junior but has been on the Chix varsity squad since her freshman year.
“They have a great player and she beat us three times, and it cost us,” Zeeland West coach Ben Hondorp said. “When she has speed, she is going to beat you. She anticipates a miss, which is what a good striker is supposed to do. She anticipates that the defender will miss, and we didn’t anticipate that, and it beat us, it broke her free three times.”
Sophomore Sophie Koleszar also scored for the Chix (3-1) on an assist from Moore.
“It was a big win, but we still have a long way to go,” Hunderman said.
Rylee Smith and Siobhan Michmerhuizen scored for the Dux (2-2-1). Mallory Allen was strong in goal with a couple of early diving stops for West.
“Second half, we did a much better job of playing our style and playing off of each other, moving the ball,” Hondorp said. “We hit three posts and send some wide. Defensively they did enough to keep it out of the back of the net – and they buried their chances.”
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Macie Moore uses speed, vision to lead Zeeland East past Zeeland West
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