Sept. 23- EAST GRAND RAPIDS, MI In a rescheduled match against the Spring Lake Lakers from last Wednesday, the EGR Girls Varsity Field Hockey made sure to leave no doubt as to the power imbalance between the two teams. The weather became overcast even before the end of the national anthem, and the play in the first few minutes seemed to be a bit sluggish from the team from EGR. With 7:11 left in the 1st quarter, the Pioneers stuffed the first goal home on a set play off of an offensive penalty corner. Avery Albers ('27) took the pass from Peyton Astrauskas ('27) and Addi Storrs ('26) and rifled home the first goal of the night. The piercing of the defense veritably blew a hole in the sky as the clouds opened up and the rains came in a torrent. The thunderclaps ended up suspending the game for an hour, and when the teams resumed play, the torrent was no longer only in the sky as the deluge appeared in the Laker goal. Lillie Adamy ('26) continued the scoring in the first quarter with a swift shot into the lower left corner off of a great feed from Toccoa Lepley ('29) with five minutes left in the quarter. The second frame was more of the same as Albers continued the scoring with thirteen minutes left with her second goal of the game on another corner. After receiving a pass from Carly Conway ('27), Albers made her way through three defenders to place one past the Spring Lake goalkeeper. As the EGR began rotating players onto the field in a steady stream of substitutions the confusion of who to cover was evident for the Lakers. Ultimately with nearly seven minutes since the previous goal, Neel van Woudenbergh, one of the two Dutch exchange students use a windmill of a shot to power her shot past the goalkeeper for the 4-0 lead. Just over a minute later, the Dutch Connection hooked up to deliver another tally. Van Woudenbergh powered along the baseline and then found Lotte Postma ('26), the other Dutch exchangee, with a beautifully placed pass in front of the net that Postma deftly slid past the goalie from 6 yards in front of the net. The team rom EGR continued to pound the net and out hustle their opponent and it paid off just a little more than a minute later with hustle from Storrs, who gathered in a loose ball worked hard to get to the net and pounded the back boards of the cage with the fourth of the quarter and a 6-0 lead. After an abbreviated halftime intermission due to the weather, the Lady Pioneers picked up where they were when they stepped off the field. In the fourth minute of the 3rd stanza, Lepley worked hard to took control of a loose ball in the circle, found some open space and stuffed home goal number seven. The game came to an abrupt halt when the Spring Lake coach was upset with another delay of game green card issued to his team. His ensuing argument with the referee resulted in first a yellow five minute card and ultimately a red card and his ejection. With an advantage on the scoreboard and with more numbers on the field, the Lady Pioneers finished off the 8-0 win when van Woudenbergh recorded her second goal on a feed from Mayi Prado ('26), the exchange student from Spain, who set her teammate up after dribbling through a number of defenders. The Lady Pioneers have one game remaining in the OK Conference league play with a commanding 4-0-1 record. They will repeat as conference champion with a win next Monday, September 29 against Hudsonville. That game will be played on the field in Memorial Stadium and will be our opportunity as a community to celebrate the Class of '26 on Senior Night. Before that, EGR will face Dexter on the Dreadnaught home turf on Thursday of this week, and return home for a match-up with Grand Blanc on the final game on Mehney Memorial Field before the renovations commence next week. The EGR Field Hockey program honored Social Studies teacher Tad VandenBrink as the Teacher of the Match for this game. His enthusiasm for the sport and the student-athletes was evident during the rain delay as he had a tutorial on rules, skills and strategies employed by the team. He was thoroughly engaged and attentive as the girls gave him a variety of scenarios to understand. It was definitely a "teacher as the student" scenario and showed how supportive he, and the community of educators, have become of the field hockey program and the efforts of the athletes. Join us on Saturday to see the Best of the West take it to Grand Blanc at home at 11 AM. Go EAST!