Edwardsburg’s Andy Boyles chases down a ball during the Edwardsburg Invitational on Saturday. The Eddies went 1-1 in the opening tournament of the season. (Vigilant/Argus photo/AMELIO RODRIGUEZ)

By JEFF FISHER

Vigilant/Argus

The Sturgis boys’ varsity soccer team is quickly becoming the guest that comes over, trashes your house and then leaves you to clean it up.

A year ago the Trojans beat the Eddies 4-1 in the championship game of this same tournament and then eliminated Edwardsburg 2-1 in the MHSAA district finals.

This year, Sturgis is continuing its winning ways as the Trojans defeated the host Eddies 3-0 in the championship game of the Edwardsburg Invitational Tournament.

Both teams advanced to the final by rolling to shutouts.

Visiting Sturgis took on Comstock in one semifinal match.

The Trojans jumped out to a 2-0 lead four minutes into the match on a goal by Chris Barajas off a header and led 5-0 at the break.  Oracio Garcia and Chris Barajas each had two goals while Enrique Lopez netted one goal.

The second half looked like a race as to who was going to get the hat trick for the match.

Lopez scored two more goals to take that honor, with a goal by Juan Garcia in the middle to post the 8-0 victory in which forced the mercy rule to end the game and advance the Trojans to the championship game.

“They are doing good. We have 10 seniors and a lot of guys coming back from last year and overall I think they played well,” Trojans head coach Kees VanZelst said. “We just have to work on the little things, but we are doing well and just have to play solid and we will be fine.”

The Eddies meanwhile, spent almost the entire first half in Marcellus’ end of the field in the other semifinal match.

After three shots on goal, the Eddies finally dented the scoreboard on a Luke Rohrman goal, which was assisted by Austin Teeter.

The half ended with the Eddies up 1-0.

The second half the Eddies got things rolling.

Evan VanBelle, Austin Teeter and Andrew Gnott all got in the scoring act as the Eddies outshot the Wildcats 20-11 to go on to the 4-0 victory to meet Sturgis in the final.

“We moved the ball around well, finished well and made some great saves in the game. We played well, possessed the ball well,” Eddies head coach Ryan Rosenkranz said. “Sturgis is a very experienced team. They work well individually and as well as a team and you saw how successful they were last year and I don’t think they lost a lot from last year and will be definitely the team to beat in our district this year.”

The Trojans struck first in the championship on a goal by Carlos Suarez, taking a 1-0 lead.

A Barajas’ penalty kick put the Trojans up 2-0 at the break. Garcia would score in the second half to post the final score.

The Eddies were outshot 9-5 for the entire game.

“Sturgis is very, very good. They were solid last year and even better this year. They are very talented individually, but it is a double-edged sword in that they combine that very well and work very well as a team and they are one of the teams that we aspire to be,” Rosenkranz commented on the final.

“We started to do what we left off from the earlier game,” VanZelst said. “Our game was to keep the ball on the ground because they (Edwardsburg) are so tall, trees out there, and that worked out pretty good. I thought we did a pretty good job, got a lot of kids playing and everybody got in the game, it was fun.”

In the consolation game, Marcellus rolled out to an early 1-0 lead after one half, and would record one more goal midway through the second half to go to a 2-0 victory over Comstock to claim third place in the tournament.

Edwardsburg Invitational

Semifinals

Edwardsburg…3

Marcellus…0

E — Andrew Gnott

E — Austin Teter

E — Evan VanBelle

Championship match

Sturgis…3

Edwardsburg…0

S — Carlos Saurez

S — Chris Barajas

S — Oracio Garcia

Varsity record: Sturgis 2-0, Edwardsburg 1-1