TRAVERSE CITY — The Traverse City St. Francis fight song played before a soccer game for the first time Tuesday.
The Gladiators played their first game with “St. Francis” across the front of their uniforms, taking over the boys soccer cooperative program from Traverse City Christian.
With some new digs in addition to uniforms — such as a big “Gladiator Soccer” banner in the stands, an SF logo on the upgraded scoreboard and shouting “Glads!” coming out of the halftime huddle — St. Francis won 4-0 against Gaylord in Tuesday’s nonconference boys soccer game on Champion Field at the Keystone Soccer Complex.
Junior captain Louis Rhein scored the first three goals in Gladiators soccer history, with Tyler Boynton-Fisher tacking on another for the final margin.
“It feels pretty good, but I wouldn’t have scored without good through balls from all the midfielders and defenders,” Rhein said. “Definitely a team effort, but it feels pretty good.”
Rhein said finally being able to wear his school’s uniform felt special. The team donned navy blue jerseys and shorts, with a gold “St. Francis” across the chest and gold-outlined white numbers on the front and back, plus a cross on the back of the neck that TCSF uniforms traditionally display.
“It gave me someone to play for,” Rhein said. “Playing for my school is a lot different than playing for someone else’s school. It definitely helped us to play harder.”
The 20-member varsity squad is made up of 16 players from St. Francis and four from Grand Traverse Academy, including starting goaltender Hudson Connor, who made six saves in the shutout effort. TC Christian has multiple players on the junior varsity team, something the program has never had in the past.
The TC Liberty — a similar co-op between SF and Christian — started in 2002. That girls soccer team now also goes under the St. Francis banner.
Five years after the Liberty, the boys teams entered into a co-op agreement.
At first, TC Christian could only take four TCSF players for soccer, with St. Francis worried about draining too many athletes away from football.
Then a few years later, that became eight, then 10, then no limit whatsoever.
TC Christian started its own boys soccer program in the late 1990s, not long after the school was founded in 1995, with Ron Christie as its coach.
“A lot of people thought St. Francis would be a JV team and Christian would be varsity,” said Christie, now an Elk Rapids resident who said he’d like to see the SF team play when it visits the Elks on Oct. 1. “By the end of the first practice, you couldn’t hardly tell who was St. Francis and who was TC Christian. They melded together well.”
Christie retired in February 2020 after putting up a 284-99-15 record with eight district titles and three regional championships.
Roy Montney followed Christie in leading the program.
“The key is that it’s the same program, and the players come back from the years before, and we’ve been running this program this way,” Montney said. “These players have four years running under this system. So the fact that we changed jerseys doesn’t really matter to the coaching staff. It matters in the fact that we play the same way. That was the key, and that’s the consistency we need within the program.”
The Gladiators (1-0) started slowly, dominating possession, but not scoring in the first half with the wind at their backs.
Deadlocked 0-0 at the intermission, it didn’t stay that way long, with Rhein striking on the first of his three goals 43 seconds into the second half. Senior Jack Sperry assisted on Rhein’s first goal in St. Francis soccer history.
“It kind of lit a fire under our whole team, just to go and get more,” Rhein said. “The first half we played more safe, and no risks were being taken. Then the second half, we took a few more risks. I’d say they paid off.”
Rhein added two more goals, both assisted by Tyler Boynton-Fisher, with 15:48 and 4:15 remaining.
Boynton-Fisher added another with 23 ticks left, assisted by Noah Wentzloff.
“The idea was they had to get comfortable,” Montney said. “It’s the first game, there’s a lot of lot of nerves. We actually pulled out one player just to calm him down, and then he went back out and he did well. I knew we would settle into the game.”
St. Francis quickly returns to action, traveling Wednesday to Suttons Bay (0-2).
“The support from St. Francis is great,” Montney said. “They were able to get us a new scoreboard, obviously uniforms and all that had to be replaced, so that was great. That’s an important part.”
Gaylord (1-1) came into the contest with a bevy of scrimmages under its belt, playing five in the last week, then winning 2-1 Monday at Midland Calvary.
“We expected the first half to be good,” Gaylord head coach Brandon Contreras said. “It’s our sixth game in six days, so we’re pretty smoked. Coming into this game, we were limping a little bit. The legs were heavy. Four-nothing, that’s little excessive on our end. But Traverse City St. Francis is a good team. Just too many games in too short of a time in the beginning of the season.”
Those scrimmages weren’t against easy foes either, playing the likes of Birmingham Seaholm, Midland Dow, Haslett and Eaton Rapids.
“I’m disappointed with the score line, but I’m proud of the work ethic,” Contreras said. “We have a couple days to bounce back against the Sault.”
The Devils host the northern Michigan’s other Blue Devils team Saturday at noon, starting a string of three home games across 11 days.