BIG RAPIDS – Big Rapids’ girls soccer team celebrated the Central State Activities Association soccer title on Friday at Cardinal Stadium after defeating Tri County 7-0 in the  tournament championship game.

Big Rapids (14-4-1) beat Tri County (12-5-2) for the second time this season. The Cardinals won 3-1 during the regular season and by virtue of Friday’s win, they finished the entire league schedule undefeated.

Big Rapids built a 2-0 halftime lead and poured in five unanswered goals in the next 40 minutes. Nalaya Fricke tallied three goals while Nuray Fricke, Anna Vance, Maddie Vallade and Emily Waltz notched one apiece.

Oliva Godfrey was the winning goalkeeper.

For the second straight game Big Rapids was able to shut down Savannah Thompson who became just the fourth player in MHSAA girls soccer history earlier this season to score 200 goals after having a seven-goal performance against Lakeview.

“It was a really good game,” Waltz said. “I think we had our struggles during the game but I think we really pulled together and finished off the conference really good.”

“We communicated the best I think we’ve communicated this season,” Ava Westin said. “Even though I think we cold have gotten a few more goals, other than that, I think we did very well.”

It was Fricke’s highest single game for goal scoring.

“I think our team competed very well againt this team,” Fricke said. “We knew the competition was going to be good going into this game. I think we handled business early and we just did what we needed to get to the win.”

Big Rapids coach Curt Ray was pleased with what he saw.

“The girls played hard,” Ray said. “Tri County came in here with nothing to lose and everything to gain. They’ve been getting a lot of PR this year. Savannah is a great player and our defense played well. The girls have been playing, most of them, 80 minutes a game. You’ve got to take that into consideration.”

Big Rapids is home on May 18 against Fremont to end the regular season. The Cardinals host Muskegon High on May 22 in a district first-round game.

“Our goal when we start the season is to win a conference and then the conference tournament,” Ray said. “The third is to win the district going into the postseason.”

“We just need to continue working, continue communicating, continuing working as a team and keep building up as a team,” Nalaya Fricke said.