On Halloween, the Todd Beamer cheerleaders looking disguisedly good cheering for their team while dressed up as Peter Parker in his superhero form, the cowardly lion of Oz, a princess able to kick high, a pixie with a set of translucent wings, a bloated belly funny looking referee, and more, but all the good cheering was not enough to keep the SPSL South champ from going down, to the North's No.1, Kentwood, 2-1, in the top seed battle for state placing at Bethel High School's Art Crate Field Wednesday.

The Titans clash with the Conqueror's was decidedly good, with the two SPSL champs from their respective leagues getting both coaches afterward complimenting each other.

"They were better than any team we played this year," said Titans coach, Carrie Hentschell.

And, it may come as a surprise to Hentschell and the Titans, not to mention to the rest of the SPSL South, because it was kind of an unspoken buzz that the North was better than the South. But here is what the Kentwood coach said afterward.

"I think the North is strong, us, TJ, Tahoma, Decatur, even Kentridge are all very formidable," said Aaron Radford, Kentwood coach. "But I would say up to this point that Beamer is the best team we have played."

Radford's team has the last two seasons bowed out in the first round of the state tournament. Beamer lost last year to Decatur in this first round of state.

Why was Beamer the best team in Radford's mind?

"Some of the teams in the North are not patient enough with the ball," said Radford. "I haven't seen a team hold the ball as well as them (Titans)."

Kentwood struck in the 13th minute, a nice chip ball past the defense, as the forward timed the run perfectly to keep from being off sides and then just had a one on one with the keeper straightaway at the 18-yard box area and picked the right side to fire the ball into the net.

The Titans immediately took control, there was a Brittany Orr shot from the side skimming the crossbar on a cross at the 14th minute. Then, in the 15th minute, a shot from Megan Miller flew on the ground toward the far post but the Conks' keeper dove and knocked it over the goal line for a corner kick.

"We were doing a lot of the right things," said Hentschell.

They were, the Titans then got a shot from Nicole Peterson that the keeper saved at the 26th minute of the 40-minute first half. Then, less than 30 seconds later, Holland Crook dribbled into the 18 off a nice feed to space from her sister, Jordan, and far-posted a shot that just missed finding the inside net.

So, that was a lot of offense in those two bunches of time, just two bad the Titans couldn't have scored in those bunches of good offense.

Finally, after both teams played the ball around in the middle, with the Conks almost playing a zone it looked as they could not catch up to the keep-away ball that the Titans often employed, the Titans scored. With clock reading 5:30, Holland Crook cracked a shot from 20 yards away into the net to knot things, 1-1.

"We had great possession of the ball," said Hentschell. "They just were really playing well as a team."

But, despite good team defense from the Conks, the Titans just had too much firepower from the Titans as Holland Crook again shot the ball from the corner of the 18-yard-box on the right side in the face of a defender. It was a very good shot that went over the Conks' keeper but did not dip quick enough to go under the crossbar. Clank! And the ball bounced away out of bounds and Crook put her head up in frustration. She had right to be a little frustrated. That early aforementioned far-post shot just wide and the crossbar clanker just spoke of, if they had gone in, would have been a first-half hat trick (three goals in a game by the same person).

Then came halftime and the Titans had to be feeling good about tying the game, but they took six shots on goal to the Conks one and it went in.

So, the Titans were hoping for putting in goals and not just shots on goal in the second one can presume.

And, right out of the gate starting the second half, Holland Crook nearly scored on a ball fed to her with only the goalie to beat to the ball and the keeper quickly came out and thwarted Crook's try to blast the ball by her.

Then, in the seventh minute of half two the Conks scored on a direct free kick from 25 yards out. The wall was in place but the Conks' kicker curled the ball around the wall and into the far post to make it 2-1.

The Titans again controlled the ball but seemed to have trouble when they got it up to the forwards because of maybe too much passing sometimes. The passing was great but the Conks were in a zone and were able to handle transitioning from the left side of the field when the Titans, often, switched the play from one side of the field to another. The Conks were quick, too, and seemed to get quicker as the game went along. Still, the Titans had a good chance in the final 10 minutes from a ball hitting the post from a Holland Crook shot.

Crook was sounding out encouragment to teammates and calling for the ball a lot throughout the game, especially in the end, the sophomore has good leadership qualities it was easy to see, rather, hear. Then there was senior sweeper Jordan Salisbury, moving to the midfield the final 20 minutes to try and combat some of that team speed of the Conks that seemed to be tough on the middle of the field at times in the latter stages for the Titans. Salisbury also took a shot in the final 10 minutes as well as another time doing a nice behind heel reverse direction move with the ball and pass to Crook who centered the ball. The ball sailed far-post, but the Conks player was right there when the right wing trapped the ball. And the Conks defender took the ball away.

"We did good out there, just seemed like we were one step behind," said Hentschell.

Again, the Conks played well enough to make the shots the Titans did take in the game difficult, even though the Titans got off a lot of shots in this game as Kentwood had one shot the first half only. And two in the second. So of three total shots, two found the net. Meanwhile the Titans had six in the first and five in the second, to outshoot the Conks, 11-3. Just not scoring was the problem which was not a problem all season since the Titans scored 75 goals during the season. They only let two through to the net, three but one was an own goal. But it was just a good game plan from Radford to try and really by committee stop the Titans good firepower and ball controlling inside the final third of the field.

"I think we knew our objective," said Radford. "Defense had to come up big. They (Titans) score, attack, pass, and, just move the ball well. We had to play good team defense."

"This was a good wake-up call, a reality check for what's to come," said Hentschell.