Comeback Rangers Regain Top Spot
June 9, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
BIRMINGHAM – First, Trent Bohrmann’s stick flew high into the air. Then his right glove, followed by his left.
Finally, Bohrmann tossed his helmet to one side before being embraced by another mohawk-shaven teammate coming toward him from the other. The senior goalie wouldn’t need his gear anymore – although it came in quite handy over the last 19 minutes of Saturday’s MHSAA Division 2 Final at Seaholm High.
That’s how long he and his Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central teammates kept Detroit Country Day scoreless in coming from three goals down to win this season’s championship, 7-6.
The Rangers scored four straight and got two key fourth-period plays from their senior in net in toppling the reigning champion Yellowjackets.
"We came together truly that last half after they got that sixth goal. We really tore it up,” Bohrmann said. “And then that last quarter was just so nerve-wracking, because you knew they were coming. You knew they were going to be taking shots. You just had to stop it.
“We’ve had a few close games this year, and in playing those games, I knew our defense as a whole could step up and handle that pressure, even at this level.”
Detroit Country Day finished this spring 15-7. Forest Hills Central, winner of the title in 2010, capped this season 21-2. FHC was No. 1 and Country Day was No. 2 in the LaxPower computer rankings heading into the Regional semifinals.
Entering the championship game, FHC had given up 5.3 goals per game this season, with Bohrmann saving 65 percent of shots against him. Against Country Day, he stopped 13 of 19 – including perhaps his biggest of the season on a point-blank shot with 6:03 to play.
He made his second potential game-saving play with 2:12 to go, diving for the end line to gain possession for the Rangers after another Yellowjackets’ shot sailed past the net.
But he needed help. Junior Luke Gerard (61) and senior C.J. Biggs had combined for 102 goals entering Saturday. And trailing 2-0 after the first quarter, FHC got on the board on a Gerard goal from junior Collin Schlosser 3:20 into the second. But Country Day scored the next two to push its lead to 4-1 and led 4-2 at halftime.
“The whole time, I’m just thinking this is what we worked for. I know my team is going to come through. I just had faith in my teammates,” Gerard said. “We were definitely feeling things out. This was the first time we’d played DCD … and we knew in the second half we’d have to bring it with our offense.”
Schlosser answered with two goals during the first half of the third quarter. His second goal, 5:41 in, started FHC’s four-goal streak capped by Gerard’s go-ahead strike with 14:43 to play in the game.
“They took advantage of the times when we really made some mistakes,” Country Day coach Byron Collins said. “We made some really big errors, I think, errors we had been making early in the season that suddenly started resurfacing as the pressure got a little bit more. I think at times we succumbed to that and didn’t play our style. But hats off to them. It’s gotta take a good team to take advantage of those things.”
Senior Ahmed Iftikhar had 15 saves for Country Day, including a number on shots fired from only a few feet away. Sophomore Shane Switzer scored a game-high three goals for the Yellowjackets and also had an assist.
Sophomore Andrew Kransberger added two assists for the Rangers, and senior Kevin Stephen had two goals, including the one that tied the score 7:25 into the third quarter. Junior Neil Cunningham also scored for FHC.
“I think nerves hit us a little bit. We just talked at halftime; we can win this game. There’s nothing out there we haven’t seen before,” Rangers coach Tony Quinn said. “We just got our transition game going. That really was the difference. We got some goals moving up and down the field that we probably wouldn’t have gotten in set-up situations because their defense and goal was such an outstanding group.”
Click for the full scoring summary.
PHOTOS: (Top) Forest Hills Central junior Spencer Nehls (3) readies to fire a shot during Saturday's Division 2 Final. (Middle) Rangers goalie Trent Bohrmann (12) deflects a shot by Country Day's Pat Dugan (4). Photos by John Johnson/MHSAA
Country Day Wins Close to Close Title Run
June 7, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
TROY – Detroit Country Day this spring earned one of the most notable wins in Michigan boys lacrosse history.
But despite handing Birmingham Brother Rice its first in-state loss since 2002, by a score of 8-7, the Yellowjackets also lost four one-goal games – and coach Michael Cappelletti wasn’t sure how his team would respond when Saturday’s MHSAA Division 2 Final began to play out in a similarly low-scoring way.
Reigning champion Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood pulled within two of Country Day’s lead just 12 seconds into the fourth period. But this time the Yellowjackets finished like champions and hoisted their third MHSAA championship trophy after a 12-8 win.
Country Day didn’t allow another goal over the final 11:48, and only two shots with a chance before the Cranes fired off a quick volley during the final minute.
“It’s the hardest-working group of kids I’ve been around in my life, the best team I’ve coached in my life,” said Cappelletti, who took over the program this year after previously coaching in North Carolina and Rhode Island. “They’re together, from the kid who knows he’s not going in ever to the kid who had the best game, which I can’t tell you who that is right now – which is the best part about coaching this team.”
Country Day previously had won Division 2 championships in 2011 and 2005 and finished runner-up in 2012. Cappelletti is the team’s third coach in three seasons, but inherited what he called a “lunch pail and hard hat group.”
The Yellowjackets (17-6) were disappointed to fall in the rematch to Brother Rice, 11-9, and then by a goal apiece to Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central and East Grand Rapids. But they gave the history-making win over the Warriors even more merit by finishing off an impressive tournament run that included wins over four top-10 teams, including 11-8 over East Grand Rapids when they met again in the Semifinal.
“Brother Rice was a huge win. … We’ve been rivals with them since sixth, seventh, eighth grade, and we knew this year we had a chance to beat them,” Country Day junior Devon Callaghan said. “We just seized that opportunity.
“(But) this was always our main goal, the state championship game.”
Country Day and Cranbrook-Kingswood had combined for 35 goals during the regular season when Country Day earned a 21-14 victory.
The low-scoring rematch might not have played to the fast-strike Yellowjackets’ best-known strengths. But while offense often gets headlines in lacrosse, Country Day’s defense was just as impressive.
Cranbrook-Kingswood’s eight goals tied its second-lowest output of the season – and came despite five from senior Matthew Giampetroni, who will join NCAA champion Duke next season.
The Yellowjackets were keyed on their side of the field by a trio of sophomores. Defenders Matt Dolan and Jonathon Boos were assigned to Giampetroni and junior all-state attack Johnny Wagner, who was held scoreless. Sophomore goalie Jackson White had 16 saves including a handful from close range.
“(Bowes and Dolan) have never been in a game like this, and we just said, ‘Hey guys, you’re on an island, limit their touches. … You take care of you, on them,’” Cappelletti said. “It was nothing fancy. Those kids are just tough kids.”
Six players scored for Country Day, including five who scored twice. Junior attack Emilio Sosa netted three goals.
Despite drawing even three times, Cranbrook-Kingswood never led and trailed by as many as five goals, five minutes into the third period.
“We got down, and it’s hard to use a lot of energy coming back,” Giampetroni said. “Then we had some bad turnovers later, and they had the ball the last 10, eight minutes. It’s hard to score when you don’t have the ball.”
Junior goalie Ryan Rosenthal, however, was up to the task of facing plenty of shots, stopping 26 in a gallant effort.
Cranbrook-Kingswood finished 12-9, but 11-5 against in-state opponents.
“The fact that we made it to this point is a testament to the seniors. They were great leaders,” Cranes coach Mat Wilson said. “The good news is we’ve got a ton of juniors coming back, and the future is very bright.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Country Day celebrates one of its goals during Saturday’s Division 2 Final. (Middle) Country Day’s Nick Martin (6) looks to get past Cranbrook-Kingswood’s Michael Langdon.