2011 Finals: Detroit Domination
December 16, 2011
One team won an MHSAA title for the first time, another for the first in nearly two decades. And two more added to a significant pile of soccer championship trophies.
But the tie that binds all four of this season's Finals champions is location -- all four are suburban powers near the big city in the southeastern corner of the state.
Here's a rundown of Saturday's Finals:
Division 1
Daniel Ovesea's goal from just inside the midfield stripe gave Canton its first MHSAA Boys Soccer title since a Class A trophy in 1994, with a 1-0 win over Grand Haven.
Ovesea's boot lofted high over a group of players in front of the goal behind the Buccaneers keeper Ethan Beswick.
Canton (24-1-2) and Grand Haven (18-2-3) played to a scoreless first half and seemed headed to overtime prior to Oversea's goal.
The Chiefs got stellar play from netminder Steven Murphy, who stopped 10 shots in the victory.
Divison 2
One school was guaranteed its first MHSAA Boys Soccer crown in the Division 2 Final, as both Auburn Hills Avondale and Spring Lake were making first appearances in the championship contest.
In the end, it was Avondale hoisting the trophy following a 2-1 win over the Lakers.
Spring Lake (23-2) struck first with the only goal of the first half, a Tanner Berg tally at 35:45.
Avondale (18-5-2) got the equalizer early in the second half on Joe Davison's goal, and with just 1:53 to play, Skyler Russ nailed the clincher to give the Yellowjackets their first championship.
Spring Lake outshot Avondale, 18-11. Ben Richter got the win in goal for the Yellowjackets, while Harry Kriger stood tall in net for Spring Lake despite the loss.
Division 3
Detroit Country Day captured its MHSAA-record 13th boys soccer title with a 2-1 victory over another perennial power, Hudsonville Unity Christian.
The Yellow Jackets (20-4-1) fell behind just 5:28 into the contest, as Unity Christian's Jared Haverkamp found the net with an assist from Jake Love to put the Crusaders on top.
The lead was short-lived, however, as DCD's Dean Akeel evened things up with a marker at the 10:20 mark of the opening half.
Country Day got the game-winner from Oliver Harris 18:02 into the second half, and the defense held strong from there.
Unity Christian (24-1-1) outshot Country Day, 14-7, but it was not enough for the Crusaders to avoid their first loss of the season.
Country Day's Zachary Walker got the win in goal, while Unity's Zach Lier made six saves in the defeat.
Division 4
Allen Park Inter-City Baptist won its seventh MHSAA Boys Soccer title, and first since back-to-back efforts in 2005-06, downing Muskegon Western Michigan Christian 1-0 in overtime.
Steven Fiema scored off an Evan Kraatz pass with 1:08 to play in the second overtime.
After Delay, Greenhills Storms to 1st Title
November 4, 2017
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
ROCHESTER HILLS – It wasn’t a pot of gold at the end of a literal rainbow over Stoney Creek High School’s field on Saturday, but an MHSAA championship trophy was still a great prize for Ann Arbor Greenhills.
For the first time in school history, Greenhills is a Finals champion in boys soccer following a 1-0 win over Kalamazoo Hackett in the Division 4 title game.
After the teams broke off for halftime with the game scoreless, lightning was spotted to start what turned out to be an 88-minute weather delay.
Skies eventually cleared, and the teams began the second half playing under a visible rainbow high above the field.
With 23:58 left, Greenhills made its trophy claim.
After earning a corner kick with a rush down the sideline and cross toward the middle of the field that was deflected out of bounds by a Hackett defender, Greenhills senior Jerry Tucker put home a perfect service into the box off of the corner by senior teammate Matthew Pumphrey for the game’s only goal.
Tucker said he deflected the ball into the wide-open net with his hip/waist area.
“In the moment, I saw it was going over the guy’s head and I couldn’t go too low,” Tucker said. “It went off my waist and into the goal.”
From there, Greenhills (20-6-1) didn’t sit back with the lead and managed to put a good amount of pressure on Hackett without giving up any dangerous counterattacks.
The Irish did manage to earn two corner kicks after the goal, but they were harmlessly cleared away.
Greenhills had lost in its three previous MHSAA championship game appearances, the most recent in 2010.
“To be able to win is very difficult to describe,” said Greenhills head coach Lucian Popescu, who coached that runner-up team in 2010.“It’s hard to have words about it.”
It certainly was noteworthy that Greenhills was able to shut out Hackett, given the Irish (19-2-2) entered the game having scored 34 goals in six playoff games and hadn’t been shut out since its season opener against Mattawan.
“We emphasized simple things we needed to do,” Popescu said. “Instead of marking the forwards, we were actually looking to play more aggressive to try and stop the pass to them. I think we were able to be successful most of the time.”
Hackett head coach Ian Troutman certainly had lofty praise for the defensive effort turned in by Greenhills.
“They had a great game plan and their back line, in particular their holding midfielders, did a great job keeping us limited in time and space on the ball, which we are not used to,” Troutman said. “We are used to having the lion’s share of possession. We had a little bit of a hard time controlling the ball in their half. Their intensity and speed on defense really helped them out.”
Both teams had to deal with a rare November thunderstorm that forced the lengthy delay, which started at halftime when the teams huddled up for talks with their coaches.
Tucker said he and the rest of his teammates stayed off their phones during the delay, opting for other ways to kill the time.
“We ate come Cliff bars and we stayed calm,” Tucker said. “We kept our phones away and were trying to stay focused on the game. We are good at keeping our mindset.”
Greenhills did, and that trophy at the end of the rainbow Saturday is now headed to its school forever.
PHOTOS: (Top) Greenhills players celebrate during Saturday’s Division 4 championship win. (Middle) Hackett’s Daniel Amat (4) attempts to gain possession.