Canton Caps Fall as Undefeated Champion
November 1, 2014
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
BRIGHTON – Three years ago, Jason Ren watched his older brother Brian help Canton High School win the MHSAA Division 1 boys soccer championship.
Ren wanted the same feeling that his brother experienced. Saturday afternoon at Brighton High School, Ren got the same feeling and more.
He scored the only goal of the game as Canton defeated Rochester Adams 1-0 for the Division I title.
Canton finished the season 24-0-3 and was the only undefeated high school boys soccer team in Michigan this fall.
“I wanted this so bad,” Ren said. “It felt really good to win it again.”
Ren’s big moment came in the 14th minute of the first half. He took a pass from senior midfielder Jack Zemanski and found the back corner of the net from about 22 yards out. It was the third goal of the season for Ren, a junior midfielder.
“Jack had the ball, I overlapped him, and he laid it off to me,” Ren said. “I just hit it as fast as I could in the far corner.”
Although he did so early in the game, the Canton defense made the goal stand up as the Chiefs registered their 16th shutout of the season.
“The first goal is always one of the most important goals, so to get that was good,” Zemanski said. “Kyle Mettlach won the ball on a header, and the throw-in came to me. I just saw Jason called for it, and I laid it out for him, and he hit a perfect shot. There’s nothing a goalie can do to save that.
“We just had to defend the rest of the game, and it worked out well for us.”
Canton, the Kensington Lakes Activities Association Kensington Conference champion, had faced Rochester Adams in the second-to-last game of the regular season. The 1-1 outcome was one of three ties the Chiefs had this season.
“We were confident that we could beat them this time because we felt we deserved to win that game,” Canton senior Carter Schenk said, “but tying them I think humbled us a little bit. It made us think they could play with us and made us work a little harder.”
Rochester Adams, which ended its season 13-5-7, was runner-up in the Oakland Activities Association Red. It was the second MHSAA runner-up finish for Adams, which won the Division 1 title in 1999 and also fell in the 2001 Final.
Both teams had six shots, but Rochester Adams had only one shot on goal, while the Chiefs had two. Canton goalkeeper Andrew Loehnis made only one save in the shutout.
“Our defense all year has been stifling,” second-year Canton coach Mark Zemanski said. “We had a shutout here in the Final and a shutout in the semis.”
It was a cold day, and a brisk wind was blowing directly from one goal to the other. It gave each team an edge when it had the wind at its back. Canton scored with the wind in the first half and then held off Rochester Adams in the second half.
“The wind definitely made it difficult for both teams,” Mark Zemanski said. “We talked to the boys about keeping the ball on the ground and trying to possess. For the most part, we did a pretty good job of that.
“We knew that whoever had the wind was going to have the favor. I think even in the second half my boys did a nice job of moving the ball around and at least keeping it away from them as much as they could.”
It was the second year in a row that Canton entered the postseason undefeated, but this trip had a much different outcome. Last year, Canton lost to Salem in the district, and the two teams had a rematch two weeks ago. Canton won that one 2-1 in overtime, and it proved to be a springboard to the MHSAA title.
“I felt like that was a big thing,” Canton senior defender Sam Belcher said. “Knowing that our season ended last year and we were that good of a team, it was like, ‘We’re not going to let that happen again.’
“I wasn’t going to let my senior year stop after one or two games. We were going all the way. I knew that for a fact.”
Belcher, like the 11 other seniors on the team, only had to look back to three years ago and Canton’s 1-0 victory over Grand Haven for inspiration.
“The whole time leading up to this game, I was thinking back to being at that state championship game and watching them win; the joy on their faces and how they felt, that is what was driving me to win this one,” Belcher said. “I wanted to be just like that. It looked so fun, I wanted to be part of it, too.
“This surpasses what I thought it would feel like, for sure. It’s like the greatest feeling in the world.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Rochester Adams’ Devin Beyer (1) leaps over a challenge by Canton’s Kyle Mettlach. (Below) Canton defender Beaumont Hoffman controls the ball during his team’s shutout in the Division 1 Final. (Click for all team and action photos from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
This Time, Powers Leaves as Champion
November 4, 2017
By Jeff Chaney
Special for Second Half
COMSTOCK PARK – Mason Smith and the Flint Powers Catholic boys soccer team were not about to have the same ride home this year.
Last year the Chargers dropped a heart-breaking one-goal loss in the Division 3 Final, and Smith remembers how he and his teammates felt after their loss to Grand Rapids Catholic Central – and how long that ride home lasted.
All you had to do was look at how big Smith's smile was after Saturday's championship game against Ludington to know this trip home would feel much shorter.
Smith and his Flint Powers teammates scored three first-half goals Saturday, and then held off a game Ludington team to win the program's third MHSAA title, 4-2 at Comstock Park High School.
"(Last year's loss in the Finals) made this happen," said Smith, a senior midfielder and captain for the Chargers. "Losing last year helped us overcome a lot of things. We just put in our head that we didn't want to lose like last year."
The Chargers came out on fire, and appeared to score an early goal in the first half – but the goal was taken off the scoreboard because of a foul.
That setback didn't slow Flint Powers down, as the Chargers got their first goal that counted at the 26:07 mark from junior midfielder Garret Delamielleure.
Ludington tied the game just more than six minutes later on a penalty kick by junior defenseman Noah Peterson, but Flint Powers scored at the 12:46 and 10:31 marks with goals by Delamielleure and senior midfielder Dominic Ruth. Ruth's goal was a beautiful header.
"I knew we were capable of starting out like that," said Flint Powers coach Tony Rowe, whose team ended its year at 21-2-1. "To get that goal called back, that was like a two-goal momentum. But the boys kept at it, and I am so proud. We never quit attacking."
It was that attacking that flustered the Orioles.
"I think the pressure got to us in the first half," said Ludington coach Kris Anderson, whose team completed its year at 18-5-2. "Our back line was out of sync. We had some people moving around in spots, and we missed some balls. We weren't organized back there."
But Ludington would not quit, and cut the Flint Powers lead to one goal with just over 17 minutes to play on a goal by senior midfielder Lucien Chasse.
However, 24 seconds later, Powers senior defenseman Connor Boerman capped the scoring for the game on a penalty kick after a Ludington foul, and sent the Chargers home happy.
"Ludington gave us a heck of a game," Rowe said. "Props to their coach and their team. I know what it feels like to lose in a state championship game, and they have nothing to be ashamed of, the way they played. They had an incredible season."
The two goals the Orioles scored Saturday were the only goals Flint Powers gave up the whole tournament.
"The first half we put ourselves in a hole," Anderson said. "But we talked at half, we said this game wasn't over, we have been in this position before being down two. We got that one, but then the call in the box (and Flint Powers' penalty kick goal) changed everything.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Flint Powers’ Garret Delamielleure works to gain possession during Saturday’s Division 3 Final. (Middle) Ludington’s Caleb Schoon (17) pushes the ball upfield while Chargers chase.