Preview: Contenders Aiming to be Champions
November 1, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Five teams will look to make history Saturday as they play for their first MHSAA boys soccer championships. And at least two are assured of doing so.
The Lower Peninsula Division 1 and 4 championship games feature four teams looking to win for the first time, including first-year school Bloomfield Hills. Spring Lake in Division 2 also is going for its first Finals win, but against three-time champion East Lansing and one of the state’s winningest coaches in Nick Archer.
Only in Division 3 is a team assured of adding to its trophy collection. Flint Powers Catholic is hoping for its first title since 1996, but must beat reigning champion Grand Rapids South Christian to earn it.
Below is Saturday's schedule, followed by a look at each team in the hunt.
Division 1 at Troy Athens, Noon
Bloomfield Hills (16-2-5) vs. Ann Arbor Skyline (20-1-5)
Division 2 at East Kentwood Crestwood Middle School, Noon
East Lansing (24-2) vs. Spring Lake (16-6-3)
Division 3 at Troy Athens, 3 p.m.
Grand Rapids South Christian (21-1-3) vs. Flint Powers Catholic (14-8-2)
Division 4 at East Kentwood Crestwood Middle School, 3 p.m.
Grand Rapids Covenant Christian (22-1-3) vs. Lansing Christian (21-0-1)
All four Finals will be streamed live on MHSAA.TV and available on a subscription basis. A one-day pass costs $9.95 and allows access to all four games plus the Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals. A month pass costs $14.95 and allows fans to also watch live the Volleyball Semifinals and Finals and Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals. Radio broadcasts of the Soccer Finals will be available on MHSAAnetwork.com.
Click for links to brackets and scores. All statistics below are through the Regional Finals.
DIVISION 1
ANN ARBOR SKYLINE
Record/rank: 20-1-5, No. 3
Coach: Chris Morgan, fourth season (53-17-16)
League finish: Second in Southeastern Conference Red
Championship history: Has never played in an MHSAA Final.
Players to watch: Alec Lasinski, jr. F (32 goals, six assists); Nick Russo, sr. M (11 assists, three goals).
Outlook: Skyline has improved in the win column each season during its four as a varsity program and won its second straight District title two weeks ago. The Eagles beat No. 5 Caledonia and honorable mentions Okemos and Salem to win the Regional and advance to the championship game. Lasinski earned an all-state honorable mention as a sophomore and leads an offense that has outscored opponents 74-15 with 14 shutouts this fall.
BLOOMFIELD HILLS
Record/rank: 16-2-5, unranked
Coach: Dougie Macaulay, first season (16-2-5)
League finish: Second in Oakland Activities Association White
Championship history: First season as a school.
Players to watch: Alex Joneson, jr. F; Griffin Hamel, sr. GK (statistics not submitted).
Outlook: This is the first year of Bloomfield Hills soccer and school, which was created by a merger of Lahser and Andover. Lahser won one MHSAA title and finished runner-up twice during its history. The only teams to score more than one goal on Bloomfield Hills this season were the two that beat the Black Hawks, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek and Birmingham Groves. Bloomfield Hills has won 13 straight, including avenging that loss to Groves with a 4-1 win in the District opener.
DIVISION 2
EAST LANSING
Record/rank: 24-2, No. 4
Coach: Nick Archer, 38th season (572-152-72)
League finish: Second in Capital Area Activities Conference Blue
Championship history: Three MHSAA titles (most recent 2005), two runner-up finishes.
Players to watch: DeJuan Jones, jr. F (25 goals, eight assists); Tommy Lammers, sr. M (six goals, five assists); Ben Swanson-Ralph, sr. F (14 goals, 12 assists).
Outlook: East Lansing advanced with its first Regional title since 2007, but was poised for such a run after claiming the league and District titles in 2012 with Swanson-Ralph making the all-state first team and Lammers earning an honorable mention. The Trojans spent much of this season ranked No. 1 before a couple close losses near the end to No. 6 DeWitt and Division 1 honorable mention Okemos. East Lansing then beat DeWitt and No. 2 Linden on its way to this championship game.
SPRING LAKE
Record/rank: 16-6-3, unranked
Coach: Jeremy Thelen, 13th season (200-70-11)
League finish: Second in Lakes 8 Conference
Championship history: 2011 runner-up.
Players to watch: Nic Ellingboe, sr. F (19 goals, seven assists); Kyle Zietlow, jr. M (10 goals, 12 assists); Keegan George, soph. F (13 goals, six assists).
Outlook: This is Spring Lake’s second Division 2 Final appearance in three seasons, and the Lakers are riding a seven-game winning streak including a shootout victory over Fruitport after losing to the Trojans in the league championship game. In fact, Spring Lake could make a run at three Finals berths in four seasons next fall; Ellingboe and defender Adam Ross are the only senior starters.
DIVISION 3
FLINT POWERS CATHOLIC
Record/rank: 14-8-2, No. 6
Coach: Tony Rowe, second season (28-15-2)
League finish: First in Saginaw Valley Association
Championship history: Class B champion 1996.
Players to watch: Jared Pechette, sr. M (10 assists, eight goals); Christian Mansour, sr. M (15 assists, five goals); Charlie Emmert, sr. F (13 goals, three assists).
Outlook: Powers has piled up successes with two league titles under Rowe, a 2003 graduate in his first varsity coaching position. The Chargers are riding a 12-game unbeaten streak after beginning the season 3-6. Although Powers has only six seniors, three start in the midfield with Brad Tuttle joining Pechette and Mansour.
GRAND RAPIDS SOUTH CHRISTIAN
Record/rank: 21-1-3, No. 1
Coach: Jason Boersma, third season (58-8-8)
League finish: First in O-K Gold
Championship history: Two titles (most recent 2012), one runner-up finish.
Players to watch: Marlon Bykerk, sr. M (11 goals, 17 assists); Cody Kok, sr. M (11 assists, nine goals); Nick VanderHorst, sr. M (13 goals, three assists), Zac Medendorp, sr. GK (0.45 goals-against average, 15 shutouts).
Outlook: South Christian is playing for its third title in four seasons led by a talented midfield including 2012 all-stater Bykerk and honorable mention Kok and a keeper whose shutout total makes the MHSAA record book (Medendorp earned his 16th in the Semifinal against No. 5 Whitehall). The Sailors’ lone loss this season was in their opener, 1-0 to Division 2 honorable mention Grand Rapids Christian – and South Christian won the rematch 2-1.
DIVISION 4
GRAND RAPIDS COVENANT CHRISTIAN
Record/rank: 22-1-3, No. 1
Coach: Mike Noorman, 10th season (127-66-14)
League finish: First in River Valley Conference
Championship history: 2012 runner-up.
Players to watch: Corbin Prince, sr. M (27 goals, 15 assists), Travis Bouwkamp, jr. F (23 goals 16 assists), Cole Bleyenberg, sr. F (12 goals, nine assists), Austin Brower, sr. GK (0.28 GAA, 13 shutouts).
Outlook: After falling short to Hamtramck Frontier International in last season’s Division 4 Final, Covenant Christian has dominated in its quest to finish the run this fall. Brower was an all-stater as a junior and Prince made the second team. They are two of 11 seniors on a team that started with seven straight shutouts and has given up only three goals during the postseason despite dispatching of No. 2 Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Central and No. 10 Bellaire during the run.
LANSING CHRISTIAN
Record/rank: 21-0-1, honorable mention
Coach: Joel Vande Kopple, sixth season (114-15-5)
League finish: Does not play in a league.
Championship history: Has never played in an MHSAA Final.
Players to watch: Jordan Terry, sr. F (26 goals, 11 assists), Martin Lang, Jr., jr. F (18 goals, eight assists), Brayan Guzman-Ortiz, jr. F (11 goals, six assists), Alex McDowell, soph. M (11 goals, five assists).
Outlook: The Pilgrims didn’t enter the tournament among the top 10. But Lansing Christian proved its skill early with wins over Division 2 Haslett and Division 3 Williamston, and then beat Division 4 honorable mention Genesee Christian and No. 7 Bloomfield Hills Roeper on the way to this first Final. Terry is a returning all-stater and a dangerous scorer, but the defense is talented as well – the Pilgrims didn’t give up a goal in the playoffs until Roeper scored one in the Semifinal.
PHOTO: Grand Rapids South Christian’s Marlon Bykerk (4) advances the ball during last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final win over Williamston. He and his team return to the championship game Saturday. (Click to see more from High School Sports Scene.)
Learning as They Play, Algonac Boys Soccer Back on Pitch for 1st Time since 2016
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
September 18, 2024
Zeke Stiltner knew what he was signing up for when he agreed to join the Algonac boys soccer team.
As a senior, joining a program that hadn’t taken the field since 2016, he wasn’t expecting many – if any – wins. He wasn’t looking for a grand send-off. He was simply happy to be there at the beginning of something new.
“It’s such a unique experience,” said Stiltner, who played travel soccer in California prior to moving to Algonac as a freshman. “You don’t get the opportunity to build a brand-new team and build a bit of a legacy.”
Stiltner and his Algonac teammates are part of a restarted program that has been dormant for eight years. While the team has begun 0-7, just being on the field at all is a success. And growing the team to 17 active players, with just four seniors and no juniors, is more than they could have imagined.
“I don’t think there was any expectation of measuring success with wins and losses and the record,” Algonac coach Lance Whitney said. “We all knew the wins and losses was probably not going to be great. Really, we went into the beginning of the year teaching the kids how to play soccer and have fun.”
It was Algonac wrestling coach Brian Ranger who had originally brought the idea of reviving the soccer program to Whitney when the latter began teaching in the district in 2022. The two had gone to high school and wrestled together at Richmond, and Ranger – who serves as the team’s assistant coach – was looking for something for his wrestlers to do in the offseason, as Algonac was also reviving its football program at the time.
“Half the team is wrestling kids,” Whitney said. “He kind of used it as a way for his wrestlers to do something other than nothing if they weren’t playing football or running cross country. Some of them came out because they just wanted to do something, and a lot of them were recruited by Ranger.”
Whitney had coached at Richmond for a decade, his last season with the boys in 2022. He’s also a coach at Thundercats travel club, where his daughter and Ranger’s daughter had played.
That time included plenty of success and a good number of teams filled with experienced players.
Algonac started this season with three players who had played organized soccer.
“I think for me, you change your whole approach,” Whitney said. “You have to kind of balance that I’m only going to teach them so much technical stuff in two and a half months, but I have to, at some point, teach them, ‘Here’s the formation. Here are positions. Here are responsibilities.’ What I did in August is brought them all together for a week and said, ‘This is how you strike a ball. How you pass. How you play defense.’ All the technical stuff you can do.
“I’m not pretending this is the type of team where we’re going to be able to drop a ball at the goalie’s feet and play out of the back. But we do at least one technical skill (in practice), then I treat them like I do any other team I coach, even my highest-level girls team. We do Rondos, possession – try and let the game teach them how to play.”
But even for the few experienced players, that first week was more than enough. Simply being on the field playing was a breath of fresh air.
“I enjoyed it,” senior Griffin Degowske said. “That first practice, it was just fun to be out there. I was just glad we had a team.”
Goal-setting and expectations were also on a different level for the Muskrats. After losing their first two matches by goal-differential rule in the first half, the goal was to get to a second half. When that was accomplished, the goal was to complete a game without a mercy rule ending it.
They’ve accomplished that in both of their past two games, even scoring their first goal since 2016 in a 7-1 loss to Armada on Sept. 12.
The goal was scored by freshman Oliver Geck off a corner kick. While it made the score 5-1 midway through the second half, you couldn’t tell from the celebration.
“They celebrated like they won the game,” Whitney said. “It was really awesome, especially for the kid that scored. Oliver is a freshman, and he’s never really played before. He’s a pretty athletic kid, and the ball was bouncing around and he struck it. We were close (to scoring again) a couple times (Monday) night.”
While the team is still growing skill wise, Whitney is continually impressed with what they’re giving him from an effort standpoint. The team’s toughness and athleticism – no doubt buoyed by the influx of wrestlers – also has stood out.
“Teaching them is a lot different than teaching a (kids) team since they were 6(-years-old), and they’re 13 now,” Whitney said. “But they’re starting to put things together. A lot of the things they do, they can get to the right place, they can move, they can get to where they need to be positionally. It’s just the lack of technical skills right now that will mess up plays.”
Most important, at least for the future of the program, are the numbers. With 17 on the roster and 13 eligible to come back for not just 2025, but 2026, there’s a clear path forward for Muskrats soccer.
“It is amazing,” Whitney said. “It’s a step in the right direction for the school and the program, and all of those kids individually, too.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTO Algonac’s Louis LaParl (2) clears the ball during a game against Croswell-Lexington. (Photo courtesy of the Algonac boys soccer program.)