Roennecke Rallies Roeper to D4 Title
November 1, 2014
By Ron Rop
Special for Second Half
KENTWOOD – Simon Roennecke long will be remembered for the individual effort he turned in Saturday in the MHSAA Division 4 boys soccer championship game.
The high-scoring sophomore scored all four goals as he led Birmingham Roeper to a 4-2 victory over Grand Rapids Covenant Christian on a sunny, cool afternoon at Crestwood Middle School.
Roennecke’s four-goal game not only gave Roeper its first-ever MHSAA Finals title in any sport, but sent Covenant Christian home with its third straight runner-up finish in Division 4.
“I never could have dreamt this,” Roennecke said. “My touch was on today, and I felt it throughout the first few minutes of the game. I had one chance in the first half when I took on a few defenders, and after that I felt I could do that the rest of the game.”
“He’s a competitor; he’s a gamer,” Roughriders coach Ed Sack said of Roennecke. “He’s come up all year for us, as a sophomore, it’s incredible, and to score four in the state final … come on, please. He’s just a wonderful human being and soccer player.”
Roennecke got loose from the pressure of three Chargers defenders and fired a low, 20-yard shot that found the net just inside the goalpost.
However, the Chargers came right back and within seven minutes produced the equalizer. Junior Colin Riemersma knocked down a loose ball, was able to elude Roughriders goalkeeper Calvin Lind and tuck a shot into the open net.
Both teams had other scoring chances during a wide-open first half, but neither could break the 1-all deadlock after 40 minutes of play.
Covenant made some noise in the offensive end in the early minutes of the second half, but came away empty-handed.
Then Roennecke struck a second time. Again, he was able to beat a defender, get into range for a shot and fire a well-placed, low shot inside the far post. That gave the Roughriders a 2-1 lead.
“He’s just an opportunist,” Sack said. “He’s got guts and he’s a competitor.
“I think what a lot of people didn’t recognize is that the Oakland County leading goal scorer, Max Whipple, was playing defense the second half.”
Roennecke completed his hat trick with 11:41 left in the second half when he broke in on the left side and fired a shot that, again, snuck just inside the far post.
Minutes later, the score became 4-1 on another low shot from the left side.
“He played a good game today,” Chargers coach Mike Noorman said. “He was a hard guy to cover.”
Covenant Christian was able to cut the deficit to two goals with 5:32 remaining when senior Jared Minderhoud unleashed a hard shot that Lind could not handle cleanly. The rebound ended up on the foot of Riemersma, and he wasted no time hitting the back of the net.
From there, the Roughriders were able to keep the Chargers’ offense at bay and wrap up the title.
“It’s amazing. I mean, this is the first state championship we’ve ever had,” Roennecke said. “To win it takes a lot of hard work.”
While Roennecke was putting on a show up front, it was the stellar play of senior Michael Matthews in the back that kept the Chargers at bay for much of the afternoon.
“He is our third-best attacker, and the only game we lost was 7-6 in double overtime the third game of the season because I was selfish and had him an attacking mid,” Sack said. “I realized if you score six goals you can still lose a game unless you have a strong defense. He’s the anchor … he’s the rock back there.”
For the Chargers, it was a disappointing finish to another strong season.
Covenant Christian finished the season 21-4-2 and was undefeated in the River Valley Conference, which sent a team to the MHSAA Finals for the ninth straight season and 16th time in the last 17 years.
“I wanted so badly for these guys to be the champion of the year, but the goal that we had at the beginning of the year was to win a different crown, to play as hard as we could to represent our school in the name of Christ,” Noorman said.
“They are a great team,” said Sack, whose team finished 23-1. “What a great league they must play in, but our two leagues must be the two best in the state for D4.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Birmingham Roeper's Simon Roennecke works to get past a group of Grand Rapids Covenant Christian defenders Saturday. (Below) Roeper's Max Whipple battles the Chargers' Brock DeBoer for possession. (Click for all team and action photos from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
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.