Comeback Cranes Suddenly Claim 1st Title
June 10, 2017
By Perry A. Farrell
Special for Second Half
BRIGHTON – For the third year in a row Saturday, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood stood in the way of East Grand Rapids winning a Division 2 lacrosse championship.
Winners of five straight titles heading into this championship game, the Pioneers had beaten Cranbrook 8-6 in April — so both sides knew what to expect of the rematch at Brighton High School.
Little did the Pioneers know that it wouldn’t go as smoothly as it appeared early in one of the most thrilling Finals in MHSAA lacrosse history.
It took sudden victory overtime but the Cranes, getting a goal by Angelina Wiater with 49.4 seconds left, unseated the champs 17-16 to win their first girls lacrosse title.
“It’s been hard; we had a good friend die this week and we pulled together and came through,’’ said Wiater. “Our goalie (Brigitte Ballard) came through. She was amazing.
“Our goalie threw it to me and coach (Greg Courter) said if you have the legs, go. I went, and I was thinking of passing it. I didn’t see anybody open, and I knew we needed to get one. I didn’t want to make a pass when I didn’t see anyone open. I wrapped around the back and I crease rolled and saw an opening, and I went for it.’’
Scoring early and often, the Pioneers had 11 goals in the first half, but found themselves up only one because of six straight goals by the Cranes midway through the game.
Down seven in the second half, the Cranes held EGR scoreless for 13 minutes and came all the way back, with Sophia Milia’s fifth goal of the game with 2:11 left in regulation tying the score 15-15 on the way overtime.
“Our coach had a deep talk with us at halftime,’’ said Wiater. “We didn’t play our game in the first half.’’
It was Courter’s last game as coach, and he had a heart-to-heart with his team at the break.
“I told my coaches after the halftime talk that we were going to get fired up or we’re going to go in the tank,’’ said Courter. “I was more emotional at halftime than I’ve ever been at any point. Part of me said I’m either going to scare them or (they’ll) respond. Fortunately, they responded.
“Our defense was great and obviously our goalie Brigitte Ballard was outstanding. We started winning draws and possessing the ball more. I knew once we got into a rhythm we could score some points. I’m just so happy for the kids. We needed to have a breakthrough game. East is a phenomenal program. They have a great feeder program and great coaches at any level. We had 17 girls. I didn’t have a full squad. I didn’t have a JV team. I only subbed once or twice the whole game, so our fitness paid off.
“I said if we got it to 13-9, we’d have a chance. I thought they got tight in the second half. Once we tied it, I knew we would win.’’
Milia’s sixth goal gave the Cranes their first lead since 1-0, as they went up 16-15 with 1:14 left in the first three-minute overtime period.
In the second three-minute OT, EGR’s Emily Roth scored her first goal with 1:32 left to tie the game, 16-16, and send it to a sudden victory period.
The season was far from a breeze for the Pioneers, who finished just third in their conference, the Ottawa-Kent Conference Tier 1, with four losses.
“These two teams are excellent,’’ said Pioneers coach Rich Axtell. “We won the first half, and they won the second half. They could have rolled over, but they kept chipping away. We didn’t have an answer for No. 27 (Isabelle Scane). Most teams don’t. They just played better than us. Both goalies stepped up huge.’’
Cranbrook scored first on a goal by Scane with an assist from Milia. East Grand Rapids responded with a goal by Mary Schumar to tie the score.
Jessica Geiger untied the affair at the 16:50 mark to give the Cranes a 2-1 lead before Grace Ruppert tied it again seconds later.
EGR took its first lead, 3-2, on a goal by Kate O’Connell at the 15:11 mark. Rebecca Scobell extended the Pioneers’ lead to 4-2 with a goal at the 13:37 mark. Scane scored her second goal to trim the Pioneers lead to 4-3.
O’Connell’s second goal with an assist from Olivia Brown gave the defending champs a 5-3 lead.
Seconds later Lindsay Duca got her first goal, and the Pioneers were up 6-3 with 8:18 left in the first half.
The Pioneers kept rolling as Schumar got her second goal for a 7-3 lead at the 7:04 mark.
Delaney Langdon ended the Pioneers’ run with a goal for the Cranes to trim the deficit to 7-4.
O’Connell’s third goal of the first half at the 3:33 mark gave the Pioneers a four-goal lead. Schumar’s third goal gave EGR a 9-4 lead as a sixth straight title looked promising. O’Connell’s fourth goal of the half had the Pioneers comfortably ahead, 10-4.
Milia ended the drought for the Cranes as her goal made it 10-5.
EGR ended the scoring in the first half with a half-second left on a goal by Audrey Whiteside to make it 11-5.
Schumar (fourth) and Scane (third) traded goals to start the second half to make it 12-6. Schumar’s fifth gave EGR a 13-6 lead as they started pulling away. But back-to-back goals by Milia for the Cranes reduced the deficit to 13-8.
Scane scored her fourth goal and Axtell had to call a timeout as the lead shrunk to 13-9. Courtney Paulus kept the momentum going, scoring to make it a 13-10 game and give the Pioneers some anxiety.
Scane made the play of the game when she stole a pass and streaked 65 yards for her fifth goal to make it 13-11 with the Cranes’ fifth straight score.
Milia scored her fourth goal with 9:23 left, and suddenly only a goal separated the two teams.
Whiteside finally ended the 13 minute drought for the Pioneers with a goal to make it 14-12.
Scane’s sixth kept the pressure on the defending champs, reducing the lead to 14-13.
Brown added a goal to her assists as EGR extended its lead to 15-13. But Georgia Hinnant responded for the Cranes to make it a one-goal game again and set up the run that sent the game to overtime.
Click for the full scoring summary.
PHOTOS: (Top) Cranbrook Kingswood’s Grace Coleman (12) works to get past East Grand Rapids’ Ella Gourley during Saturday’s Division 2 Final. (Middle) The Pioneers’ Olivia Brown works for an opening against the Cranes.
Trepins Makes Helping Kids Her Business
June 17, 2020
By Tom Lang
Special for Second Half
It’s not enough to recently-graduated Grandville High senior Brianna Trepins to play lacrosse well. She additionally wants to see the sport grow and prosper in west Michigan – and she knows that begins with young kids in the community.
She also knows too well, from personal experience, that coming from less financial means than most peers can keep young girls from giving the sport a try in the first place. Often, it’s as simple as the stigma of not having as nice of a stick as other players.
Trepins, who will continue her lacrosse career at Aquinas College, has helped coach youth in the community. Many times young girls are willing to try the sport but have to borrow a community center stick that’s – let’s say – not top-of-the-line equipment and well-used past its prime.
“Most of the pockets weren’t good, and the girls had to learn how to play with these sticks,” Trepins said. “When they see another girl playing with the brand new, greatest versions of these really cool sticks, that’s hard on them. I could relate. I didn’t have the best equipment growing up, so I sympathized, and I began taking sticks and restringing them – and it all went from there.”
Trepins’ discovery led to starting a business and online store last November – LaxZoo. She sells T-shirts and other lacrosse items to pay for materials to restring lacrosse sticks that people donate. She also repairs sticks of teammates and other players, and the profits from her small fees go to string material for more donated sticks – and in the short term some of the profits have gone to COVID-19 relief efforts.
“I have a ton of respect for entrepreneurs in general, because I think that takes a certain type of bravery – and the fact that she has done that at such a young age; it shows me how much she loves lacrosse and wants to incorporate it into her life moving forward,” said her Grandville coach, Alexandra Vanden Bosch. “And to do all that, she’s taking a big personal risk to start her own business. That’s so huge.”
Trepins first attempted lacrosse in 8th grade, later than most teammates.
“When I first tried lacrosse, I didn’t like it that much,” Trepins said. “I had to wear a skirt, which I thought was weird.”
But she made some good friends and tried out again as a freshman, and made the varsity team. Before the end of the season, she became a starter on defense.
“Throughout the year my coach kept giving me some opportunities to go out on the field and show what I could do as a player, and I really didn’t have that before,” she added. “To have someone really believe in me and believe in my abilities was kind of life-changing. So, going on the field and actually feeling confident playing a sport was an amazing feeling that I never wanted to end. The program at Grandville is great, and my teammates were so supportive.”
Vanden Bosch made it clear Trepins earned it all.
“She just blossomed so quickly and got that opportunity to start on defense, and that was her natural athleticism,” the coach said. “Then when she became passionate about lacrosse because of that, she made the most improvement in between offseasons that I’ve ever seen in a player. Through that she developed leadership, and we named her as a captain her junior year. When I say hardest worker in the room, that is her.”
With the cancellation of her senior lacrosse season after all MHSAA spring sports shut down because of COVID-19, Trepins shifted gears to prepare for college, which had begun over the winter with applying for scholarships. A significant award came from the local Community Choice Credit Union’s Foundation, a $5,000 grant as part of a statewide $100,000 annual program the credit union started 11 years ago that has grown to $1.2 million in educational support for students who are focused on supporting their Michigan communities.
She plans to study pre-dental at Aquinas College – in part because she respects the work of a cousin who is a dental hygienist, but mostly because she has had her own issues growing up with teeth complications that still cause her pain in her jaw on a fairly regular basis. She is missing an adult tooth under a baby tooth that has remained in place as the family cannot afford dental insurance.
“If you looked inside my mouth, my teeth are a little weird on one side (looks concaved),” she said. “My family could never afford to fix it when I was growing up, so I want to be able to fix things like that for other people. I guess it’s quite common, and I want to help other kids when they’re growing up. There are a few options to fix it, but they are all so costly. … I just kind of have to deal with it.”
As to what Trepins has learned from starting and running a small business:
“It feels almost like a reality check at some points but also unreal in all honesty. You always see people with their businesses and think, ‘Wow, I could do that too.’ But the truth is running a business takes a lot of time and hard work for it to really start to get off the ground. But at the same time, every time you have an order that gets placed or you see someone using something that you've made – for example getting to see the little girls run around with the sticks I've strung for them – it feels a little bit unreal, and like all the work that you've put into it is actually paying off.
PHOTOS: (Top) Grandville's Brianna Trepins, left, maintains possession of the ball during a game earlier in her career; her senior season was canceled due to COVID-19. (Middle) Trepins strings and shows off a restrung lacrosse stick. (Photos courtesy of Brianna Trepins.)