Country Day Lands 1st Finals Win with Last-Minute Goal in Division 2 Rematch
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
June 10, 2023
ROCKFORD – The last thing the Detroit Country Day girls lacrosse team needed was to be reminded of recent history.
Which goes a long way in understanding Saturday's stunning 13-12 win over rival East Grand Rapids in the Division 2 Final at Rockford.
The Yellowjackets' Hadley Keating scored with just nine seconds left as Country Day denied the Pioneers a fourth-consecutive Division 2 title and ninth overall. The game featured eight ties and five lead changes.
The championship game was another gem over two seasons after EGR knocked off Country Day 12-11 in overtime in last year's Final. Country Day thumped the Pioneers 18-5 late in this year's regular season. While those results were varied, neither was necessarily on the minds of Yellowjackets players, said junior Emma Arico, who scored five goals.
"We knew we couldn't take them lightly," said Arico, who scored the tying goal with 1:04 left. "It's a whole new team, a whole new atmosphere. We just wanted to focus on us and trust one another.
“I can't express how much I love my teammates and how Hadley won the game with her goal. We fought through adversity, and the last minute was made for us."
The championship was the first for No. 1-ranked Country Day, which finished. 18-1. East Grand Rapids (16-10) had won in both 2021 and 2022, as well as 2019 before the 2020 season was lost to COVID-19.
The Pioneers had taken a 12-11 lead with 1:43 left on a goal by MC Millman.
EGR coach Meggan Loyd said she liked her team's position with less than two minutes left.
"I was feeling confident. The girls have practiced (for close games). Draws were a big point, and unfortunately we didn't enough of them," said Loyd, who said the players had really discounted the 13-goal loss to Country Day late in the season. EGR had just lost back-to-back games to Division 1 finalist Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern/Eastern.
"I think we were more prepared, that we had improved offensively. We're a young team (seven seniors) and we needed more practice time to see about what worked and what didn't work."
Neither team could manage more than a few minutes of momentum. EGR scored the game's first three goals, Country Day six of the next seven, and the Pioneers four of the next five for a 12-11 lead with 1:43 to go.
Keating, an all-stater who has more than 160 career goals, agreed her teammates couldn't dwell on last year's devastating loss – at least to a degree.
"We used that as motivation, for sure," said Keating, who thought the game-winner was simply taking advantage of what was given by the defense. "It was definitely a gritty draw, and Emma came up with it. We wanted to take advantage of that. We had the last shot; we're lucky to have so many shooters and talented players who were willing to work for this."
Fifth-year Country Day coach Emma Kuehl, whose lineup included just one senior in defender Aunvil Mahajan, said she didn't expect less than another classic contest with EGR.
"They came out prepared. They had just played Forest Hills Northern/Eastern (in the teams' first meeting) and were probably fatigued," she said. "We needed possession on the last goal and finished well. We didn't feel like playing another overtime game with them. We just wanted to finish on top. It was a lot of goals to little goals the first time we played, and East probably pushed the envelope against us today."
Country Day averaged 22 goals per game during the Regional before a 19-10 win over Ann Arbor Skyline in the Semifinal. The Yellowjackets closed the season with a 14-game winning streak.
Mary Pavlou had four goals for Country Day. Millman and Vivian LaMange both had four goals, and Olivia Shaw scored three for EGR.
"It feels amazing, just a lot of hard work," Kuehl said. "Every year in my five years here we've taken a step forward. This is for the alumni and all the support they've given us. It wasn't about revenge, it's about evolving as a team. I'm ecstatic; we played fun lacrosse this spring.”
PHOTOS (Top) Detroit Country Day claims its Division 2 championship trophy Saturday. (Middle) The Yellowjackets’ Hadley Keating (18) sends a shot toward the Pioneers’ goal. (Below) Country Day’s Emma Arico (16) and EGR’s Kailee O’Connor battle for possession. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Cranbrook Emerges With 2nd-Half Surge
June 9, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND LEDGE – Many of the players on the field to start the second half of Saturday’s Division 2 Girls Lacrosse Final had played major roles when Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood won its first championship in the sport a year ago.
They weren’t about to settle for less.
The Cranes clutched a one-goal lead with 19 minutes to play, but scored 13 of the next 15 goals to finish with a much more comfortable 18-6 win over Okemos at Grand Ledge High School.
Four of the brightest stars from an accomplished group of eight seniors combined to score 11 of those second-half goals for Cranbrook, which also had finished Division 2 runner-up in 2015 and 2016.
“We had a little pep talk at halftime, which we do, and it really gets everyone pumped. And a lot of us, it was our last game of high school – and the girls who aren’t going to play in college, their last game ever,” Cranbrook senior Isabelle Scane said. “I think they just wanted something special, and I think that’s how we got the rally going. And once you get going, it’s almost impossible to stop.”
Scane – set to continue playing at Northwestern University – scored five goals, including four in the second half. She ended this season with 101 and closed her four-year varsity career with an MHSAA record 461, 185 more goals than the next player on the all-time list.
Senior Sophia Milia added three goals and five assists, the latter all during the second half. All four of senior Angelina Wiater’s goals and both assists also came over the final 25 minutes, while junior Jessica Geiger added two of her three goals and senior Delaney Langdon netted her score during the second half as well.
In the end, the Cranes’ 18 goals ranked as the fifth most in MHSAA Finals history – while they gave up what tied for the third fewest all-time.
“It was a matter of giving them a reality check – you don’t get to take this game back. You don’t have another chance at the state championship,” Cranes first-year coach Evan Foulsham said of the halftime chat. “You don’t get to wear the uniform again if you’re a senior.
“It was all a little bit of a heart check in terms of bringing out the passion, and I think it worked.”
Cranbrook finished 17-1-1, its only loss to Rockford, which won the Division 1 championship earlier Saturday.
The Cranes and Chiefs had faced off earlier this season, Cranbrook emerging a 14-10 victor. Okemos (19-4) in its Semifinal had avenged a regular-season loss (and three straight Semifinal defeats) to East Grand Rapids, and was seeking to flip one more past result to close the season.
Senior Alyssa Karber scored two goals for the Chiefs, who graduated nine contributors to this breakthrough run.
“I’m so lucky to have played with those girls growing up. I definitely think this year we took it to another level,” Okemos senior Melaina Grewal said. “The (senior) girls taught the younger girls a lot of things about how to push through, how to keep practicing, how to work hard, and this is just proof that you can end up where you want after you work hard – so I’m assuming that the younger girls’ work ethic will continue to be strong.”
Click for the full scoring summary.
VIDEO: Isabelle Scane scores during the closing seconds of the first half.
PHOTOS: (Top) Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood raises the Division 2 championship trophy Saturday for the second straight season. (Middle) Cranbrook’s Sophia Milia (10) defends Okemos’ Campbell Foltz.