'Reloaded' EGR Plays to Familiar Result
June 11, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
BRIGHTON – This was supposed to be a season of transition for the East Grand Rapids girls lacrosse program.
Gone were 12 seniors and seven starters from the team that last year won the program’s record fourth straight Division 2 championship.
And then the Pioneers lost three straight games as April turned to May, and four of six games total during that string – or one fewer defeat than they’d suffered the last four seasons combined.
And yet, Saturday’s season ending was the same – a 13-11 win over Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood at Brighton that extended the MHSAA-best championship streak to five straight.
“Our motto was kinda, “Rebuilding? More like reloading,’” Pioneers junior attack Lindsay Duca said. “We graduated seven-plus starters last year, and everyone’s asking me, ‘Oh, are you going to win states?’ And I’m like, ‘We’ll be prepared for it, but who knows.”
The Pioneers knew enough, whether it be how to restack the lineup or come back with one of the most dominant 20-minute runs in MHSAA Lacrosse Finals history.
Cranbrook Kingswood (17-7), seeking its first championship in the sport and last season’s runner-up after falling 19-6 in the season finale, scored this game’s first three goals and took a 5-2 lead into the 15th minute.
But Pioneers freshman attack Mary Schumar – playing only her sixth varsity game – scored her first of six goals Saturday off a Duca assist with 10 minutes to go in the first half. By the time senior attack Julia Surman scored 6:40 into the second, East Grand Rapids (17-4) had flipped the advantage with a 7-1 run. That turned into an 11-2 streak when Schumar scored her final goal to give her team a 13-7 lead with 6:43 to play.
“Basically, our team needs to settle down and start picking them apart offensively, and that’s something we’ve been working on all season,” East Grand Rapids coach Rich Axtell said. “And they were just patient and got layups, and that’s what we have to look for.”
Duca, also Schumar’s neighbor, had seven assists during the 11-goal streak and eight assists total – which were second-most for an MHSAA Final behind Mackenzie Lawler’s nine for Okemos in 2010, and tied for fourth-most for any game in MHSAA history.
Surman added three goals for East Grand Rapids, as did junior midfielder Auden Elliott.
Cranbrook Kingswood scored the final four goals, but couldn’t get two more past over the final 1:31. Sophomore midfielder Isabelle Scane scored three of the final four goals and five total, giving her 126 for the season – second-most in MHSAA history. She also had three assists, and senior midfielder Grace Giampetroni scored three goals.
“They play a really nice zone defense which is designed to stop an individual dodger like Isabelle, but she still managed to find some seams and dodge to the cage,” Cranes coach Greg Courter said. “She’s a fierce competitor. I’m not surprised that she beat some triple teams and found a way to score.
“We’re still pretty young," he added. "The heart of our team is sophomores right now. We’re hoping this becomes a common event with a different outcome at some point.”
But East Grand Rapids also should return most of this group next season – only six players graduate, and Surman the only one who scored Saturday.
The Pioneers who come back in 2017 will be another battle-tested group.
“Once we started assisting each other and started playing selflessly, it all came together,” Duca said. “When you have your streak going, it’s hard to (not) let your guard down. But I think that’s one of the strengths of this program. Even if we let our guard down, we always come back and get the job done.”
PHOTOS: (Top) East Grand Rapids’ Lindsay Duca (22) looks for an open teammate during Saturday’s Division 2 Final. (Middle) The Pioneers go on the attack during their comeback win.
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.)