Rockford 'Dynasty' Continues to Reign
June 8, 2019
By Perry A. Farrell
Special for Second Half
NOVI – Rockford ran its Division 1 girls lacrosse championship streak to seven straight titles Saturday.
The Rams got past Brighton 21-6, following up a similarly dominant 25-5 win over the Bulldogs in the Final a year ago.
Rockford finished 15-5-1, with four of the losses and the tie coming against teams from Illinois and Ohio.
“It’s a ton of fun, and we have great leadership from our seniors,’’ said Rams coach Mike Emery. “We have great youth coming up through the program, and we’ve really built a culture over the last 10 years. That’s eight championships in the last 12 years. We’ve been in the Semifinal game every year, in all 12 years that I’ve coached. We just have way too much fun.’’
The reigning champs wasted no time scoring as Isabelle Holmes found the net 50 seconds into the game to give the Rams a 1-0 lead.
Exactly 60 seconds later, Holmes added her second to get Rockford off to a good start.
Brighton’s first offensive attack led to a score by Sophie Mondro, but seconds later the Rams scored again on a goal by Katie Rodriguez to make it 3-1.
Rodriguez tacked on another at 20:49 to give Rockford a 4-1 advantage.
With Rockford a player short, Cat Kophcia scored to cut the lead to 4-2. But Sydney Zimmerman emerged from the penalty box and scored to make it 5-2 after running down an errant pass.
Holmes scored her third goal of the half to increase Rockford’s lead to 6-2 at the 12:34 mark. Chloe Dunham then took a feed from Mackenzie Delacher and found the net to give Rockford a 7-2 lead, and Rodriguez picked up a loose ball and scored her third of the game.
Mondro scored her second and third goals of the game for Brighton to trim the deficit to five.
Brighton (16-8-1) mounted a rally as Kophcia scored her second to make it 8-4. But with Brighton a player short, Dunham scored her second goal to extend the lead to 9-4. Zimmerman scored her second as the eventual champs moved ahead 10-4.
Mondro then scored her fourth goal for Brighton, but senior standout Karrington Vander Molen finally got on the board for Rockford as the advantage swelled to 11-5. She finished with three goals.
Dunham scored with 10 seconds left in the half to give the Rams a 12-5 lead.
Rodriguez opened the second half with a goal, her fourth, to make it 13-5.
“It’s so fun,’’ said Rodriguez. “The team aspect of it never gets old. We have so much energy. It’s so fun to win it still.”
Vander Molen added her second goal, and the Rams were rolling, 14-5.
McKenna Rinehart gave the Rams a 10-goal lead, which meant a running clock. Delacher added her second goal to put Rockford up 16-5. Zimmerman added her third to make it 17-5.
“I was happy because we didn’t get beat by as many as last year,’’ said Brighton coach Ashton Peters. “We knew it was going to be a tough game. Rockford is a dynasty.”
Click for the full scoring summary.
PHOTOS: (Top) Rockford raises its latest Division 1 championship trophy Saturday. (Middle) The Rams' Anna Glynn (15) and Brighton's Maddie Mince work to pick up a loose ball.
'Difference-Maker' Does for D1 Champ
June 6, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
ROCKFORD – Lacrosse often is not a goalie’s game – and especially not when the player defending the net must stop the speedy lime-sized ball flying at her multiple times from point-blank range.
But her teammates were correct Saturday in giving Rockford goalie Katie Elwell the game ball after the top-ranked Rams’ 10-9 win over Bloomfield Hills Marian in the MHSAA Division 1 Final.
After opening up a comfortable 8-1 lead during the first half, Rockford found the net only two more times during the final 33 minutes.
Elwell – who signed as part of the first recruiting class for the new program at Central Michigan University – stopped 11 shots total and allowed only two goals over the final 20 minutes to help the Rams secure their third straight MHSAA championship.
“I don’t credit myself. Everyone stepped up at one point to help us, and especially at the end. We couldn’t have done it without every single girl on that field,” Elwell said.
“It’s hard for me to focus sometimes (while also directing the defense), and I knew I just had to focus in the moment and focus on that ball so that I could make that stop to help my team.”
Rockford is 59-14-1 over its three championship seasons, its best single-season finish of the run this spring at 21-3. Its only losses this spring were twice to Division 2 champion East Grand Rapids and Arrowhead, the top-ranked team in Wisconsin.
The Rams had gotten a look at Marian already this season as well, defeating the second-ranked Mustangs 14-7 at the end of April.
But the Marian looked like two teams over the course of Saturday’s Final.
The Mustangs took a more aggressive attack to Rockford during the second-half run, which included multiple goals by senior Caroline Forester and sophomore Claire Kelly.
Marian turned up the pressure one last time during the final two minutes, but two key plays by freshman Brooklyn Neumen and a clutch save made the final score stand.
Neumen first caused a turnover on her team’s side of the field. Marian senior Olivia Hargrave-Thomas stole the ball at 1:24 to regain possession for her team. Elwell turned away what could’ve been the game-tying shot by Forester with only 55 seconds to play. With 36 seconds left, Neumen won a jumpball to the front right of the Rockford goal and sprinted downfield to run off most of the remaining time before her teammates took care of the rest.
“Katie, we talked to her about that before the game, and I was just talking to her about that now too: ‘Let’s be the difference-maker today,’” Rockford coach Mike Emery said. “We wanted her to be the difference-maker, and she definitely was.”
Junior Grace Gunneson and senior Alexandra Vandermolen both scored three goals for Rockford, and Vandermolen also had an assist. She scored the Rams’ final goal four minutes into the second half to give them a 10-7 edge.
Senior Hannah Lievois also was up to the championship task in net, making eight saves for Marian. The Mustangs were making their second appearance in an MHSAA Final and also finished runner-up in 2009. They finished this spring 21-4.
“Once you get down by six or seven goals, against a good team, it’s very hard to make it close. We made a game of it, right to the end,” Marian coach Jamie Francek said.
“I would love to play them again, if we could,” he added. “If it wasn’t for that little period of time in the first half where they got up on us, I think we were the better team most of the game.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Rockford goalie Katie Elwell works to deflect a shot during Saturday’s Division 1 Final. (Middle) Marian’s Caroline Forester splits defenders while bringing the ball upfield.