Liggett Shoots, Scores first Title since 2005
June 17, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Although his team found itself in an unfamiliar situation Friday afternoon, David Dwaihy had an idea how at least the first part might play out.
As Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett readied for its first tie-breaker shootout of this spring – and in the season’s final game – Dwaihy, the eighth-year coach, decided to simply ask his players to raise their hands if they wanted one of the penalty kicks.
“I had a few in mind who I wanted to take the shot,” Dwaihy said. “I ended up just saying raise your hand if you want one. The hands flew up, and the freshmen all raised their hands.”
And then the most “courageous and bold” of them all finished the Knights’ first MHSAA championship run since she was getting ready to start kindergarten.
Freshman defender Kate Birgbauer was her team’s fourth and final shooter and put her attempt just past the crossbar into the top of the net to give Liggett a 4-2 advantage in the shootout and a 1-0 win over Montrose in the Division 4 championship game at DeMartin Stadium.
Sophomores Kelly Solak and Alexis Wenger and junior Maddie Wu also made kicks as Montrose missed their first two tries, setting Birgbauer up to end the game.
“I love shootouts. I like the pressure,” Birgbauer said. “I actually turned to my friend Izzy (Brusilow, the team’s second-leading scorer this season) and I was like, ‘Are you 100 percent sure you’re going to make this?’ She was like, ‘Oh, I’m not sure,’ so I was like, I’ll take it. So I stepped up and shot it.”
“They’re courageous and a very bold, confident group – especially our center back who scored the winner, Katie Birgbauer,” Dwaihy added. “She wanted it.”
Liggett (19-2-1) won its fifth straight District title to start this run and repeated as Regional champion as well, but hadn’t played in an MHSAA championship game since winning Division 4 in 2005.
Despite their relative youth – the Knights had only three seniors this season – a number of key players gained experience during last season’s run. But they still hadn’t been pushed to this brink during a season in which they gave up only 14 goals.
Montrose (23-4-1), meanwhile, was playing in its first MHSAA championship game in girls soccer after winning its first Regional title, and ended this season giving up only nine goals.
The more upperclassmen-laden Rams went on the attack immediately. Sophomore Remington Hobson broke away at 28:04 in the first half, but Liggett junior keeper Kara Francis jumped in front to deflect the drive away from the goal. Senior Ellory Barnette sent a header over the net off a corner with 14:04 to go in the half, and Liggett sophomore defender Teagan Cornell headed away another Montrose shot midway through the second half that would have found the net had she not dropped back to cover the corner.
The shot differential wasn’t much during regulation, with Montrose tallying nine to Liggett’s eight. But the Rams had 11 corner kicks in the game to Liggett’s one, giving them better opportunities to attack.
“That’s turned out to be our bread and butter this year, set pieces, corners, and we came close,” Montrose coach Jason Perrin said. “If you get 11 of them, you’ve got to put one in.
"But they’re very similar to us – they get 10 girls behind the ball, they clog up the passing lanes. We do that. It was kinda like playing ourselves, a little bit.”
The game appeared over before the shootout, but only for a minute, when a Liggett throw-in landed in the Montrose net with 5:09 to go in the second period of overtime – but the goal was called off because it didn’t touch a player from either team on the way.
“I think that lit a fire in our hearts a bit,” Birgbauer said. “We got mad, and we came back.”
Montrose had more experience in shootouts – they’d gone 1-1 previously, with a win that way over No. 2 Elk Rapids in the Regional Final. But Liggett apparently was plenty prepared despite a lack of shootout experience.
Liggett’s Francis and Montrose senior keeper Alexis Rush both made four saves while controlling play in front of their respective nets. Rush is one of eight seniors who will graduate from the Rams’ most successful team.
“We had a good core coming back. We won 17 games (last season). But we hadn’t won a District since 2001. So it’s hard to dream too much beyond the District or Regional level,” Perrin said. “But this team grew with confidence. Really, once we beat (Saginaw) Nouvel in the District Finals, I could just tell we had the mindset to go as far as they wanted, and they put on a good run.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Teammates converge on Liggett’s Kate Birgbauer after the freshman’s winning shot in Friday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) Liggett’s Rebecca Lohman moves the ball to a teammate while Montrose players pursue.
Sailors Ride Scoreless Streak to 2nd Title
June 14, 2019
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
EAST LANSING – Grand Rapids South Christian senior goalkeeper Annika Zuverink said that throughout this spring, head coach Brian Broekhuizen brought the team bagels every time she and the Sailors shut out an opponent.
But toward the end of the season, Zuverink said Broekhuizen started bringing something else to reward a scoreless performance.
“He’s upgraded to cheeseburgers now,” Zuverink said.
Whatever the choice of food, it was bagels and cheeseburgers for all on South Christian’s squad again Saturday following the Division 3 Final at Michigan State University’s DeMartin Field.
The Sailors recorded their 20th shutout of the season and had plenty of offense to flank their stout defense, scoring twice in the first half en route to a 3-0 victory over Essexville Garber.
It was the second title in school history for the Sailors, who also won it all in 2013.
South Christian didn’t allow a single goal over its seven playoff games.
“I think that’s really impressive,” Zuverink said. “I can’t believe we successfully did that. It’s unbelievable.”
The victory also served as a milestone win for Broekhuizen, who won his 100th game as head coach of the South Christian program.
“That is so special, especially with this group,” Broekhuizen said. “I don’t know what to say about that. It’s just so fitting for me to celebrate that with these girls.”
South Christian opened the scoring with 23:25 left in the first half on a goal by senior Joz VanTol, who headed home a service into the box by senior Sydney Cleary on a free kick from roughly 30 yards out taken near the right sideline.
The Sailors then scored a back-breaking goal off a corner kick right before halftime. Junior Audrey Batts served the ball into the box, and senior Elise Van Sparrentek chipped the ball through defenders and beyond the goal line to give South Christian a two-goal cushion.
The Sailors didn’t let up to start the second half, tilting the field in their favor and then finally cashing on another opportunity.
VanTol dribbled into the right side of the box and fed a pass into the middle to junior Emma DeVries, who buried the point-blank chance with 33:18 left in the game to make it 3-0.
That offense was more than enough for South Christian’s brick wall of a defense.
“At the beginning of the season, I tricked them a little bit and said, ‘Defenders, raise your hand,’” Broekhuizen said. “By now, most of them know that everyone should raise their hand. We work on defending from the front to the back. Forwards cut the field in half, midfielders pressuring and covering, and the back covering, tackling and winning headers. It’s a defensive effort, and now they know defense really wins championships.”
South Christian carried the play throughout, outshooting Garber 15-8 and earning all nine of the game’s corner kicks.
Garber head coach Troy Stewart said the physicality of South Christian was something his team hadn’t seen all year.
“We don’t play the teams they do,” Stewart said. “We didn’t know the physicality was going to be like that and we weren’t prepared, and that’s on us as coaches. We probably should’ve come over here and seen a few games. We learned a lesson.”
While it was a disappointing Final for Garber (22-1-2), in time the Dukes will look back favorably on their first championship game in school history.
They finished with nearly three times as many wins as in 2016 – when they won just eight games –claimed their first Regional title, and upset No. 2-ranked Warren Regina in a Semifinal.
But after building the program to this point, Stewart said after 16 seasons he is stepping down as head coach to spend more time with his three granddaughters who are getting into soccer.
Given it was the program’s first appearance in a Final, Stewart said the team didn’t know there would be a runner-up trophy and medals presented to his players afterward. Finding out that news was a pleasant surprise, even in defeat.
“We just didn’t know,” Stewart said. “Every time we were going, it was day-at-a-time and we are going to play whoever is on that field. We didn’t know there was a trophy and medals.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Rapids South Christian hoists a Finals championship trophy Saturday for the first time since 2013. (Middle) The Sailors’ Sarah Possett works to nudge the ball away from Garber’s Isabel Baranski (4).