Northville = Perfection in D1 Soccer
June 14, 2014
By Mark Meyer
Special for Second Half
WILLIAMSTON – Good things come in twos for Northville girls soccer, but even better in fours.
Like MHSAA championships in 1984, 2004 and now 2014.
The Mustangs completed their perfect 23-0 march to the Division 1 crown Saturday afternoon with a 2-1 victory over Utica Eisenhower.
As they have all season, the Northville senior forward tandem of Megan Buckingham and Jamie Cheslik provided the scoring punch: Buckingham in the first half with assist from Cheslik, who scored unassisted early in the second half after gaining possession deep in the Eagles’ zone.
The Northville defense – which had held opponents to only four goals all season – was perfect until the 31:58 mark of the second half when Eisenhower junior forward Paige Duda cut the lead in half on a shot from just outside the 18-yard line.
The last eight minutes provided a few tense moments for fifth-year Northville coach Eric Brucker, who was an assistant on the 2004 team.
“I told them at halftime that one goal wasn’t going to win it,” Brucker said. “They’ve been scoring four or five per game throughout the playoffs, so we weren’t expecting a 1-0 game.
“We don’t get scored on often, but we’re mentally tough enough to make sure it didn’t happen again.”
Defensively, the Mustangs relied on midfielders Suzie Redick and Alissa Moore to mark Eisenhower forward Isabella Palazzolo, whom Brucker felt was a player who had to be controlled for Northville to be successful.
“We had different players in different roles, and they stepped up to do what needed to be done,” Brucker said. “Our scouting report showed that Palazzolo would be a factor on the left side, and normally it’s hard to mark someone on the outside mid. But Suzie and Alissa did an outstanding job swapping back and forth, trying to take her out of the play.”
The instant offense of Buckingham (23 goals) and Cheslik (33) – both Division I college recruits – was something that made Eisenhower coach Mehrdad Nekoogar uncomfortable.
“They are both great players and knew that we could not afford to make mistakes against them – they would make us pay,” said Nekoogar, whose team finished the season 18-3-1. “That’s what hurt us, a couple of mistakes.
“But we came back, scored and were in it to the end. I expect us to be back next year because we have almost everyone coming back.”
Northville senior captain Ashley Peper, a stalwart on defense for the Mustangs, said the team was loose and relaxed on the bus ride to the game.
“We were all singing; nobody was nervous,” Peper said. “We were so ready for it. We were pumped.
“We’re a second-half team; we know how to use our speed up front to our advantage. We needed to keep going hard. We knew they had come back before and had the ability to score quickly.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Northville’s Jamie Cheslik leaps over the Utica Eisenhower keeper while controlling the ball during Saturday’s Division 1 Final. (Middle) Eisenhower’s Julia Henning (16) works to move the ball past Northville’s Kyra Dahring.
'Unexpected' Novi Takes Home Title Again
June 15, 2018
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
WILLIAMSTON – The first unexpected development in the eyes of many was that the game was about to go into overtime.
The next unexpected development was that it didn’t.
Finally, the last unexpected development was that the team many figured would take home the runner-up trophy this time emerged as champion once again.
Such was the story of the 2018 MHSAA Division 1 girls soccer championship game at Williamston High School.
A heavy favorite to win its first championship after three prior losses in the title game, it instead was more Finals heartbreak for Grand Blanc, which saw perennial power Novi add its sixth girls soccer title trophy since 2005 with a 1-0 victory over the Bobcats.
Sophomore Avery Fenchel was the hero for the Wildcats (19-5-1), as she scored the only goal of the game with 3:29 remaining after she took advantage of a miscommunication by Grand Blanc defenders inside their goal box.
What seemed like a routine ball in front of the goal was botched by the Bobcats, and Fenchel took advantage by firing the ball into the open net to send her team into a wild celebration and Grand Blanc players to the ground in dejection.
“I was just running after it, and it just went into the back of the goal,” Fenchel said. “I just turned around and ran towards my team. I was so excited.”
With seven players signed or committed to Division I college programs, many felt Grand Blanc would have the game well in hand by the time the waning minutes of regulation rolled around.
But Novi’s defense was firm throughout, and overtime seemed imminent before Fenchel’s goal signaled a much sooner ending.
Grand Blanc entered the playoffs after winning the Kensington Lakes Activities Association Gold championship, while Novi finished third in the league. Novi lost to Grand Blanc in their regular-season meeting, 3-1, prompting some adjustments heading into the rematch.
“We kept having our outside forwards drop down more,” Novi head coach Todd Pheiffer said. “Their forwards never go back, and their defenders never really push up. It was finding that space in between the defense and midfielders.
“One thing we worked on at practice is whenever we are defending, it looks like a 4-5-1 (formation). When we are on the attack, it’s a 4-3-3. Just transitioning between those formations. It’s the first time we’ve ever done it, and we worked on it in practice the past two days. The girls did a great job.”
Grand Blanc ended up holding a 13-10 edge in shots, but many were wayward of the goal and the Bobcats had trouble in general getting serious scoring chances against Novi’s defense.
Each team hit a crossbar during the game, but the one miscue by Grand Blanc in the final minutes turned out to be the difference.
“I feel terrible for them,” Grand Blanc head coach Greg Kehler said. “It was just a little miscommunication back there on really a harmless ball between our defenders and goalkeeper. But that is just one play in an 80-minute game. We had our chances, but we didn’t take advantage of them to get that lead and (not) have a situation like that arise.”
Each team is filled with non-senior starters and contributors, so a rematch in next year’s playoffs could be in the forecast.
But for the present time, Novi relished being in the rare role of underdog.
“The girls had a little chip on their shoulder because the press said the entire week that this trophy was Grand Blanc’s,” Pheiffer said. “It was theirs. Everyone was picking against us, and that’s how this whole season has been. This has been a year of redemption for these girls.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Novi’s Julia Stadtherr (20) embraces teammate Avery Fenchel after the latter’s goal gave her team the lead in Friday’s Division 1 Final. (Middle) Grand Blanc’s Samantha Lewis (8) gets her head on the ball just above Fenchel.