Shrine Back to Best in D4 Thanks to Clutch Goal, Stellar Defense
By
Perry A. Farrell
Special for MHSAA.com
June 17, 2022
EAST LANSING – For Royal Oak Shrine Catholic, the disappointment of last year’s 5-0 Division 4 Soccer Final loss to North Muskegon now can be replaced with Friday’s impressive 1-0 shutout of Kalamazoo Christian at DeMartin Field on the campus of Michigan State.
After a scoreless first half, junior Norah Tisko scored 25 seconds into the second on a header to give the Knights (16-4-2) a 1-0 lead. It was her seventh goal of the season, with the assist going to Bridgette Drouillard.
“Yes, I had the finish, but it was our defense,’’ said Tisko. “Ava Gappy working it up the midfield and giving the ball to Julia (Bock), and Bridgette just giving me the most beautiful ball to execute. I really can’t take credit for it. We came into this year a little shaky. We lost some important seniors, but we had a great group of freshmen come in and step up. We were motivated to continue our run. Knowing we were coming back here was a little nervous, but we had confidence.’’
With nine shutouts coming into the Final, paced by sophomore goalkeeper Elena Gallagher, the Knights were used to shutting down opposing offenses.
“It starts with our defensive line and our goalie,” said Tisko. “Last year (Gallagher’s) appendix ruptured. We had a great second goalie, but she came back this year and our defensive line of seniors was so solid for us.”
It was a great 50th birthday present for coach Mark Soma.
“Very nice, can’t beat the party,” said Soma. “We were good last year, but we lost to a better team in North Muskegon. They were a talented group, and they deserved to win. The girls that came back wanted another taste of what it felt like.”
Shrine had allowed just one goal during the playoffs, during a 9-1 victory over St. Joseph Our Lady of the Lake in the Regional Final. Friday saw the Knights’ sixth shutout of the tournament.
“It’s not just our D; it’s our team,’’ said Soma. “Sixteen girls worked hard today. That’s what we have done all season. We kind of caught them off guard on the goal.’’
Shrine was making their third straight appearance in the Final. Kalamazoo Christian, a four-time Finals champion, also previously finished runner-up in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Gallagher finished the year with a goals-against average under 0.95.
“I totally rely on my defense; they are incredible,’’ said Gallagher. “I’m really close to all of them, so it’s like a bond on and off the field. There’s a lot of trust, so that works well for us. We are really great at communicating. We locked down as a team after the goal.’’
Drouillard, Jackie Lapoint and Claire Plaskey also were on the 2019 championship team.
The Comets (19-6) were on the attack most of the first half but couldn’t register a goal. Defense dominated the first 40 minutes as both sides had few scoring chances.
Annika Sytsma found one for Kalamazoo Christian with 1:13 to play in the half, but her shot went across the goal mouth and missed by inches.
“We were coming in with injuries, so we were trying to create different things,’’ said Comets coach Jay Allen. “It wasn’t meant to be today. We held (Tisko) for most of the game. She got loose once, and that was the difference. We were struggling to get that last step in there, but that’s soccer.
“We just couldn’t get a goal early, and this game is like that.”
PHOTOS (Top) Royal Oak Shrine Catholic celebrates its Division 4 championship win Friday at DeMartin Stadium. (Middle) Shrine keeper Elena Gallagher makes a stop.
Unexpected Becomes Elite As Hartland Makes History
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
June 19, 2021
EAST LANSING – Hartland wasn’t supposed to be in the Division 1 championship game.
And Julia Pietila wasn’t supposed to play.
So, naturally, it was Pietila – hobbling on a severely sprained left ankle which almost kept her out of the game altogether – who scored two goals as Hartland blanked Troy Athens, 4-0, in Saturday’s MHSAA Division 1 Girls Soccer Final.
“It was hurting, but it’s the state championship game,” explained Pietila, who scored the Eagles’ first and last goals in the weekend’s final game in calm, dry conditions at Michigan State University’s DeMartin Soccer Complex.
“It was now or never, so I just went with it. Once I got into the swing of things, I forgot about it.”
Hartland (20-4-1) had entered the postseason off a third-place league finish and ranked 23rd in Division 1 based on the Michigan Power Rating used to seed the top two teams at the District level.
But the Eagles seemingly forgot about all of that and the fact that it had never played in a girls soccer Finals game before, shutting out six of its seven postseason opponents.
The Eagles capped it Saturday by making Athens – No. 2 in final regular-season MPR – pay for its aggressiveness with an impressive counterattack, then cashing in on their opportunities.
It was an emotional win for veteran Hartland coach Andrew Kartsounes – who has been teaching at Hartland for 30 years and coaching soccer for 27, including the past 16 as the girls head coach – in his first appearance in a championship game.
“I was wondering if I was ever going to get here, and then to play the kind of game we did today was just amazing,” said Kartsounes, who is assisted by Wade Foster and Eric Anderson. “We just kept plugging away and created chances and, today, we finished a lot of our chances.”
Hartland grabbed a 1-0 halftime lead after junior Hannah Kastamo broke through the Athens defense and put a shot on goal, which Pietila booted in off the rebound at the 16:56 mark.
The key portion of the game was the first 10 minutes of the second half. During that period, the Red Hawks controlled play and had two excellent scoring chances – a header off a free kick that missed wide right and a nifty boot by junior Abby Mayne which just missed wide left.
But just as Athens was feeling good about things and the crowd of red was coming alive in the stands, Hartland responded with its aforementioned counterattack.
Senior Maria Storm was able to break away and send a perfectly angled kick into the top-right corner of the net with 31:32 remaining to make it 2-0 – a goal which seemed to demoralize Athens. Just two minutes later, Hartland made it 3-0 on another goal by Kastamo.
“We haven’t seen that kind of counterattack in a while,” said 10th-year Athens coach Todd Heugh. “We generated corner kicks, and they generated goals. Soccer is a game of chances. They made good on theirs, and we did not on ours.”
Athens (17-2-4) has won four girls soccer championships, but its last title came 21 years ago in 2000. The Red Hawks, who had posted eight consecutive shutouts coming into Saturday’s Final, now have three runner-up finishes.
Kartsounes agreed the key to the victory was weathering the storm early in the second half.
“They started the second half and were really taking it to us,” said Kartsounes, who received tremendous on-field leadership from captains Kamryn Gereck, Justina L’Esperance and Storm. “I told my assistants that we can’t survive like this for 40 minutes, then we finally started possessing the ball.”
Pietila completed the scoring with her second goal of the day at the 18:21 mark. Alyse Daavettila and L’Esperance added assists for the Eagles.
Athens actually held the edge in total shots (16-14) and corner kicks (6-3), but Hartland held a 9-7 advantage in shots on goal. Athens senior keeper Nitya Balusu made five saves.
Hartland junior keeper Morgan Seog was outstanding in goal, finishing with six saves. The Eagles produced shutouts in the first five playoff games and final game.
The only postseason game in which Hartland allowed a goal was Wednesday’s Semifinal, a narrow 3-2 win over Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central. It was also seven minutes into that game when Pietila sprained her ankle on a sprinkler.
“On Wednesday night, there was no way she was going to play, Thursday was a little better and it wasn’t until after warmups today that we knew she was going to play for sure,” said Kartsounes. “Then she goes out there and scores the game-winning goal of the state finals on one leg.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Hartland players celebrate during their Division 1 Final win Saturday. (Middle) The Eagles’ Maria Storm (13) and Athens’ Meagan Lindgren (15) battle for possession.