South Christian Scores 1st MHSAA Title
June 15, 2013
By Chip Mundy
Special to Second Half
MASON – Grand Rapids South Christian girls soccer coach Jason Boersma likes to shift senior Kayla Diemer between playing defense and forward.
Boersma let out a hearty laugh Saturday afternoon when Diemer was asked which position she preferred. He anticipated the response.
“I like to put the ball in the net,” Diemer said. “It’s my favorite part.”
Diemer must have loved playing in the MHSAA Division 3 championship game, as she scored the only goal in South Christian’s 1-0 victory over Pontiac Notre Dame Prep at Mason High School.
Diemer broke a scoreless deadlock in the 64th minute when she took a pass from freshman Cierra Buist and beat the goalkeeper for her 12th goal of the season. The Sailors made it hold up for the first MHSAA girls soccer championship in school history.
“Kayla got the goal; she deserves it,” Boersma said. “She’s been a leader on this team all year. She’s a top player, she plays defense, and she’s been willing to change her role.
“She loves to play forward, and we got her up there for a little while (Saturday), and it paid off.”
Diemer played it off almost matter-of-factly.
“I was in the right place at the right time, I guess,” she said. “It was a perfect pass from Cierra. I think there was a defender on me, and I just tapped it to the side. It was just a blur.
“I just saw the goalie and got it past her.”
Both teams came into their first championship game riding hot offenses. South Christian had outscored five tournament opponents 20-3, while the Fighting Irish outscored six opponents by a combined 28-4 score.
“That was the one time that they really executed what I had heard about them and did exactly what they wanted to do,” Notre Dame Prep coach Jim Stachura said about the goal. “That was the only time in the game that they did exactly what they wanted to do.
“Their size and speed definitely was the difference in the game. We just didn’t have enough of the size and speed. We don’t have the athletes to match up with them. The bottom line is athletically they were just tough, and a lot of girls were physically spent at the end of the game.”
One of South Christian’s priorities was containing Notre Dame Prep’s Taylor Timko, a junior who already has verbally agreed to play at the University of Michigan and had 39 goals coming into the game.
Timko had a few chances, including one from directly in front of the net in the first half. She missed wide left on that shot, and in the 75th minute she was stopped by South Christian goalkeeper Emily Blankespoor, a junior who registered her 15th shutout and said she didn’t know it was Timko who was 12 yards in front of her ready to shoot.
“Things happen so fast that I wasn’t paying attention to who it was,” she said. “I just knew they were going to shoot, and my gut reaction was that you have to make the stop.
“I dove to my left. I stopped it with my left hand, and it went a little bit in front of me, and then I jumped on it. My defense is really great, and they’ve been great all season for me, so it’s just about you have to react, and if it goes in, you can’t do anything about it”
Although Blankespoor did not know who was shooting, Boersma certainly did.
“Our goalie came up with a monster save,” he said. “On the bench we just thought, ‘Oh no, here it is, 12 yards out, this girl’s a scorer,’ and she put it right on the net.
“(Timko) is a great player. You can see that left foot she has, she hit some rockets, and she missed one. We talked all day about forcing her to her right, and she got three good cracks with her left, which is what we didn’t want to happen.”
Although South Christian seemed to dominate play with the ball being in the Notre Dame Prep end most of the game, the Fighting Irish held a 6-3 edge in shots on goal.
“I thought we did a really, really good job considering the fact that we left more goals on the field,” Stachura said. “It’s a bummer it turns out those lost opportunities were just a little wide.”
South Christian, which entered the game ranked No. 1 in Division 3, finished the season 22-1-3, while the second-ranked Fighting Irish ended 21-3-2.
“To end the season in this fashion with a state championship, this is what these girls have been looking for for years,” Boersma said. “We have a lot of these girls who are leaders, and they said in the fifth grade they wanted to do it. To have it happen is a dream come true. Their team effort as a whole – our team defense – we’ve had nine goals on us this year.
“What a year, a boys championship and girls championship. This is special.”
PHOTO: Grand Rapids South Christian’s Kayla Diemer celebrates her goal, which ended up being the lone score in her team’s Division 3 championship win over Pontiac Notre Dame Prep. (Click to see more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Northern Fueled for Another Title Drive
March 27, 2019
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
GRAND RAPIDS – The Forest Hills Northern girls soccer team made a surprising run to another MHSAA Finals last season with a roster filled with 18 underclassmen.
A large majority are back, and it’s created similar aspirations for a program that has blossomed into a formidable state contender in Division 2.
“I like this team because they have a lot of experience,” sixth-year Huskies coach Dan Siminski said. “It’s always a new challenge every year, and this year is no different from that standpoint with the departures and you have to fill some holes and move people around.
“One of the things I like about this team is they are very versatile, so we are converting some people from old positions to new ones and trying some things out. So far, it’s looked pretty good and they are quick to pick up concepts.”
The Huskies have appeared in three consecutive Finals, but come up short each time.
In 2016, they lost in a shootout to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep. The past two years, state powerhouse Bloomfield Hills Marian has spoiled their title hopes.
The season-ending losses haven’t defined their seasons, but have instilled an inner determination to keep striving toward the championship.
“We’ve come close, really close one year, but it keeps them hungry for sure,” Siminski said. “Runner-up or not, it’s not taking away from their accomplishments and I feel like everybody has been really happy with what we’ve done even though we didn’t win them all.”
Senior captain and four-year standout Carlye Fatum said the team hasn’t been discouraged by the setbacks. Instead, she and her teammates learned valuable lessons through each experience.
“Each year we’ve gotten so close, and every year we come back just as strong or even stronger and wanting to put in just as much work just to get there again,” Fatum said. “It’s tough getting there so many times and having it right there and being just short, but as a team I think we’ve handled it well and learned from it each year to improve.”
The Huskies have reached the Finals the past two years with different makeups.
In 2017, a senior-heavy squad carried the load, while last season a youthful bunch matured throughout the season en route to another lengthy postseason run.
Last year’s journey included a shootout win over Spring Lake in the Regional Final and an overtime victory against Richland Gull Lake in the Semifinal.
“It’s definitely a talented and close-knit group, and with the success these girls have had they kind of find ways to win even though it hasn’t been easy,” Siminski said. “Success tends to breed success, I guess, but all of them are very coachable and buy into team soccer and team concepts.”
Sammi Blair, another senior captain and four-year performer, is thrilled to have everyone back in the fold in pursuit of another successful campaign.
“I’m super excited about everyone coming back and how well we have started with our team chemistry because of last year,” Blair said. “That will help going into the season, and I think we want to show that we can keep this success up no matter what is thrown at us. We’ve lost players to DA (U.S. Developmental Academy), and we just want to prove that we can be just as good with players that come in and step up right away.”
One key attribute that hasn’t wavered in the Huskies’ incredible three-year span is their belief in themselves.
“One thing passed on from team to team is they are just a bunch of winners,” Siminski said. “They find a way, and you can’t teach that. It’s an intangible, and hard to put your finger on, but every time there has been a close game we just feel like it’s going to be all right, and it has been.
“You don’t know what the future will hold, but everybody believes and that’s the hardest part. They always feel like they have a good chance to win on any given day. Of course, you don’t win them all, but they always feel like they are going to win and that’s a great place to start.”
Fatum said that belief comes from trusting one’s teammates.
“We all trust each other, and we all go into it knowing we have each other’s back,” she said. “We know if we make a mistake that it’s OK, and we are strong enough to come back from it.”
Key returnees include keeper Parker Hutchinson, as well as Elyse DeSchryver, Jenna Mustapha, Sophie Renucci, Grace Sayers, Paige Myers, Kali Mochel and Alyssa Greshak. DeSchryver made the all-state third team last season and was the team’s leading scorer.
All of the girls play club soccer outside of the high school season. It’s allowed them to keep their individual skills sharp.
“We are blessed to have good clubs here, and they train from a young age,” Siminski said. “It keeps them constantly developing.”
Siminski said complacency hasn’t been a factor. His team knows to compete at the state level they have to endure the rigors of getting there.
“I haven’t seen a dip in their want to win conference and Districts or anything else,” he said. “A lot of that comes from senior leadership and captains pushing the kids and keeping them focused. I’m very excited and proud of the kids for what they’ve done so far, but we have more to come.”
Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Forest Hills Northern’s Elyse DeSchryver (6) pushes past a defender during last season’s Division 2 Final against Bloomfield Hills Marian. (Middle) Carlye Fatum directs the offense.