Adams stuns top-ranked Troy
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
ROCHESTER HILLS — Rochester Adams was able to accomplish something on the soccer pitch Tuesday against Troy that no other team has been able to do against the Colts this season: Score a goal within the regular flow of a game.
Previously, Troy had only given up a first-half penalty kick goal to Walled Lake Northern in a contest three weeks ago. That’s 560 minutes of soccer and only one goal off a restart allowed by the Colts.
The Highlanders were able to not only become the first team to score a regular goal on the Colts, but were able to hand Division 1 top-ranked Troy its first loss of the season, 2-0, in a key OAA Red Division match.
The Adams victory now leaves all eight members of the OAA-Red with at least one league loss.
“This keeps us right in the race,” beamed Adams coach Josh Hickey. “We lost to Clarkston a couple of weeks ago and that shouldn’t have happened. That was our only (league) loss. Now everyone has a loss. It’s wide open now.”
Junior Alex Tzonov was a giant killer, scoring a pair of first-half goals on Troy all-state netminder Matt Smolinski.
Freshman goalkeeper Spencer Ward made nine saves in the contest for Adams, including one lateral stop in the first half for his third shutout of the season.
“I don’t think anyone stood out in particular. My entire team played well,” said Hickey. “Our midfielder were incredible, our back line was incredible. This was probably our best game of the year.”
Adams (6-3-1, 4-1-0), which will face third-ranked Warren DeLaSalle on Saturday, took a 1-0 lead only 40 seconds into the contest when Tzonov caught Troy (7-1-0, 3-1-0) off guard and placed a shot into the corner of the goal, sending Troy into its first deficit of the season.
Tzonov finished off a cross from Dylan Knott in the 39th minute to put Troy into a two-goal hole. The colts could not recover from in the second half.
“We knew that if we played well, then we’d have a chance to beat them,” said Hickey. “I know they haven’t really been scored on this season, so we were fortunate enough that Tzonov was able to put a couple away. Troy is a very good team.
“Our whole league is strong, as it always is,” continued Hickey. “We have some tough games coming up the next couple of weeks. We have (Bloomfield Hills) Lahser and (Troy) Athens, and we have another game with (Rochester) Stoney Creek. It’s going to be a tough stretch coming up.”
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Category: High School, High School (M-Z), Prep Wraps, Rochester Adams, Troy
