Troy explodes early, clinches league title share with win over Lahser
BY JAKE LOURIM
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Troy free kick specialist Zach Doepke hadn’t nailed a set piece goal in a while.
Bloomfield Hills Lahser’s goalie gave him the perfect shot.
Doepke was one of five different Colts to score Tuesday in a 5-2 victory over Lahser that clinched at least a share of the OAA Red Division league title.
Rochester Adams, which entered the night tied with Troy and Troy Athens, tied Rochester Stoney Creek to drop out of first place. That won’t change, since Troy’s league schedule is over. Athens’ most likely loss or tie is against Adams this week.
“It’s a nice feather in our cap to win the league,” Troy coach Brian Zawislak said. “The senior group has gone through and won three of them.”
He added, though, that his team now needs to focus on finishing the regular season strong in preparation for the state tournament.
Tuesday, No. 3 Troy controlled the flanks and pressured the ball in order to get all the opportunities in the first half.
“We knew they were pretty strong up the middle, so we exploited some spots where we thought they might have been a bit weaker, which was out wide,” Zawislak said.
Filip Buniewicz scored Troy’s first goal in just 90 seconds, blasting a shot from the right side off the left post into the net. In the next ten minutes, the Lahser goalie saved a couple more goals before Troy struck again.
“I think we had good runs out wide and they only had three in the back,” Doepke said. “So there was a lot of space out wide, and we got down the flanks and we got a good cross in.”
In the 19th minute, senior Jason Leslie served a ball in for senior A.J. Kalina, who struck it in the air, and the ball crawled across the goal line.
Doepke scored next on a short free kick from the left side to the far post.
“It was a good distance away, and I saw an open half, and I took it,” Doepke said.
Just as it appeared that Lahser was going to prevent further damage and go into halftime down only 3-0, Troy added another before the half.
With just three minutes to go, Stephen Schmidt outran the Lahser defense to a ball downfield. The Lahser goalie didn’t come out, and Schmidt fired it off the keeper and into the net.
In the 12th minute of the second half, Ian Fox put in Troy’s final tally when a ball bounced to him in the box and he finished.
Fox’s goal gave Troy five for the game and 21 in its last four contests.
“We’ve been working on decision-making on how we need to finish,” Zawislak said, explaining that he wants his players to sometimes use power when outside the penalty box but just get the ball on frame when inside the box.
Then came a let-down that Troy hasn’t experienced all year. The Colts had given up just four goals going into the Lahser game, two at Rochester Adams and one on a penalty kick.
Sophomore goalkeeper Craig Duggan relieved starter Matt Smolinski in the second half and surrendered two goals. Lahser scored the first with a cross downfield. The Troy defense was uncharacteristically out of shape, and the Knights finished.
The second was on a set piece from the right corner that went into the box, and Lahser finished that one too.
“We were a little bit undisciplined,” Zawislak said. “The second goal came on a restart, and the foul was a poor foul. A lot of times those can be dangerous when they get a restart, and if we give a team those opportunities, we put ourselves in a vulnerable spot.”
The coach likened the two goals to a tournament situation, where a let-down could be costly.
For now, though, Troy has won at least a share of its third straight league title.
Category: High School, High School (M-Z), Prep Wraps, Troy
