The MIAC tradition: Oakland Christian, Inter-City Baptist enter familiar territory with semifinal matchup

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

AUBURN HILLS — It’s a safe bet to say that a school from the Michigan Independent Athletic Conference will make a run in the boys soccer Division 4 tournament each year.

It’s almost a tradition.

For the 17^th straight campaign, at least one current member school of the MIAC has made it to the Final Four in Division 4/Class D and this year there are two schools from the conference facing off for the right to go to the state finals.

“It’s the best Division 4 conference for soccer in the state every year,” beam Oakland Christian coach Caleb Combs, who is in his third season as Oakland Christian’s head coach. “Look at the history. There always seems to be at least one of us here. Someone told me that this is something like 17 straight where we’ve had a team in the state semifinals.”

Of the 16 schools in the two-division MIAC, Auburn Hills Oakland Christian, Allen Park Inter-City Baptist, Southfield Christian and Grosse Pointe Woods University-Liggett have all won at least one state championship in boys soccer, although one of Liggett’s two titles (1999) came when it was in the Metro Conference.

Ann Arbor Greenhills, Westland Lutheran and Birmingham Roeper have all finished as a state runner-up at least once. Greenhills joined the league three years ago and finished as the state runner-up in each of the past two years. Oakland Christian and Inter-City Baptist have also finished as the state runner up one time apiece, while Inter-City Baptist has a MIAC-best six state championships dating back to 1983.

CUTTING BACK: Auburn Hills Oakland Christian's Adm Piot cuts the ball into the midfield in a recent game. Piot and the eighth-ranked Lancers are making their seventh appearance in the state semifinals in school history. File Photo | Dan Stickradt

Those seven aforementioned schools have combined for nine state championships and 10 state runner-up trophies. Member schools from the MIAC have also accounted for over 25 Final Four appearances dating back to the first MHSAA tournament in 1982.

MIAC schools have landed a team in the D-4 state finals in six straight seasons and in 10 of the past 11 seasons. The only recent year that the MIAC didn’t have a team in the state finals was 2004, when both Inter-City Baptist and Roeper both lost in the state semifinals to Muskegon Western Michigan Christian (six state titles, six runner-up finishes) and Burt Lake Northern Michigan Christian, respectively.

“I think the strength of schedule really helps everybody,” said Combs. “Look at this year. Roeper and Inter-City were both ranked No. 1 in the state several (weeks) and we were in the top 10 the whole season. (Lutheran) Westland, Plymouth Christian and Greenhills were all good and Southfield (Christian) beat Roeper in PKs in the district finals and reached the regional finals.”

Eighth-ranked Oakland Christian and top-ranked Inter-City Baptist will add another chapter to their storied rivalry when they play at 7 p.m. Wednesday night at Troy Athens in the Division 4 state semifinals. The game guarantees the MIAC a team in the state finals for the seventh straight campaign.

This is not the first time that Oakland Christian, which is in the state semifinals for the seventh time since 1993, has carried a top-10 team into the Final Four. The Lancers lost in the semifinals in 1993, 2000, 2002 and 2006, while Oakland Christian advanced to the state finals in 2007 and won the state championship in 2008.

The Lancers lost 3-2 in overtime to Riverview Gabriel Richard in their first semifinal appearance back in 1993.

This will be the fourth time that Oakland Christian will face Inter-City Baptist in the semifinals. Inter-City Baptist has won all three of those previous contests — 2-1 in overtime in 2000, 2-1 in overtime in 2002 and 1-0 in 2006.

Not so ironically, the two years that Oakland Christian reached the state finals, it had to beat a MIAC team in the state semifinals. The Lancers edged Southfield Christian 1-0 in a shootout in the 2007 semis and defeated Greenhills 1-0 in the 2008 semis.

“We have history,” admitted Combs about playing MIAC schools, in particular Inter-City, in the semis. “We’re hoping we can get them this time.

“The thing about Inter-City is they are very athletic, very fast,” said Combs. “They have some good players. They always do. I don’t know how we truly stack up with them, though. Both times when we played them this year, we were missing some guys.”

Inter-City defeated Oakland Christian 4-2 and 3-0 in the regular season, but the latter meeting saw the Lancers go down without four starters for different reasons.

Last season Oakland Christian was ranked No. 1 in the state for virtually the whole season before being upset by Southfield Christian in the regional semifinals. The Lancers (18-4-1) have learned from that premature defeat.

“I think we made a mistake last season by looking too far ahead. We starting planning on whom we might face in the tournament later on and then we got upset,” said Combs. “This year we have truly taken it one game at a time. We haven’t thought much about it. We only concentrate on our next game. We just go out and play our best, whoever the (opposition) is. We try not to look past the next game.

“I think that has worked well,” added Combs. “I think we are playing our very best soccer right now. The guys are focused, we are finally healthy, and getting some guys back the past few games.”

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Tags: Allen Park Inter-City Baptist, Allen PArk Inter-City Baptist Boys Soccer, Auburn Hills Oakland Christian Boys Soccer, boys soccer, featured, high school boys soccer, MHSAA Division 4 Boys Soccer State Semifinals, Prep Boys Soccer, soccer

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