BOYS SOCCER: Doepke’s PKs lift Troy over Clarkston
BY JAKE LOURIM
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
TROY — Zac Doepke let Ian Fox take Troy’s penalty kick last week at Walled Lake Northern.
“I wasn’t as confident as I could have been,” Doepke said.
Tuesday night, he was more confident and took the first kick. And the second? Well, then he just wanted to finish off the hat trick.
Doepke scored three goals — two on blistering penalty kicks — to help Troy beat Clarkston 3-1 at home in its OAA Red Division opener.
“He’s putting himself in a good position underneath, behind [midfielder] Mitch [Guitar] and the forwards,” Troy coach Brian Zawislak said of Doepke. “He frustrated Clarkston, not letting them out of their own end.”
The Wolves scored first when they got the ball down to Joey DeFinis on the left flank and DeFinis shot it across the field past Troy goalie Ben Holland into the right corner of the net.
The Colts had come out aggressive early, playing the ball through the midfield with quick passes and combination moves. But they hadn’t been able to finish until Clarkston’s goal. After the goal, Troy had answers.
For most of the first half, Troy pelted chances at Clarkston. It finally paid off when freshman Mitch Guitar sent a ball down the middle to senior forward Ian Fox, who hammered a shot off the goalie and off the crossbar.
“If we played good offense, that would be very good defense,” Doepke said. “If we were attacking more, then they couldn’t be attacking us.”
Twenty seconds later, senior right back Danny Berger grabbed the rebound and was pushed in the box. He also drew the foul on the penalty kick last week.
“We wanted to try to get those outside backs involved, and he did a good job of sneaking in,” Zawislak said. “He does a good job of drawing defenders too him and laying balls off. Sometimes, once the defenders get committed, they have no way of stopping it and they just end up fouling.”
Doepke stepped up and hit the penalty kick down the middle, with the goalie diving to his right. Fox scored the kick in the victory over Walled Lake Northern last Wednesday, but Doepke was confident Tuesday.
“I didn’t decide,” said Zawislak, who lets the players step up and choose the kicker.
The teams continued the aggressiveness throughout the first half, which turned into a back-and-forth affair than a deliberate, patient one.
Doepke struck again in the 25th minute when the ball bounced to him just outside the box. He nailed the ball into the left side of the net, even though a defender deflected it.
Guitar had the assist, his second of the year.
“He’s really savvy and he has a high soccer IQ,” Zawislak said. “He has so many little touches that make such a big difference. He slipped good balls into Ian, and Ian’s doing a good job of getting space for him to slip them into.”
The Colts ended up with 13 shots, including the two penalty kicks, showing their strength in the midfield with Doepke, Guitar and sophomore Josh Brodbine in the middle and seniors Nieem Alatassi and Aaron Faison on the flanks.
One of their goals after the tournament Saturday was to play the ball quicker through the midfield. They did that Tuesday, serving the ball in for Fox and Alatassi.
Doepke finished off the scoring in the second half with his second penalty kick. Alatassi drew another foul in the box, and Doepke put it right down the middle before the goalie could get a body on it.
For the last 25 minutes, Troy frustrated Clarkston with its physical play. The Wolves could get down into the box, but something — a defender or Holland or a bad bounce — would turn the chance away.
Soon, the Colts finished off a marquee win.
“We weren’t very highly ranked going into the season,” Doepke said. “That put a chip on our shoulder to play our hearts out. It all came together tonight and we…didn’t let off the gas as well.”
(Jake Lourim is a junior at Troy High School and a member of the S.H.P. Media Group / www.northoaklandsports.com Student Correspondence Program. He is publisher of website www.troycoltsportsupdate.com and a member of the Troy school newspaper editorial staff. He can be reached by e-mail at j.lourim@comcast.net)
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