You are here: Home » Featured Articles » GIRLS SOCCER STATE FINALS PREVIEW: Stoney Creek, Notre Dame Prep aiming for first state title

GIRLS SOCCER STATE FINALS PREVIEW: Stoney Creek, Notre Dame Prep aiming for first state title

Dan Stickradt | June 17, 2016 | Comments (0)

BY DAN STICKRADT

CORRESPONDENT

dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com

Twitter: @LocalSportsFans, @StateChampsnet, @SportsSceneKeyes

EAST LANSING — Sometimes deep tournament runs to the Final Four can happen during unexpected years.

That is the case for Rochester Stoney Creek girls soccer team.

The Cougars spent most of the 2015 season ranked No. 1 in Division 1 with a large senior class of 12 on their roster, including seven players that ventured onto the college ranks.

Stoney Creek became upset victims in the regional semifinals last season, falling to Grand Blanc, 3-2, in a shootout despite outshooting Grand Blanc 19-4 through 80 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtimes.

“We were not going to let that happen again,” admitted junior Gina Cerny, the second-year starting goalkeeper for Stoney Creek. “Nobody ever thought we would get this far. We weren’t even supposed to make it past districts, and now we’re going to a state championship. This feels amazing. I can’t believe it.”

Stoney Creek (17-3-3) will play in the Division 1 state championship game on Friday at 1 p.m. at Michigan State University’s DeMartin Stadium against unranked Plymouth Canton (17-3-4).

Canton is 2-3 all-time in the state finals, winning Class A championships in 1996 and 1988 while losing in 1992, 1993 and 2000.

The Cougars competed in the 2005 D-2 state finals, falling to Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central (3-0). The school made the leap up to D-1 in 2006 but failed to get out of a district until 2015.

Stoney Creek returned only five regular starters, although there was plenty of talent waiting in the wings along with a talented freshmen class of players.

Quality programs don’t rebuild, they reload.

“We filter players in. We have a belief system, and we have great community, a great school. We just use that,” offered sixth-year coach Brian Mittelstadt, who sports a career record of 92-20-6. “We still have some very good players. A lot of our players play for some really good club teams.”

Playing a rugged schedule, including in the OAA Red Division as one of five teams from the conference ranked in the top 10 in D-1 this season, Stoney Creek has not engaged in a schedule of cupcakes.

The Cougars have defeated four ranked teams in their 6-0 journey throughout the tournament this season, with wins over Sterling Heights Stevenson (2-0), seventh-ranked Utica Ford (1-0, shootout), second-ranked Utica Eisenhower (3-0), OAA White Division conference champion Macomb Dakota (2-1, 2OT), 15th-ranked Troy Athens (1-0) and fourth-ranked Novi (2-1, shootout) in the semifinals.

Senior midfielder/forward Taylor Paradoski leads the team with a school-record 22 goals and seven assists and is just one of three seniors on the roster.

Juniors Emily Solek (eight goals, 11 assists), Truly Hoenig (Oakland) and Lindsey Schupbach and sophomore Isabella Langusch are also focal points in the attack, which has outscored the opposition 53-17 this season.

Junior Amanda Harvey along with the freshmen trio of Amelia Kuntzman, Meghan Solek and Lauren Orlando have been a consistent defensive unit in from of Cerny, who has allowed more than two goals in a game only once this season. Cerny has collected nine shutouts and has posted a 0.76 goals-against-average.

This is the first time the two schools have ever met in girls soccer.

Canton is one of six schools from the 24-school KLAA that spent time in the top 15 of D-1, joining bandmates Novi, Brighton, Livonia Stevenson and Walled Lake Northern and Grand Blanc.

“We don’t know a lot about them, except they play in the KLAA,” admitted Mittelstadt. “They fell out of the rankings just before the tournament started. But they obviously are playing well. They beat No. 1 ranked Forest Hills Central in the semifinals.”

NOTRE DAME PREP SEEKING POT OF GOLD

To be the best, you have to beat the best.

Pontiac Notre Dame Prep coach Jim Stachura has long understood that concept.

The seventh-year Fighting Irish coach’s team always play tough competition in the CHSL or non-league and has definitely squared off against the best in the postseason, topping four ranked teams en route to the finals.

Notre Dame Prep will face unranked Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern at 4 p.m. Saturday in the finals at Michigan State University’s DeMartin Stadium.

Notre Dame Prep is 0-1 in the state finals, falling to Grand Rapids South Christian, 1-0, in the 2013 finals. This is the third time in five years the Irish have made the Final Four.

Third-ranked NDP have compiled a stellar 20-1-3 ledger this season, with tournament wins over No. 8 Warren Regina (3-0), Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood (5-0), Auburn Hills Avondale (3-1), No. 1 DeWitt (2-1), 14th-ranked Fenton (2-1) and fourth-ranked Birmingham Marian (1-0) in the semifinals. Overall, NDO has outscored the opposition 71-19 with 10 shutouts, including 16-4 with two shutouts in the postseason.

Seniors Rosella LoChirco Kalamazoo College), Hannah Zapczynski and Erika Weist (D-I Louisiana-Monroe) are all holdovers from the state runner-up squad from three years ago.

“Two finals in four years — and it has not been easy,” reminded Stachura, NDP’s seventh-year head coach. “Every year, we have to beat some very good teams to make a run. It’s so tough just to win a district in our area.

“You look who we’ve played this season,especially in the tournament,” continued Stachura. “We’ve played one of the toughest schedules of any D-2 team in the state. We’ve had to beat Regina, Fenton, Marian, and No. 1 DeWitt to get here. Plus in the regular season, we played Regina twice, Marian, (Livonia) Ladywood twice, we beat Trenton and they were also ranked. We are battle tested to say the least.”

Overall, NDP is 7-0-3 against teams that were ranked in one of the state’s four divisions.

LoChirco (15 goals, 11 assists) is a shoe-in for All-State First Team, while Weist (14 goals, 11 assists) has also been a force offensively and Zapczynski is a defensive-minded player.

Junior Haley Williams has emerged sturdy between the pipes (nine shutouts, 0.57 GAA). Junior Nadia Burbank is a D-I recruit anchoring the backfield, sophomore midfielder Celia Gaynor (18 goals, 16 assists, D-I recruit), junior midfielder Olivia Mears (nine goals, seven assists, Indiana State) and junior defenders Eileen Haig and Payton Williams (eight assists) which are all returning starters. Freshmen Maura Kruse (M/F) and Stephanie Maniaci (F) will bolster the offense.

Forest Hills Northern (16-3-4) is a sophomore heavy team that has won seven straight OK Gold Division titles in a row, but finally put together a long tournament run.

Sophomore midfielder/defender Emily Ashby (four goals, eight assists) did not play high school last season but is one of the top 100 sophomores in the country with multiple scholarship offers from big-time programs. Natalie Belsito (17 goals, eight assists), sophomore Lauren Kozal (11 goals, six assists, Michigan State commit) and sophomore Sophia Terzes (nine goals, 11 assists) are high-level players.

Ashby and juniors Ali Richter and Krystina Dunston lead the defense, while Amanda Young (Michigan Tech) and Kozal have a combined 13 shutouts for the Huskies, who have outscored their opposition 65-18. FHN owns one win over a ranked team along the tournament way, topping No. 13 Dexter (2-1) in the semifinals.