BOYS SOCCER: Troy Athens opens up OAA-Red title defense with shutout of Stoney Creek
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
TROY — Winning the OAA Red Division championship in any sport is not an easy task.
Winning it in two or more consecutive years is even more difficult.
That’s what Troy Athens is trying to accomplish this season.
The Red Hawks, who have captured the last two OAA-Red crowns and were the Division 1 state champions last year with a senior-heavy roster, opened up league play Thursday with a 1-0 shutout of visiting Rochester Stoney Creek. The Red Hawks finished 23-2-1 overall last season and 6-1-0 in league play.
“We’re a different team this year and everyone understands that. When you graduate 14 players you are obviously going to be different,” said Athens coach Todd Heugh. “But the goal is still the same. We try to win our league, which is always one of the toughest in the state, and we’ve done that the last two years. We always play a really tough out-of-conference schedule to help prepare us for the tournament. We always want to be playing our best soccer at the end of the season and go as far as we can.”
With the shortened season, it was only the second game of the campaign for the Red Hawks, who opened up with a 2-2 draw against powerhouse Novi Detroit Catholic Central, the 2017 D-1 state champions, two days earlier.
Athens scored the game’s only goal in the seventh minute. Junior forward Ryan Gruca’s cross from the left corner sailed into the penalty box and senior midfielder Adrian Lekocaj was there to cash in his paycheck from 12 yards out.
“It was nice to get that goal, early, because we’re trying some new things, moving some kids around and see who can help us where. As it turns out, that was the game-winner,” noted Heugh. “We have a lot of new starters and places to fill. We do have a nice core of guys back and 3-4 of them started games for us. Last yer we had all of those seniors and we had depth. We’re trying to develop some depth this year.”
Athens returned seniors TJ Renaud, Anthony Kapala, Jack Musto and Zach Hanoosh, and Gruca, a junior, from its regular rotation. Plus Lekocaj, a senior, returns after playing for the Vardar Academy last season but was on the Athens varsity as a sophomore two years ago.
“We do have a nice core of players that saw a lot of minutes last year,” said Heugh. “And our goalie, Matt Gawthrop is very good. He didn’t play much behind (All-State Dream Team goalie) Jason Kemp. But he’s a very good goalie and he’ll have his shot this year.”
Gawthrop, a junior, recorded the shutout on the strength of four saves. He was the backup goalie on the state championship team but saw limited minutes.
Meanwhile, with two weeks of the season in August eliminated due to the COVID shutdown, the Athens match was the season opener for Stoney Creek (0-1-0, 0-1-0). Talk about getting thrown directly into the fire.
“We were not as organized as we thought we were,” said first-year Stoney Creek coach Brian Mittelstadt. “They were all over us the first 10-15 minutes and scored that goal. We did generate a couple of chances and I like the fact that we started to connect on some passes and get into their (third) of the field. But just couldn’t score. We tried some different kids up top. I think scoring goals could be a problem for us. We’ve lost some really good players the last few years and they were the goal scorers.”
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