BOYS SOCCER: Mell’s overtime tally lifts Rochester Stoney Creek over Rochester
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
ROCHESTER HILLS — Ayden Mell has only scored four goals all season long.
None have been bigger than his late tally Wednesday night.
The junior midfielder from Rochester Stoney Creek scored with 3:24 left in the second overtime season in leading the Cougars to a thrilling, 2-1, victory over visiting rival Rochester in a Division 1 pre-district contest.
Mell scored from close range in the middle of a goal mouth scramble to lift the Cougars (8-2-3) out of the opening-round doldrums.
Stoney Creek has been ousted in the pre-district or district semifinals the last three years and has not won a district title since 2012. The Cougars lost in a pre-district to Utica Eisenhower (1-0) last season in a shootout despite hitting the crossbar and goal posts three times in that miserable defeat.
This year Stoney Creek was able to find the back of the net twice and find some late-game heroics in its tournament opener.
“We wanted to end the game. We didn’t want it to go to (a shootout), so we knew we had to score,” smiled Mell. “Our captain, Mikey Puchalski, headed it back, it bounced to my left, and I knew I couldn’t bring it down. So I just turned, kind of scissor-kicked and lucky the goalie wasn’t over to the left side. But it felt good — it felt really good.”
With Stoney Creek applying late pressure, senior midfielder Lance Fogelberg’s long throw-in from the right side sailed into the penalty box, with Puchalski flicking the ball back towards the goal. Mell was able to volley home the loose ball into the net and Stoney Creek’s defense made it stand.
Stoney Creek outshot Rochester 7-3, including 3-0 on frame, during the two 10-minute overtime periods.
“It’s interesting because we played Berkley the other night and we realized we had a kid that could really throw the ball far right into the box, so we started practicing it and we realized we had somewhat of a dangerous weapon of our own and Lance (Fogelberg) did a really nice job of being able to service that ball into the box,” said Stoney Creek coach Bryan Mittelstadt.
“Keep knocking on the door and good things will happen,” added Mittelstadt. “We prepped and we were very prepared for anything. I think these boys just wanted to win this game.”
Rochester had a blast from senior midfielder Carlito Ankawi sail just wide of the left post with three seconds left in the second overtime, and the Cougars hung on and avoided a shootout.
Scoring goals was the Falcons’ achilles heel this season. Rochester finished 7-6-1, having scored only 19 goals all season while yielding only 15 goals over 14 games.
“We just struggled to put it in the back of the net this season,” said Rochester coach Chris Purgatori. “For whatever the reason, and we had chances every game, we just struggled to score.”
Playing a rivalry game in the opening round for the third straight season, Rochester could not sneak one in during the overtime periods.
“Every cliche in the book with a rivalry game. You can throw out records, whatever. That’s a really good team that beat us tonight,” added Purgatori. “I thought we played really well most of the game, had some unfortunate bounces with that second goal. We knew eventually it would come down to minutes, seconds, and overtime we thought was definitely in the cards.”
Stoney Creek, which has now outscored its 13 foes 35-16 after a slow start to the season, scored first with 22:39 remaining in the first half on only its second shot on frame.
Senior midfielder Gaetano Lochirco volleyed home a failed clearing attempt, and his shot from 24 yards out curled past Rochester sophomore goalkeeper Tommy Ferrell.
Rochester netted the equalizer with 19:37 to go in regulation. Ankawi’s bending free kick from just outside the left corner of the box sailed into traffic and Stoney Creek junior goalkeeper Tommy Kim was screened on the play and was late to react.
Stoney Creek actually held a 17-9 shots edge, including 8-5 with shots on frame, and even held a 4-2 edge on cornerkicks.
Dalton Harrison, David Angel, Domien Stehmann and Riley Lamendola anchored the back line for Stoney Creek. Kim had four saves for the Cougars, including diving to his left in the 10th minute to stop a header from clearing the goal line.
“I thought we had some great opportunities, ones that either missed the mark or somebody just needed to be in that position and just came up a little bit too late,” added Mittelstadt. “I thought we applied some pressure in overtime and we finally put one in with three minutes left.”
Stoney Creek will face Utica Eisenhower (6-1-4) next Monday at Romeo in the district semifinals at 7 p.m. Eisenhower advanced Wednesday with a 3-0 shutout of Lake Orion — the same team that eliminated the Eagles in last year’s district semifinals.
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