BOYS SOCCER: Troy Athens set for another classic battle with Traverse City West
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
TROY — Once again the road to another state championship for Troy Athens will have to go through Traverse City West.
Defending Division 1 state champion Athens will face Traverse City West at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the state semifinals at Holt. The Red Hawks defeated West, 4-1, in overtime in last year’s state championship match.
“They are a lot like us, actually,” admitted Athens coach Todd Heugh, who won a state title as a player at Athens in 1989 and as a coach previously at Rochester in 2002. “(West has) a very good program with a lot of history like we do and they have a group that really loves to play high school soccer. Being up there, they have’t really lost many players (to MLS Academy programs) so they have been successful in club soccer. A lot of my guys have played their top players in club. They know each other well. (In high school) they always seem to do well and have been to this stage quite a few times.”
Since opening its doors in 1995, Traverse City West has now reached the Final Four five times (2003, 2006, 2013, 2019 and 2020) and won the Division 1 title in 2006.
Athens is in its 40th season of varsity soccer and own six state titles (1981, 1983, 1984, 1989, 1997 and 2019), finished as the state runner-up twice (1986, 2016) and lost in the state semifinals three other times (1988, 1998, 1995).
Traverse City West (21-1-2) dropped its opener in a weekend tournament to Warren DeLaSalle and has not tasted defeat since that loss, going 21-0-2 since that contest. The Titans have captured 11 straight Big North Conference titles and are playing with confidence, as they returned 15 varsity players and eight starters from last year’s runner-up squad.
“They have a ton of experience and they only lost that one game, so they are playing with confidence,” said Heugh. “We expect this to be another great game with them.”
Athens (14-2-3) has played another challenging schedule, won its third straight OAA Red Division league title, third district trophy in five years and captured a regional title last week by beating previously-unbeaten New Baltimore Anchor Bay (4-3) in a game that reached a shootout (6-5 on penalties).
“We haven’t had an easy road and we never do,” said Heugh. “We always play a very tough league schedule and out-of-conference schedule to prepare us for the tournament and then our tournament (path) is always extremely difficult.”
Traverse City West presents a difficult task because the Titans return a bulk of their talent. Senior forward Anthony Galegos has been on a scoring tear all season — he scored six goals in two regional games alone — and is ranked among the better players in the state. Junior midfielder Colin Blackport is another strong offensive player that garners plenty of attention and is a high college prospect.
Senior midfielder/defender Gavin Michael, senior back Finn Durbin and senior goalkeeper Blade Kalbfleisch are also key players on a side that has outscored the opposition 100-21 with 11 shutouts. The Titans hold a 16-2 scoring edge with two clean sheets in the postseason — and outscored Muskegon Mona Shores and Okemos during regional week, 9-1.
Athens avenged its district finals 1-0 loss to Utica Ford from two years ago, defeating the Falcons 2-1 in overtime in this year’s district opener. The Red Hawks also defeated Sterling Heights Stevenson (6-2), Troy (3-0), Utica Eisenhower (2-1) and most recently Anchor Bay (4-3) to post a 17-7 scoring edge in the playoffs.
“We’ve given up a few more goals than what I would have liked,” admitted Heugh, hose team posted the fifth highest MPR computer point total in the state. “But we’ve also played some really good teams and we have found ways to win.”
Senior forward TJ Renaud (14 goals, five assists) and junior forward Ryan Gruca (nine goals, 12 assists) complement each other well and lead the Red Hawks offensive attack which owns a 50-18 scoring edge this season.
Senior midfielder Adrian Lekocaj (nine goals, seven assists), who played with Vardar Academy last season after gaining quality minutes in 2018 for Athens, and crafty junior midfielder Anthony Kapala (six goals, five assists) are also keys to the ignition.
Senior Zach Hanoosh moved from midfield to defense early in the season to help shore up the back line, and senior marking back Jack Musto is a returning starter. Musto and the aforementioned Renaud are the only two returning starters from the state title team.
Hanoosh, Kapala, Gruca, senior defender Drew Dionisio, senior midfielders Quinn LaBay and Gabe Biedul, and junior goalkeeper Matt Gawtrhop (seven shutouts) are the other returning players from the state championship team with Gawthrop seeing very limited minutes last year behind All-State Dream Team goalie Jason Kemp.
In total, 14 players and nine starters graduated for Athens. Several other players from last year’s Junior Varsity A team moved up, with sophomore defender Ben Maher and junior midfielder Jacob Steiner becoming pleasant surprises in their first varsity campaigns.
“We only had nine guys back and a 10th player actually played for us a lot as a sophomore before taking a year off, so we actually had 10 players with some varsity experience at the beginning of the season,” said Heugh. “Renaud and Musto were the only ones who started in the championship game last year, so we’ve had to work in a lot of first-year starters, guys who were reserves last season or played on our JV-A team. We have definitely come together after having a lot of spots to fill.”
With four high-profile programs in the Final Four this year, anything can happen. Novi Detroit Catholic Central had the most points in the MPR ratings, while Traverse City West (2), Mattawan (3) and Athens (5) are also still alive in the tournament. Mattawan and Catholic Central face off in the other matchup and both own a state title in the last decade.
“When you look at all of the quality teams there are in D-1 and how difficult it is to win games in the tournament, to see four of the top five teams in the MPR rankings still in it says a lot,” noted Heugh. “All four of these teams are very good.”
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