GIRLS SOCCER: Surging Troy continues streak with 3-0 rout of Utica
BY JAKE LOURIM
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
STERLING HEIGHTS — The Troy girls soccer team arrived at Sterling Heights Stevenson Friday night just in time to see its crosstown rival Troy Athens advance to the district final.
It was only fair the Colts held up their end of the bargain.
Powered by two more set-piece goals and two goals by junior Jenna Cabelof, Troy shutout Utica in pouring rain Friday night in the Division 1 district semifinal, 3-0.
The Colts’ win, coupled with Athens’ thrilling shootout victory over Fraser, sets up a showdown for the district championship on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Stevenson.
The two rivals played last year in the district opener, with Troy winning 2-0, but the draw put them on a collision course for the final this year as they eliminated Macomb County teams, one by one.
“For all intents and purposes, last year felt like it was the district final too,” Troy coach Brian Zawislak said. “The thing that our girls have to understand going into tomorrow is, you’ve been there before.”
Troy and Athens are almost always two of the top teams in the state. This year, Athens has the better record and has been ranked higher for most of the season, but Troy has won five straight meetings, including a 2-0 victory on May 16.
“I’m always up for a good team to play,” Hawkey said. “It feels better winning when you play a good team because you know you deserve it.”
First, both teams had to get past their Macomb County foes. Troy played Utica Ford in the district semifinal last year and Stevenson on Tuesday, and both played defensively in their own half, trying to prevent Troy from generating opportunities.
Utica played no such style.
The Chieftains (7-6-6) were not afraid of Troy, and they played an aggressive attack. Utica played a 4-5-1 formation and pushed the outside midfielders forward on the exterior.
“(Troy plays) four midfielders, and they shift back and forth across the field, which leaves the opposite midfielder open,” said Utica assistant coach Dave Moran said. “We played with five in the (midfield), and the whole idea was to link with the outside midfielder coming out of the box. We didn’t do that. We did it successfully for the first five to seven minutes, but something got away from that game and we just kept turning the ball over to Troy.”
Once Troy settled in, senior captain Jamie Hawkey said the Colts were successful by communicating on the back line.
“We knew they were going to be aggressive, and we knew they were going to come out strong and hard,” Hawkey said. “One thing we’ve really been talking about is helping each other. When one defender steps, the other covers for her behind her.”
The Chieftains earned a corner kick in the first five minutes of the game, but Troy goalie
Alison Holland punched it out of the box, and Utica did not have a solid chance until the Colts were on top.
“They like to transition high and wide, and I think [outside backs] Grace [Goodrich] and
Nadine (Bratu) did an excellent job of not letting them get into that space,” Zawislak said. “Utica didn’t sit back by any means — they went after it, and we’ve got to give them credit for that, but our defenders were up to the challenge.”
Troy scored its first goal when senior forward Madison Hirsch slid a pass into the box for
junior Phylisha Drayton, who split between two defenders and knocked a shot past the goalkeeper.
Soon after that, a torrential downpour started and hardly let up for the rest of the night.
The teams entered halftime with the game still up for grabs, but Troy junior Jenna Cabelof all but put those hopes to rest with a goal in the first five minutes of the second half.
Building on the Colts’ success on restarts, senior Erin Wrubel launched a free kick from 30 yards out. Utica goalie Ashley Meehan blocked the shot, but couldn’t hold onto it, and Cabelof blasted it into the back of the net.
“The second goal probably doesn’t happen if the conditions aren’t the way they are,” Moran said. “That was like a dagger. It was like (Red Wings goalie Jimmy) Howard giving up a puck, right?”
Troy finished the game off with 7:41 left when Wrubel lined up a cornerkick and sent it toward the far post for Sarah Troccoli. A sophomore, Troccoli headed it back toward the middle of the net, where Cabelof was waiting for her second goal of the evening.
Now, both Troy and Athens will head for home to rest up for their showdown tomorrow with just 18 hours of preparation time.
“We’ve got to control the center of the park,” Zawislak said. “If we can control the center of the park, I have a good feeling about tomorrow. If we don’t get that done tomorrow,anything can happen. They have some very talented players.”
Athens is led by senior center midfielders Liz Abro (Western Michigan) and Gabby Mancini (Eastern Michigan), but the Colts have won the last five games in the rivalry, including three last year.
“It’s a rivalry game, so I think the first five minutes, everyone’s going to have to get the jitters out and let it settle down,” Zawislak said, “and then we’ll be able to hopefully get into a groove.”
(Jake Lourim is a senior 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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