The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Hornet girls' soccer, baseball teams claim district titles
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: June 7, 2007
The Saline girls' soccer team had one of their easiest games of the season in their district championship Saturday afternoon, rolling over Monroe 8-0 to win via the eight-goal mercy rule.
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But in a season marked by close game after close game, things would return to normal for the Hornets the very next game.
Saline trailed 1-0 to visiting Dearborn for more than 45 minutes of Tuesday night's regional semifinal before Jena Cooper's equalizer with eight minutes to play sent the game into sudden-death overtime. In the second OT period, with just less than 11 minutes remaining until a penalty shootout, sophomore Meredith Faas scored to give Saline a thrilling 2-1 win and keep the Hornets' season alive.
"Nothing's been easy for us all season, and we knew this wouldn't be either," Tapping said. "I told them before overtime, that we had to risk it to win. We put numbers forward and we got the goal."
Saline will face Northville, 1-0 semifinal winners over Ann Arbor Huron, in Friday's regional championship at 7 p.m.
Against Dearborn, the Hornets controlled the majority of play in the first half, created a number of scoring opportunities (including a shot from Faas that struck the crossbar with 11 minutes to play in the half), and limited Dearborn to only two shots on goal.
Unfortunately for Saline, the first of those went in as a Pioneer forward took advantage of a fortunate bounce and flicked the ball past the Hornet back line, creating a breakaway and a 1-0 lead at halftime.
Saline again came out of the locker room looking to attack, with Katrina Hollis's volley attempt bouncing narrowly wide in the opening moments of the second half and long-distance shot from Angie Hollis forcing a save with 27 minutes to play. But Dearborn forced Saline goalkeeper into a save of her own with a dangerous free kick three minutes later.
The Hornets would have left than 10 minutes remaining in their season before finally breaking through via Cooper. Andrea Sulavik's precision pass released Kellie Stepaniak down the right wing, and Stepaniak crossed low for Katrina Hollis at the near post. The Pioneer keeper deflected Hollis's point-blank shot, but Cooper was first to react to the loose ball and banged it in off the crossbar.
With both teams visibly tiring, chances were few in the first overtime and opening minutes of the second. But Saline senior Lauren Zahn changed that with a shot from the right side of the penalty box that skipped through the Dearborn keeper's hands and was collected by left wing midfielder Katelyn Welzbacker as it trickled wide of the far post. Welzbacker laid the ball off for Faas, who turned towards the center of the box and fired into the upper right corner for the win.
"I can't even describe what that felt like," Faas said of seeing her shot fly in. "We wanted it so bad, for the seniors, for (injured senior) Chrissy (Gentile), for ourselves and the school. Even when we were down, we always expected to come back and win the game."
"We've had so much experience in close games," said Tapping. "Even after the first goal, I wasn't worried. I knew we could shut them out after that. We just had to get that second goal."
Saline went far past the second-goal mark Saturday in dismantling Monroe. The Hornets were coming off of a 2-0 win over Lincoln in the district semifinal Thursday, but showed early the championship would not be as close as Katrina Hollis scored twice in a three-minute span 15 minutes in. Saline would lead 7-0 at the half after two scores from Lauren Birdsong and one each from Autumn Jacobs, Welzbacker, and Kate Tolbert. Monica Mezger then scored in the first minute of the second half to activate the eight-goal mercy rule.
Lauren Zahn led the Hornets with three assists, followed by Kacy Hartman, Faas, and Katrina Hollis each with one.
"We had six different players score and three more make assists. That's what I thought was important, that we came out and played as a team, passed the ball the way we should, and got everyone involved," Tapping said. "It was good to see."
Sulavik scored Saline's only first-half goal and Stepaniak the team's second in the win over Lincoln, in which the Hornets held the Railsplitters to a single shot on goal.
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