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WILLIAMSTON — After picking up a 2-1 victory over Ann Arbor Greenhills on Tuesday, the girls’ soccer team from Grosse Ile resumed its run through the Division 3 state tournament on Thursday.
Playing in a third regional final round game in as many seasons, the Red Devils opposed an Ovid-Elsie team that in the opposite semifinal on Tuesday needed a shootout to dispatch Eaton Rapids by a final of 3-2. This was the first-ever regional final appearance for Ovid-Elsie, who last week clinched the program’s first district title.
The upstart Maruaders proved to be a good tested over the course of 80 minutes but the locals from the island were able to pick up a 4-2 victory and secure their second straight regional title.
PHOTO GALLERY: Girls Soccer Regional Finals – Ovid-Elsie vs Grosse Ile
The back-to-back regional championships highlight what is three such titles in the last eight seasons for Grosse Ile. And unlike Tuesday when they spent much of the first half adjusting to an aggressive Greenhills club from the opening whistle, the Devils were able to dictate play much sooner.
"It took us a couple minutes to settle down, which you expect at this spot of the tournament," Grosse Ile head coach Kyle Lesperance said. "I was really happy with the way the girls were able to settle the game down, pass the ball around, and do some off-the-ball movements, things that we didn't really get into a rhythm of doing (on Tuesday)."
While it did not immediately result in any goals, the rhythm Grosse Ile discovered led to several chances, a byproduct of having the field tilted in their favor. They were able to finally break the scoring seal with just over eight minutes to go in the first half when Mallory Botten sent a cross-field pass into the box to set up Cassidy Eblin, who slipped it past Ovid-Elsie goalkeeper Ava Bates.
That was the first of three goals that Botten, who is a scoring threat in her own right, set up for teammates in the win on Thursday.
"(Mallory) is huge for us," Lesperance said. "She is a threat off the counter-attack and a threat when she has the ball at her feet. You never know what she is going to do with it and, honestly, I don't either sometimes. But that's what makes it special."
That one-score lead nearly held true for the Devils all the way to halftime, until the Marauders in a literal last-second free kick shot on net from some 30-plus yards out slipped one past the outstretched hands of keeper Monica Arndt, under the crossbar and in.
An ill-timed equalizer was the lone blemish in what was otherwise a productive first 40 minutes for the islanders.
"It was disappointing giving up a goal that late in the half off of something we could have prevented," Lesperance said. "We just weren't prepared for it and that is on me, I could've coached that a little better. But the halftime talk was that they had been playing goo soccer already and did not need to worry about it."
The next big momentum shift in the game came late in the 47th minute of the second half. A turnover deep in their own zone led to Grosse Ile committing a foul in the box to award Ovid-Elsie with a penalty kick. The Devils, however, dodged a huge bullet as Hailee Campbell, who scored the goal for the Marauders just before halftime, sailed her PK attempt high above the crossbar, keeping the game even at one goal apiece.
"Obviously (Ovid-Elsie) missing it was huge. Even if they do make it, I do believe our girls would have bounced back from it and settled the game down again and created the chances. But who knows what (Ovid-Elsie) would have done formation wise to make that difficult."
A "chess match," as Lesperance described it, in Thursday's affair was how Grosse Ile was going to handle the athletic and skill of Ovid-Elsie's midfielders, namely Evalyn Cole as well as the aforementioned Campbell. But the head man for the Devils applauded the way his team executed the game plan, particularly his forwards for clogging up the midfield and cutting off the passing lanes.
Diffusing any potential plays in the midfield from the Marauders led to chances at the other end for the locals. They were rewarded when Botten late in the 58th minute sent one out in front to Aubrey Korody, who navigated one past a charging Bates to reclaim the lead for Grosse Ile.
Similar to Tuesday, the Devils found themselves in yet another position of owning a one-goal late in the later stages of the second half of a playoff game. But unlike Tuesday, Lesperance said he was comfortable on Thursday given how his team was controlling the field.
Perhaps some of that comfort level waned just a touch when half of the game's total goals were scored in the final 122 seconds of regulation. Fortunately for Lesperance, his team was responsible for two of those with Korody netting her second of the game along with Ella Gatti joining the scoring frenzy.
"Since we were controlling the game so well, we didn't change anything," Lesperance said. "We wanted to keep our formation the same. We were getting space and time and moving the ball well. I don't think I would've changed anything in that moment."
The victory on Thursday is the latest for a program that was already used to plenty of winning before but has seemingly reached new levels in recent history.
It's part of an ever-growing culture of success on the island.
"I had this saying of 'winning breeds winning,'" Lesperance said. "I think we've created this winning mentality here and the girls right now don't know how to lose. Of course we're going to lose some games here or there but when the games get tough, they seem to find a way more often than not."
Grosse Ile (15-2-5) now advances to the D3 state semifinal round to face a familiar playoff foe in Detroit Country Day, who needed a shootout to outlast Flint Powers Catholic 1-0 in their regional title match on Thursday.
It'll be the first meeting between Grosse Ile and Country Day since the regional semifinal round in 2021. The Yellowjackets that day defeated the Devils by a final of 2-1 en route to their sixth state title in program history.
Game time for the latest meeting between the two schools is set for 6:00p on Wednesday, June 12 at Parker Middle School in Howell.
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