Charlevoix soccer leans on defense to advance to D4 district final
CHARLEVOIX — Having met Glen Lake earlier this season, the Charlevoix girls’ soccer team knew the kind of team the Lakers bring to the field.
When the two met up for a Division 4 district semifinal Wednesday in Charlevoix, the Rayders came ready the second time around.
After falling the first time around and giving up five goals to the Lakers, Charlevoix buckled down defensively with a new gameplan, one that advanced their season with a 1-0 victory.
“We had a solid defensive plan for Glen Lake and the girls came up big and implemented it,” said Charlevoix coach Pete Scholten. “So proud of our girls' efforts tonight.”
The win moved Charlevoix into a Division 4 district championship match at 6 p.m., Friday, June 2 at Harbor Springs against the rival Rams.
Harbor earned their way into the final with a 3-2 win over the district’s top seed, Leland.
Charlevoix and Glen Lake played a scoreless first half Wednesday, then Claire Scholten set up teammate Blaise Sytsma-Reed midway through the second half and the freshman delivered to make it a 1-0 game.
Charlevoix then leaned on the defense from there, with Scholten applauding the efforts of Ava Boss, Kelsey Wiatrolik, Merette Carson and Lena Sytsma-Reed. Brooklin Schwenke also had the duties of marking Glen Lake’s Ruby Hogan, a tough assignment.
“Glen Lake is an incredible team,” said Scholten. “They are tough as nails and have played much of the season with only nine players on the field. We have a lot of respect for them. This was a huge win for us tonight.”
Addison Boop also earned the win in goal for the Rayders, making a number of big stops, including a one on one from a Laker player.
When Friday’s district final rolls around, it’ll be the first district championship meeting between the Rams and Rayders since a 1-0 overtime victory back in 2013 for Charlevoix. They’ve met three other times during the postseason since then, with Harbor going 2-1 in those contests.
GOLF
DIVISION 2 Regional
EAST LANSING — One glance at the scores out of Petoskey’s Division 2 regional golf tournament Wednesday and it’s pretty clear teams were set up for a challenging day.
Despite some of the top teams within Division 2 in the region, play for the day featured the highest scores advancing to the finals in D2.
In the end, Petoskey won’t be one of those moving on out of the Timber Ridge Golf Course hosted regional in East Lansing.
“It was an extremely difficult course,” Petoskey coach Chad Loe said. “I called it the great equalizer before and it held true to that.”
On top of the difficult course, Petoskey had to deal with not being able to use junior Max Faulkner’s round on the day in the end.
The Northmen carded a team score of 385, which placed them 16th. The three advancing to the finals included Flint Powers Catholic (330), DeWitt (333) and Alpena (340).
Gaylord’s Kole Putnam also advanced to the finals as an individual with a round of 79.
For Petoskey, Faulkner shot 77, though the score couldn’t be used towards the team. Andrew Licata shot 92, Nolan Jarvis, 93; Gavin Galbraith, 98; and William Rogier, 102.
The good news for Petoskey is that everyone returns to the lineup next season, with the complete lineup being underclassmen.
Loe knows if there’s work put in during the summer and offseason months, there’s a whole lot of good for this group ahead.
“Through proper instruction and competitive golf throughout the summer, we will not recognize this team next year,” said Loe. “Everyone’s coming back and we’ve got some guys back from injury. Guys will work to maintain their strengths and improve where there’s opportunity to get better.”
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Charlevoix soccer leans on defense to advance to D4 district final
