Rounding up news articles from Saturday’s state championship games…
Boys
Forest Hills Central 7, Detroit Country Day 6 (Division 2)
“We had some nerves that had to work their way out,” Quinn said. “We’ve been there before but it’s been a few years. Obviously being the defending champions, Detroit Country Day was ready to jump on us during the game, but we had a talk at halftime and dug our way out of the hole.”
The championship game was the closest game of the playoffs for the Rangers, who entered the title bout with a 14-game win streak that began on April 24th. Forest Hills Central outscored their first five playoff opponents by a combined 73-8.
Lots of photos contained therein, so click through.
“I never felt we weren’t going to win this game, even going into the last seconds,” Collins said. “I thought we made some really big errors. I think some errors that we had been making early in the season resurfaced as the pressure (increased). I think at times we succumbed to that and really didn’t play our style, but hats off to them. It takes a good team to take advantage of those things.”
Brother Rice 14, Ann Arbor Pioneer 8 (Division 1)
“In the second quarter, we just got shell-shocked,” said Pioneer coachJames Corey. “We just sort of got overwhelmed for where we were and I think that second quarter really hurt.”
“I told them the most important thing was we had to play our game and I didn’t think we were doing that; we weren’t executing like we should,” said Ambrose.
“Second quarter, we just got shell-shocked,” Corey said. “We went from being up 2-1 and then all of a sudden it’s 11-3.”
The Warriors kept up the attack and closed out the quarter with 10 goals and a comfortable 11-4 lead.
“We were (feeling it),” Kennedy said, smiling. “We were on fire.”
Taylor Zdanowski, whose second-quarter goal gave Pioneer its only lead of the game, said despite the loss, he’s proud of what this group was able to accomplish.
“It means a lot to go 21-0 until the state championship game,” Zdanowski said. “That’s something I’ll remember forever.”
Girls
Birmingham 12, Hartland 11 (2OT) (Division 1)
Kathy Quigley scored two goals 21 seconds apart in the last 1:30 of overtime to rally Birmingham United to a 12-11 victory over Hartland in the Division 1 girls lacrosse final at Rockford on Saturday.
United (18-11) held an 8-7 lead late in regulation when Rachel Sharpe fired in her only goal of the game with 51 seconds left to send the game to overtime tied at 8. It was Sharpe’s 35th goal of the season and it forced a 6-minute overtime.
East Grand Rapids 17, Okemos 6 (Division 2)
The win completes the Pioneers’ season at 28-0, but even more impressive than the unbeaten season is how East Grand Rapids won. Just two teams came within three goals of the team, including a pair of 11-9 wins over Grand Rapids Catholic Central and a 6-3 win over Cranbrook-Kingswood. East Grand Rapids outscored five tournament opponents 67-24.
At Rockford, Claire Ludlow scored four goals, all in the first half, and Liza Elder scored three for East Grand Rapids (28-0), which at one point scored nine straight goals to stretch a 3-2 lead to 12-2. Olivia Sherman and Bailey Ellsworth each scored two for Okemos (16-6-1).
I’m 100% certain there are more articles out there. If you find one that I didn’t, feel free to link it in the comments.