Traverse City Record-Eagle

Grand Traverse County

November 5, 2009

Petoskey back in soccer finals

Suttons Bay falls in semis in OT

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Petoskey advanced to its second straight Division 2 soccer state championship match with a 2-1 win over Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood.

Suttons Bay fell to Hudsonville Freedom Baptist 2-1 in overtime in a Division 4 semifinal.

Will Cobb and Michael Swabash scored Petoskey's goals. The Northmen will face Hudsonville Unity Christian (22-1-2) in the Division 2 finals at East Kentwood at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

The Norsemen, meanwhile, played step for step with Hudsonville Baptist (18-6-1).

Shane Barthuly scored the first goal seven minutes into the game.

"They were the fastest, most skilled team we've seen all year," Suttons Bay coach Randy U'Ren said. "They came at us and pressured and pressured and pressured until they scored a goal. But the great thing about this team is they didn't back down and they responded to the challenge."

Suttons Bay (17-7-2) tied the game on a Ryan Manning header off a Taylor Hoensheid pass.

"The equalizer gave us lots of confidence that this team is great, but so are we," U'Ren said. "We played even better in the second half. Jared Orban had the game of his life. He made some great saves to keep us in it."

Zach Gatlin scored off a rebound of a Ryan DeBoer shot with 4:30 left in the first overtime for the game-winner.

"Jared made a save that I don't think many keepers get to, and they got the rebound," U'Ren said.

Freedom Baptist will play No. 1-ranked Ann Arbor Greenhills (25-1) -- which won 3-0 in the other half of the bracket -- in the finals.

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