Lakers win soccer district

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Glen Lake's Sarah Tondreau heads the ball Saturday at TC Liberty's Dani Heger closes in. Record-Eagle/Mike Eckert

June 3, 2012

Lakers win soccer district

McDonough's late goal propels Lakers past Liberty, 1-0

By MIKE ECKERT meckert@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Sun Jun 03, 2012, 07:14 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — When Glen Lake and the TC Liberty met for a Division 4 district title on Saturday, it had a similar feel to it.

"We saw them three years ago in the district finals, lost with five minutes left to go," Lakers coach Meg Murphy said. "Two years ago we saw them in the district finals, won in a shootout. So we were looking forward to this game."

This time a shootout wasn't needed, but Glen Lake still came away with a close win, beating the Liberty 1-0 at Coast Guard Fields for the district crown.

After the win over the Liberty two years ago, the Lakers went on to reach the state semifinals. They're hoping for another long run in the postseason.

"It feels really good," Lakers senior Casey McDonough said. "Hopefully we'll keep going on and on."

McDonough netted the game winner just before the midway point of the second half.

"It kind of slid past the goalie," she said. "It worked."

The play came off a corner kick from the right side of the field. Instead of launching a normal corner kick, Grace Hubbell passed to McDonough, who drove and scored.

"We've been trying to run that here and there," Murphy said. "And with the wind and today's weather, that short pass is a much better opportunity than just having a straight corner."

Conditions were cold and wet as rain hampered play the entire match.

"It was really slippery and hard to control," McDonough said.

Glen Lake (16-2-1) moves on to play either Fruitport Calvary Christian or Muskegon WMC on Tuesday at Elk Rapids in the regional semifinal. The Liberty ended the season with a 9-12-1 record.

"We just played hard, we were just out-matched," Liberty coach Chris Batchelder said. "This team has a lot of heart. If you saw our Week 1 practice, you'd be amazed to see them now. That all comes from their dedication."

Glen Lake outshot the Liberty 20-1 on the match.

"We pretty much controlled the game and kept it on our attacking half," Murphy said. "We were goal hungry today. But we played some really good soccer. I was proud of the girls. We moved the ball around, switched the field and our defense is great too, but they didn't see a lot."

As much as the Lakers controlled the match, goals were hard to come by. It was scoreless at halftime.

"The girls have got to remain positive, and as coaches we have to remain positive too and keep our composure," Murphy said. "We told them (at half) to continue to do what they had been doing," Murphy said. "Continue to play good soccer and something will fall. And something finally did."

Liberty keeper Logen Poniatoski had a monster night, making 19 saves.

"I've coached for 13 years and I think that's the best goalie performance I've ever seen," Batchelder said. "She was all over, post to post. There were opportunities, where if she would have been out of the game even for a second, they would have put it in the back of the net. That one goal, I don't put any blame on her."

Early in the second half, Poniatoski came out to make a sliding save right in front of Glen Lake's Logan Popp.

"I always say goalies are a little crazy, because you have to be (fearless)," Batchelder said. "The biggest thing with her today was she held on the to ball in all this rain. She held on to absolutely everything. I was really impressed with her."