Unsung heroes help Salem win third straight district soccer crown
Members of the Salem girls soccer team hold up three fingers Friday night in response to winning their third straight MHSAA Division 1 district title.
High school soccer headliners are generally the ones who score the goals because, after all, if you don’t score, you don’t win.
But Salem High School girls soccer coach Kyle Karns took a few moments after the Rocks’ 3-1 victory over Plymouth in Friday’s MHSAA Division 1 district soccer match to give props to his team’s essential out-of-the-spotlight players.
“Our defense has been sharp all year; they’ve been very organized from front to back,” Karns said as his team posed for pictures with its latest hardware on the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park’s North Turf Field.
“Peighton (Wagner) and Ainsley (Mayer), our center backs, clean up a lot, and Marissa (Williams) does a lot of dirty work in the midfield. The work they do gives the forwards the freedom they need to do what they do best.”
Riveting rematch on deck
Now 14-3-1, Salem advanced to Tuesday’s 7 p.m. regional semifinal at Saline High School against Dearborn, which the Rocks upended 1-0 in a KLAA tournament game on May 7.
Williams, a senior, is excelling in her first season as a Rock after playing club soccer year-round her first three years of high school.
She’s loving the experience, too.
“It’s fun, it’s high-level soccer and I love being able to play for my school,” she said. “When you play club year-round, it’s almost like you’re playing for yourself and the (college) recruiting aspect.”
Salem grabbed its first lead eight minutes in when senior captain Aubrey Krischano chased down a perfect through ball in the middle of the pitch and beat Plymouth goalie Ashleigh Meldrum on a difficult one-on-one match-up for any keeper by sliding a ground-hugging ball that had just enough juice to roll just inside the left post.
Meldrum was forced to leave the game due to an undisclosed injury seconds after Krischano’s goal. She was replaced by Leyana Hussein, who has proven throughout the past two years to be a more-than-adequate back-up.
A lot of fight in gritty Wildcats
Plymouth, which had dropped a 3-0 decision to the Rocks early in the season, deadlocked the game at 1-1 14:37 before halftime on a scintillating individual effort by senior standout Emma Johnson.
Williams said Karns’ halftime message was pretty clear-cut.
“He told us to try to win every ball, make the extra run and the extra pass,” she said. “This team is special because we love one another and we have fun every night, whether we’re at practice or playing in a game.”
Salem seized the lead for good, 2-1, on a Lauren Fowler goal less than four minutes into the second half.
Two minutes later, Fowler stretched her team’s lead to 3-1 when she dribbled to her right roughly 25 yards from the net and launched a hard shot that was immediately deflected high in the air by a Wildcat defender.
(Watch a clip of Lauren Fowler’s crazy goal by clicking here.)
Wild bounce, crazy goal
When the ball hit the turf, it took a crazy high bounce and skipped over the head of the hard-charging Hussein, who managed to tip the ball but not slow it enough to prevent the Rocks’ third goal.
Friday’s district title was the third consecutive for a number of Salem seniors who have been on varsity since their freshman season.
One of those is forward Alex L’Heureux, who said winning championships never gets old.
“Every one of the three have been different because we’re doing it with a different group of teammates,” said L’Heureux, who will be studying and playing club soccer at the University of Mississippi in the fall. “This is a very special team. We have great chemistry and we’re always lifting each other up when things don’t go our way.
“Winning tonight was important because all of us seniors wanted to go out with a third straight district championship.
“But we’re not done. Not yet.”
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
