FOREST HILLS NORTHERN 1 - DeWITT 0
HUSKIES MOVE TO STATE TITLE GAME WITH 1-0 WIN OVER DeWITT!!
Forest Hills Northern advances to girls soccer state finals with overtime win against DeWitt
Kelly Hill | The Grand Rapids Press, June 16, 2010 11:24 p.m.
GRAND RAPIDS -- Winning a state championship within the next five years was a goal set at the beginning of the season by the Forest Hills Northern girls soccer team.
The Huskies have a chance to accomplish their goal with plenty of time to spare.
Forest Hills Northern will play Bloomfield Hills Marian on Saturday for the Division 2 state championship.
The Huskies advanced to the finals by beating DeWitt 1-0 in vertime Wednesday night in semifinal action at Grand Rapids Christian's Eagles Stadium.
Sophomore Teigan Mitcham beat Panthers goalkeeper Elise Grider, on an assist from junior Sophie Rammal, 3:28 into overtime.
"It was all my teammates," Mitcham said. "Sophie gave me a great toss, but it was a great team effort. We definitely encouraged each other and we all really wanted it. DeWitt definitely played a good game, but we were prepared and I think we deserved it."
All of Forest Hills Northern's coaches wore similar white shirts Wednesday, with a powder blue "20" emblazoned on the front, marking the 20th anniversary of FHN girls soccer.
On the back of the shirt, black letters read "IOTN," meaning, "It's our time now."
"We want to remember the past, but live for the future," FHN coach Jamie Bogart said. "We want to set the bar high for future teams."
The 2010 Huskies (20-3-1) already have set the bar higher than any of the school's previous teams with the program's first regional championship.
"This is a great opportunity for our girls, for our school and for our program," Bogart said. "This team had a lot of distractions early in the season, internal team distractions, and we said to the girls at the time that this can either make this a lousy season or it can take us to the next level.
"I think that if we had not had those distractions this year, we would not have had the kind of season we've had."
Wednesday's game was Northern's second overtime game of the season. The Huskies also won the other, 1-0 against Forest Hills Eastern in the district final.
"DeWitt was very aggressive," Bogart said. "I think we took them out of their game with our ball possession. I don't know if we got their best game, but they got ours. Our defense played phenomenally."
DeWitt (18-3-1) outshot the Huskies 8-6.
"We played awesome all year long but today we were not clicking the way we had been clicking," Panthers coach Jamal Mubarakeh said. "Everybody was tense today and we didn't make the runs like we had been doing. We had a lot of turnovers today and a turnover killed us."
Kelly Hill | The Grand Rapids Press, June 16, 2010 11:24 p.m.
GRAND RAPIDS -- Winning a state championship within the next five years was a goal set at the beginning of the season by the Forest Hills Northern girls soccer team.
The Huskies have a chance to accomplish their goal with plenty of time to spare.
Forest Hills Northern will play Bloomfield Hills Marian on Saturday for the Division 2 state championship.
The Huskies advanced to the finals by beating DeWitt 1-0 in vertime Wednesday night in semifinal action at Grand Rapids Christian's Eagles Stadium.
Sophomore Teigan Mitcham beat Panthers goalkeeper Elise Grider, on an assist from junior Sophie Rammal, 3:28 into overtime.
"It was all my teammates," Mitcham said. "Sophie gave me a great toss, but it was a great team effort. We definitely encouraged each other and we all really wanted it. DeWitt definitely played a good game, but we were prepared and I think we deserved it."
All of Forest Hills Northern's coaches wore similar white shirts Wednesday, with a powder blue "20" emblazoned on the front, marking the 20th anniversary of FHN girls soccer.
On the back of the shirt, black letters read "IOTN," meaning, "It's our time now."
"We want to remember the past, but live for the future," FHN coach Jamie Bogart said. "We want to set the bar high for future teams."
The 2010 Huskies (20-3-1) already have set the bar higher than any of the school's previous teams with the program's first regional championship.
"This is a great opportunity for our girls, for our school and for our program," Bogart said. "This team had a lot of distractions early in the season, internal team distractions, and we said to the girls at the time that this can either make this a lousy season or it can take us to the next level.
"I think that if we had not had those distractions this year, we would not have had the kind of season we've had."
Wednesday's game was Northern's second overtime game of the season. The Huskies also won the other, 1-0 against Forest Hills Eastern in the district final.
"DeWitt was very aggressive," Bogart said. "I think we took them out of their game with our ball possession. I don't know if we got their best game, but they got ours. Our defense played phenomenally."
DeWitt (18-3-1) outshot the Huskies 8-6.
"We played awesome all year long but today we were not clicking the way we had been clicking," Panthers coach Jamal Mubarakeh said. "Everybody was tense today and we didn't make the runs like we had been doing. We had a lot of turnovers today and a turnover killed us."