DeWitt’s Allison Sims, center, takes a shot against Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in the final minute as DeWitt goalkeeper Brooklyn Holley, left, comes out of goal to help Tuesday, June 7, 2016, at Brandon High School in Ortonville, Mich.
ORTONVILLE – DeWitt’s near-perfect soccer season came to an end in a matter of 16 seconds.
That was the span of time between Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s tying and winning goals in the first half, dropping the Panthers, 2-1, in Tuesday evening’s regional.
“In the first 15 minutes we played good, quality soccer,” DeWitt coach Jamal Mubarakeh said. “And we had more confidence when we scored the first goal. Then we started doing stuff we’re not supposed to do. We went away from what we plan on and started losing the ball, the extra touch, not switching the ball right.”
DeWitt junior Mackenzie Dawes took a pass from sophomore Taylor Bishop and slipped the ball just past Notre Dame goalie Haley Williams, who came way out from the net to challenge DeWitt’s attack. The ball had just enough steam on it to scoot across the grass and nuzzle into the front right corner of the net, with 35:15 remaining on the first-half clock for a 1-0 DeWitt lead.
After more than 20 minutes of fairly even play, DeWitt’s defense made an unforeseen pass that went backwards, right to charging Notre Dame forward Rosella LoChirco, who made a clean interception in the wide open space – and from about 20 yards out drilled a shot past goalie Brooklyn Holley. That came with 12:38 left in the half.
Then at 12:22, Notre Dame (ranked No. 3, 18-1-3) scored the go-ahead goal when Erica Wiest took a pass from Celia Gaynor, dribbled it briefly then took a shot that was tipped by a DeWitt defender. That slight bump of the foot changed the ball direction just enough to twist Holley off balance and the ball got past her for the eventual winning margin.
“Pontiac got the momentum back and started pushing us,” Mubarakeh said. “We made two mistakes back-to-back and that was hard to get back from. But my team in the second played awesome, great game. We kept them on the back of their heels all the time, but we didn’t have enough patience to put the ball in the back of the net.
“Sometimes when you get to this level you need a little bit of luck, and their luck was better than us, this time.”
No. 1-ranked DeWitt (19-1-2) had three very good chances to score in the second half, but the first two shots sailed over the cross bar. Freshman Lily Stephan had a breakaway one-on-one against the Notre Dame goalie that missed. Junior Danielle Stephan then got off a good shot that also sailed; and later she had a free kick from about 30 yards that cleared the defense but dropped into the arms of the goalie.
“Those two mistakes we made in the first half, the defense was not the way I usually see them play,” Mubarakeh said. “But in the second half we came back with no problem, with 100 percent they did what needed to be done. But sometimes when you’re down and you try to catch up you just need a little time and patience to finish it.
“We had three good scoring opportunities to do it, but we rushed too much.”
Notre Dame Prep coach Jim Stachura said DeWitt was the best team they played in the past five years.
“We looked really tentative that first 10 minutes and they really put it to us,” he said. “And after that we made a couple changes to the lineup, put a couple of freshmen in. Sometimes you put the younger kids in there and they don’t really feel the pressure, they just go out and play. I think that was a perfect example.
“The work rate elevated huge for the rest of the game. Even defensively we started to get more comfortable in the game and forced them to shoot from 25-to-30 yards, which is really tricky to do, any time, let alone a pressure-filled game.”
Stachura singled out Danielle Stephan when praising the Panthers.
“They athletically have talent everywhere,” he added. “They’re just athletes upon athletes, and they’re very, very technical. In the first 10 minutes we let them play … we weren’t really battling. But when we got tight on them it made a difference in the game.”