East Kentwood’s Adrian Diaz (14) and Okemos’ Andre Owczarzak (11) go up for the ball during the D1 regional soccer semifinal at Holt High School on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016.
HOLT – The Okemos High School boys soccer team made a strong run last week while navigating its way to a third district championship in four years.
The Chiefs weren’t able to add on to that success Tuesday.
The state tournament run came to a halt for the Chiefs with a 4-0 setback to No. 19-ranked East Kentwood in a Division 1 regional semifinal at Holt High School.
Okemos was hurt by tough stretches to start both halves in the season-ending loss. All of East Kentwood’s goals came in the opening 10 minutes of both halves.
“We had 10 bad minutes,” Okemos coach Brian Guggemos said. “That’s happened to us a couple of times this year whether that was against Haslett or against another team. We had 10 bad minutes. It was the first five minutes of the game and then we settled down and I thought it was a pretty even game the entire rest of the first half.
“Then in the second half from the 40 until the 30-minute mark we had a couple more (bad) minutes and we just couldn’t recover. They are a great team and great program and really well coached. We just couldn’t get over that hump. I’m really proud of the way they guys kept fighting until the end.”
Okemos entered Tuesday having not allowed a goal during its first three state tournament games. That changed quickly as East Kentwood struck five minutes into the game on a goal by Narcis Sprecic.
That was the only goal scored in the first half, but East Kentwood struck early after the intermission to take control. The Falcons scored three goals in less than three minutes during the opening seven minutes of the second half.
Adrian Diaz had a pair of goals during the stretch as East Kentwood advanced to Thursday’s regional final.
“They played a lot harder today (than when we saw them before),” said Guggemos, whose team played to a draw with East Kentwood earlier this season. “Their on the ball defense was a lot better than what it was when we saw them at the beginning of September. They kind of did what we thought they could do. They just did it a higher rate than what we could keep up with.”
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.
Okemos goalkeeper Patrick Restum reacts to a East Kentwood goal during the D1 regional soccer semifinal at Holt High School on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016.
Okemos goalkeeper Patrick Restum reacts to a East Kentwood goal during the D1 regional soccer semifinal at Holt High School on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016.
Okemos’ Ben Meschke moves the ball down the field during the D1 regional soccer semifinal at Holt High School on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016.