Livonia Stevenson boys soccer coach Ken Shingledecker always makes time at practice for penalty kicks.
Seven of the 24 Kensington Lakes Activities Association tournament games over the past week went to a shootout, including the Spartans’ 2-1 win over Northville in the league championship on Oct. 1.
“That’s why we practice them,” said senior Reece Williams, who buried the winner. “We’ve been practicing them for a couple of weeks, so we’ve been ready for a situation like this. We take it very seriously. Our coach does a great job preparing us. He’s been doing it for a long time, so a lot of it is on him for getting us ready.”
Northville’s Thomas Slater, Aidan Dauti and Rian Dauti each converted, and goalie Daniel Shen made a diving save on Stevenson’s Jonathan Morse, forcing the Spartans to play catch-up. Niko Zhuli, Drew Erickson and Will Brukoff answered with three straight to keep Stevenson alive.
Then came a break. Northville’s next two attempts missed, with Joshwin George sailing his over the crossbar and Ethan Wright hitting the right post.
That set up Williams for the final shot, a spot he hadn’t been in since youth soccer. All he had to do was score, and the Spartans were champions.
He never flinched. He said he wasn’t nervous because he was ready for the moment.
“We’ve just talked about it a ton and prepared for it in training,” said Shingledecker, the 13th-year coach. “We’ve taken a lot of penalties for weeks because we knew this was in play with this tournament. I told these guys it would be important. So when they train, they don’t mess around in those moments. We take care of business.”
Call it revenge, too.
The Spartans left the tournament 16-1-0. Their lone loss? A 1-0 nail-biter to Northville on Sept. 9.
Shingledecker said he didn’t care who they faced in the final, but playing Northville sweetened it for his players.
“We knew we were going to get them back,” Williams said. “We know what we’re capable of when we play good soccer, and we did play good soccer tonight.”
They certainly did. Stevenson controlled the attack for most of the match, constantly stringing runs together. Had Shen not played so well, the Spartans might have scored four or five goals.
Instead, their one goal came when Shen couldn’t corral a bouncing ball, letting Brukoff slide in to bury it.
Northville (8-8-2) had only a handful of chances, but it needed just one to tie the score with 17:32 left. Lucas Rhee launched a high ball over Stevenson’s back line that carried enough spin to get past goalie Max Eplin, who has teamed with Luca Allevato for 12 shutouts through 17 games.
Shingledecker said he’ll stress finishing chances. While Stevenson won two of three KLAA tournament games in a shootout, it can’t count on PKs in the playoffs.
“Now it’s a reset, right?” Shingledecker said. “Now it’s one-game elimination soccer, where if you lose these games (in the KLAA tournament), there’s another game down the road. But everything changes in the playoffs. It’s just a different mindset. You can’t miss chances. You’ve got to score them in the run of play, or else someone can sneak up and beat you. We’ve got work to do. This job is not finished.”
Stevenson will face either Farmington or South Lyon in a Division 1 district semifinal Oct. 8 at Detroit Catholic Central, with the Spartans one of the favorites to take the district.
“It’s been unreal,” Williams said. “We had a lot of momentum going into the final. Going into districts, we think we’re in a good spot and we’re ready to win.”
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on his new X.com account at @folsomwrites.
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: KLAA champs! Livonia Stevenson boys soccer outlasts Northville in PKs
Reporting by Brandon Folsom, Hometownlife.com / Hometownlife.com
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
