Howell — It was a back-and-forth battle in this year’s Division 1 girls lacrosse finals, but a new winner was crowned as Rockford defeated defending champion South Lyon United, 16-9.
The win for Rockford completes an 11-8 season and a second championship in five years. The win largely came at the hands of a quick, physical attack that allowed Rockford to create a large hole early on which would be a problem for South Lyon to dig out of.
Senior midfielder Brooke Gordon started the game’s scoring by taking a faceoff win from sophomore FOGO Ava Wekenmen all the way to the net and giving the team an early 1-0 lead within 30 seconds.
The early rush wasn’t over, however, as Gordon was able to use a free possession opportunity to find the net for her second goal of the game only two minutes in. Gordon was the X-factor on offense for Rockford, scoring three of her six total goals in the first quarter.
“Brooke has been amazing these last several weeks,” Rockford head coach Mark Neumen said. “A lot of teams have been focusing on some of our other players and people have been ignoring her.
“She is one of our best players by far, but the attention has been on some of the other girls. Brooke is a threat no matter what and is super shifty. She took the game in her own hands and led us to the championship.”
South Lyon was able to answer the early onslaught of goals by Rockford with two goals early on, one by junior attacker Raegen Shields and another by senior midfielder Shaelyn Perry. It wasn’t quite enough to stall a hot Rockford offense early, as South Lyon allowed four additional first-quarter goals following the opening pair.
The defensive unit for Rockford was the anchor in grabbing the early lead, limiting a dominant South Lyon offense to only two goals early on.
“Our defenders and our goalie are outstanding,” Nemen said. “We’ve been that way pretty much the whole season, especially this second half. If you look at some of the scores I think we’ve only given up four or five goals in a lot of the games. We’ve believed in our players that they can man-up each one of their players and we believed our defensive players were as good as their offensive players.”
Rockford carried the momentum into the second quarter with an early goal by junior midfielder Kiah Kruisenga, but South Lyon adjusted quickly, using the final quarter of the half to close the gap.
South Lyon head coach Deanna Radcliffe had her offense slow down in the second, which was able to set up a number of opportunities, especially early on. Junior attacker Raegen Shields and senior midfielder Shaelyn Perry each scored within the first three minutes, using a set offense and a free-possession opportunity to cut the Rockford lead to only three at 7-4.
Rockford’s Gordon was able to add two more goals in the quarter, but South Lyon took advantage of faceoff wins and tired Rockford defense to finish the quarter with two more goals and go into the second half only trailing 9-6.
The third quarter saw a slower-paced battle, with senior South Lyon attacker Alyssa Jakubiec scoring in the first 30 seconds, but Rockford seemed to match every point of the threatening comeback, adding two more goals in the quarter to go into the fourth leading 11-8.
Rockford sophomore goalie Mia Mabry was a big factor in stopping the South Lyon surge, making huge saves when the opposing offense was threatening.
“Those are momentum killers,” Neumen said. “We were scoring some goals early and that was the one thing we did not want to do, we didn’t want to let them score back-to-back goals. Mia has been amazing this year, we think she’s one of the best goalies in the state and she’s proved that today. South Lyon is a very good team.”
Rockford put the nail in the coffin early in the final quarter of play, not allowing South Lyon to score until the last minute of play while tacking on to the lead even more with goals from senior midfielder Ella Larva, Wekenman and Gordon.
South Lyon was no easy opponent, but Rockford used a cohesive unit to pile on the score against what was a historic defensive unit and come away with the win.
“This group is special,” Neumen said. “They truly love each other more so than any team I’ve ever coached. They’ve been fantastic, believed in the process and had a very tough schedule this year. We took some losses early, but we peaked at the right time and that was the best lacrosse we’ve played in the last several weeks.”
Doug Doty is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Rockford lacrosse’s quick, physical attack leads to girls’ championship
Reporting by Doug Doty, Special to The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Doug Doty, Special to The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
