CEDAR SPRINGS — Traverse City St. Francis was cornered.
The Gladiators lost 2-0 to Grand Rapids West Catholic in Wednesday’s Division 3 girls soccer semifinal at Red Hawk Stadium in Cedar Springs as the Falcons kept the pressure on with a multitude of corner kicks.
The game was delayed almost 45 minutes by thunderstorms passing through. Referees stopped the match 6:26 into the second half after lightning was spotted with West Catholic up 2-0, but suddenly having to repel a renewed St. Francis attack coming out of halftime.
“The girls really came out in the second half and were much more the aggressive team,” TCSF coach Scott Conway said. “Maybe the moment in the first half kind of took them by surprise a little bit. I don’t even know if they had 25 or 30 corner kicks, but we did a good job matching up against them on the field. They were bound to get one of those corners in, and they ended up getting two, and that was obviously the difference. But as far as on the field goes, I think we matched up well with them.”
The Falcons generated several corners in the first three minutes, some on the strength of several players who executed flip throws that essentially turned ordinary throw-ins into dangerous corner kick opportunities.
“We needed a break,” Falcons coach Ryan Smith said. “The first seven minutes of the second half, we were struggling a little bit, so we tried to use it to advantage and try and keep them positive while we’re in there. It worked out. We were able to keep the shutout.”
The game resumed after the lightning delay with a steady, light rain that eventually let up.
No. 10 St. Francis (16-5-2), with players wearing even thicker gold glitter in their hair than the team debuted for the regional championship, didn’t let up, putting pressure on No. 7 West Catholic (18-5-2), but came up unable to get one in the net. Between them, they’ve posted four playoffs wins by shutout and three more in shootouts.
“We knew they liked to play through the middle, and they liked to play number two (Riley Collins) up top,” Smith said. “We’ve watched a lot of film on them. They can hit some long shots, and number two up top is dangerous. We were trying to play a little deeper, try and make sure we could take away the middle, and it seemed to work out.”
The Falcons went up 1-0 on a Kensley Slanger goal off a Lexy Druelle corner kick 19:10 before halftime.
Twelve minutes later, Hadley Girardot scored on a header off a long Druelle pass off a corner play to lead 2-0.
West Catholic — which has Elk Rapids boys soccer coach Nate Plum’s brother Al on staff — had a goal with 9:55 remaining negated by an offside call.
No. 3 Detroit Country Day upset No. 1 Goodrich 1-0 in the other semifinal, with the state championship match set for Saturday at Michigan State University.
The Falcons hadn’t won districts since 2021.
Hudsonville Unity Christian and Grand Rapids South Christian both moved up to Division 2 in recent years. Those were usually the stumbling blocks for West Catholic in districts.
“Once they moved up, it kind of opened up the west side a little bit for schools our size to be able to have some success,” Smith said. “So it’s been fun.”
The Gladiators made St. Francis history, winning the first soccer regional title — in either boys or girls.
“We knew it was going to be a special season from the very beginning,” Conway said. “We had to make a few adjustments when Maddie Simerson went down with her knee injury, and we did a good job with it. Did we miss her out there? Of course we did. But we knew we were going to do something special this year. It was funny coming into this game, I wasn’t as nervous, Maybe just because we got that regional title out of the way, and then now we’re in final four teams, and we’re having fun.”
Simerson, the Glads’ starting right center back, was hurt with three weeks left in the regular season. Piper Wilson moved into her spot from right outside midfield.