Ferndale Soccer Can’t Keep Pace with Berkley in 3-0 Loss

BERKLEY – The Berkley girls varsity soccer team just plain outran Ferndale on Monday night.

In a 3-0 win, the Bears speed gave Ferndale, their Oakland Activities Association rival, problems all night. And the Eagles could never find an answer to Berkley’s quickness.

“We couldn’t figure out how to get the ball forward to save our life,” Motter said. “Berkley’s the first team we’ve played that had any kind of pass whatsoever, everybody else we’ve been the faster and more athletic team. They just took it to us.”

Katie Murphy scored two goals in the first 10 minutes and Stephanie Miller scored an insurance goal in the second half, but the Bears (5-6-1) could’ve easily scored four or five more.

Berkley coach Cliff Brandmier said he would’ve liked his team to convert those solid scoring chances into goals.

“A lot of teams struggle with our pace up top, but as you could see we struggled with putting the ball in the back of the net,” Brandmier said.

The Bears missed a handful of open net shots with kicks that were either too strong or not strong enough. Poorly timed passes also prevented a couple of solid scoring changes from getting passed Ferndale’s keeper.

“I think communication at the end of the day is what they need to really focus on, they need more trust with each other, moving forward that’s something we’ll work on,” Brandmier said. “We haven’t done a ton of finishing drills, but that’s something will work on more this week.”

Ferndale (8-5-1) played for much of the game without its top player Lexie Brisson-Fast. She missed all of last week with an ankle injury and the junior still was dealing with the effects of it on Monday.

Motter pulled her from the game in the second half and without a deep bench, the Eagles missed her on the field.

The only negative for Berkley in the game was an injury. Starting goalie Julie Shields tweaked her ankle during the first half and came out of the game. The junior tested the ankle during halftime, but didn’t return.

With a 2-0 lead, Brandmier said he didn’t want to push her.

“We probably could’ve brought her back in, but she wouldn’t have been very mobile,” Brandmier said. “If we were down we probably would’ve (put her back in).” 

Ferndale has two more games this week, they play at Farmington on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and home against West Bloomfield on Thursday also at 7 p.m. Berkley just has one more game this week and it’s a home game against Troy.