South Lake Falls To Panthers; Huskies Survive OT Thriller

The Cavaliers girls soccer team had already accomplished so much in 2011.

A Macomb Area Conference Silver Division championship, and an unbeaten league season (they finished 12-0 in the Silver).

However, there was one thing left to do—win a district title.

That feat, however, will have to be taken care of by next year's club, as South Lake fell to Center Line, 3-2, Thursday night in the district semifinal hosted by .

"We just mentally fell apart," South Lake coach Marty Shearer said. "We got up early, then they got a goal to tie us, and after that we just seemed to mentally fall apart. We just didn't regroup. No excuses. They (Center Line) out-played us, and they deserved to win. They really did."

A pair of second-half goals from Panthers standout Lindsey Riddell put Center Line up, 3-2, with just under 15 minutes remaining in the contest.

"We played as a total team tonight," Center Line coach Jason Ratkowski said. "It's taken us a whole season to get to this point, but we did. We were Team Center Line."

South Lake, which came into the game having beaten the Panthers handily twice during the regular season, got on the board first thanks to a Sarah Schnell goal at the 31:08 mark of the opening half.

Center Line responded, though, when Jenna Brown found the back of the goal, knotting the game at 1-1.

The Lady Cavs added a go-ahead goal before the break—Schnell's second of the half—and took a 2-1 lead into halftime.

The lead, however, was not comforting to Shearer.

"Honestly, I knew we were in trouble at halftime," the South Lake coach said. "We just weren't there mentally. If things kept going that way, I just couldn't see us maintaining any momentum at all in the second half. It was helter-skelter, and we had girls playing out of position, had a few girls get hurt, and then all that hurt us then."

Riddell's second goal of the closing, the tally that put the Lady Cavs down 3-2, put the squad in an unfamiliar position this season—playing catch up.

Given the incredible success of the squad this season, this position is something many girls on the team just aren't used to, Shearer says.

"It might have gotten a little nervous to some of the girls," Shearer said. "We haven't played the competition this year where we've really had to push ourselves and come from behind. We've always been ahead, and all of the sudden, today, we've got to come from behind and we just couldn't do it. That's part of districts though, you have to come ready to play or you're going to lose."

Although the loss is disappointing, the success of the 2011 campaign certainly trumps this defeat.

A MAC title, an unbeaten Silver Division season—these are what this year's squad will be remembered for years from now.

"It's a disappointing loss," Shearer said. "But we had a great year. We really did."

In the districts earlier semifinal, advanced to the championship game at 7 p.m. Saturday night when senior Paige Mielke managed to sneak the ball past the Regina goalie and into the net, breaking a 2-2 in overtime.

"We've kind of had a rough year, but our division is really tough," Lakeview coach Brooke Sweeney said. "We've been progressing though, and our record doesn't really indicate how good a team we are this year. I wasn't surprised with tonight's game at all—not with the effort we've been giving."

The Huskies were eliminated from the postseason in 2010 by Regina, so Thursday night's victory was redemption of sorts for the team.

"They did knock us out last year," Sweeney said. "And we've been going back-and-forth with them, so this was a big win for us."

The Huskies will square off against Center Line at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Lake Shore. At stake will be a district championship and a ticket to the regional round.