On Tuesday April 17, the girls varsity soccer team won their cross town showdown against their rival Groves Falcons, 1-0.
Groves looked the part in warm-ups with their new alternate black jerseys and had momentum coming off some solid wins against Royal Oak and Hazel Park High School. But the Maples came out very convincingly with an early goal by junior Lily Slavin in the first 10 minutes. The goal came from a one timer shot at the 18 yard line from a pass by junior Jackie Mee.
After the first goal, Seaholm dominated the rest of the game by keeping possession for more than 75% of the time. The ball rarely ever crossed over into Maple territory.
Although the Maples had more than 10 shots on goal throughout the game, not a single goal was scored for the rest of the game by either team. This was attributed to the aggressive defense of the Maples, but also to the solid play of Groves senior goalie Lucy Mailing.
Maples coach Sean Garvey was impressed with the win over their rivals.
“We took a big step forward,” Garvey said. “We need to keep this momentum going through the upcoming weeks.”
When asked about how they were able to keep such control throughout the game, senior defenseman Julie Naski said it was because of the solid defensive play through all 80 minutes.
“We were able to stay consistent on defense the whole game,” Naski said. “Our forwards were able to keep the ball on their side of the field for the most part, but if they Jack Apap Staff Writer This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ever lost it, the Groves players could barely ever get by our defense to the other side of the field.”
Junior midfielder Allison Loeffler agreed.
“Our defense was great,” Loeffler said. “It really was what kept us into the game.” The Maples were coming off two tough losses against Berkley and Farming High School, but have bounced back to 3-3 overall record with their win. They are looking to get back to a winning record when they host Farmington Harrison tonight at 7pm.
