EAST LANSING — After 25 years, Rochester Adams topped the state once again in girls soccer by seizing the MHSAA Division 1 championship with a 2-0 triumph over Hartland at DeMartin Soccer Complex.
The Highlanders (16-2-2) scored a goal in each half to hoist the championship trophy for the first time since 1999, and the third time in school history.
Senior Evelyn Kekhouna scored what proved to be the game-winner — her 13th of the year — in the 24th minute on a header off an assist from senior Danielle Danko.
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Danko then put the match away with her second assist of the match, setting up junior Sadie Rogers in the 85th minute. It was Rogers’ 12th goal of the season.
“We wanted this since freshman year,” Danko said. “The seniors knew that if it was going to be any year, it would be this in our senior year, so these past few weeks in this championship season, if we dug deep, we could get it done. It’s what all of us wanted more than anything, so it’s so special to go out with a win.”
Seventh-year Adams coach Josh Hickey had nothing but praise for his senior, who notched her seventh and eighth assists of the year.
“Dani is a special talent, four-year starter, been doing it for me in the program for four years,” Hickey said. “When big moments need to happen, she brings it. And even that last one. We were surprised when she took it in; instead of go to the corner, she just finished it off. She’s a special talent, great leader, captain ... can’t say enough.”
Another player to come up big for the Highlanders was sophom*ore goalkeeper Lexi Calcamuggio, who made four saves — all key ones.
Calcamuggio came up big in the 53rd minute when she stoned Hartland senior Josie Cheyne from point-blank range and gobbled up the potential rebound, which could have changed the complexion of the match.
“There was only one side of the net that was open and I knew that’s where she (Cheyne) was going, so I just had to trust it, put my body in front of the ball and hope it hits me,” Calcamuggio said. “They kept everyone else under wraps. She was the only one that was open, she went to finish it and I just went. The second one was right to my hands, so it wasn’t a crazy save.”
It was Calcamuggio’s eighth shutout of the year.
“Honestly my mindset was to stay nice, calm and composed, and if I could get it in my hands everything else would settle down and just keep playing,” Calcamuggio said.
Hartland (16-4-3) outshot the Highlanders, 14-13, but Adams took seven corner kicks to the Eagles’ two.
“I knew we’d generate some chances and we did that the second half,” 19th-year Hartland coach Andrew Kartsounes said. “We had one very similar to the one they scored on. If we finish it, but their keeper made a nice save on it. And that’s the differences in these games. They’re going to be tight, and so it’s who is going to finish their opportunities. I don’t think either team had a ton of opportunities. But one team finished and we didn’t.”
Hartland will lose 12 seniors to graduation.
“We’ve won three districts in the last four years,” Kartsounes said. “We put ourselves at the top of the league (KLAA) and I think that sets a new watermark for us and something that we need to strive to to continue even though we lose this big group of seniors, some of them who have been here twice and we want to get back.”
The Hartland coach said finishing chances — or lack of — was the difference.
“I don’t know what actual shot count was but it had to be pretty darn close,” Kartsounes said. “We almost had an identical one to their first goal and their goalie made a save and they finished it, and we didn’t. In tight games like this, that’s what it’s all about. A few chances, you finish a couple and that’s all you need. I think that was the big difference today.
Hickey, who started as Adams' junior varsity boys coach in 2009, said what made this team special was its resiliency and grit.
“They were able to gut things out,” Hickey said. “Today was one of those days. Hartland is very good, very aggressive. We were tired. I could tell our legs were heavy, so they had to gut everything out.”
Meanwhile, Danko was wearing a heavy sleeve on her upper leg and had been battling a sore hamstring all season long.
But when it came to setting up the game-winning and insurance goal, nothing could be sweeter.
“The first one I was just trying cause some sort of gap. ... I saw Evelyn on my left side and I just put it across to her and I knew she could put it in,” Danko said. “I knew where my target was and she came through with that one in the back of the net.
“The second one — everyone wanted us to keep it in the corner, but I thought we could get one more. Driving down the line is something always he (Hickey) is telling me to do throughout the season. ... I could hear Sadie screaming, ‘Dani, Dani' ... and I was like, ‘OK’ Passed it to her and she drilled the second one for us.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan high school girls soccer Division 1: Adams blanks Hartland
