After three straight years of playing in the girls soccer state championship game, Birmingham Marian will have to watch the rest of this year's Division 2 state tournament play out from a distance.
The Mustangs suffered a heartbreaking 1-0 overtime setback to Pontiac Notre Dame Prep Saturday afternoon in the district championship game played at Avondale High School. The game's lone goal was booted home by junior midfielder Erika Weist less than a minute into the second overtime period.
It was not only Marian's first loss of the season, it was the first time the Mustangs had ever lost to Notre Dame Prep in Barry Brodsky's 14 years as head coach.
"We didn't put one in and they did," said Brodsky, whose No. 1-ranked team finished with a 15-1-4 overall record. "You get what you deserve. If you can't score, then you can't win.
"In a championship level game you get two or three good chances to score," he added. "We had two or three good chances and we didn't score. It's just like any other sport, if you don't take advantage when you get the opportunity it comes back to bite you, and it did."
Marian defeated Notre Dame Prep on two occasions this spring – 4-1 in regular-season play and 1-0 in the Catholic League championship game. The Mustangs simply couldn't put the Fighting Irish away for the third time.
"(Notre Dame Prep) played very well and they deserved to win," he said. "I don't by into that (theory that it's tough) beating someone a third time. They were just better than us today."
The Mustangs were on the attack most of the first half, outshooting the Fighting Irish and enjoying an advantage in corner kicks. The second half was a bit more even, although Marian's senior tri-captain Jaclyn Engel had a good shot from 20 years out which was stopped by Prep goalie Megan Kraus as regulation time expired.
In the first ten-minute overtime session, Prep seemed to control much of the play.
The winning goal was scored 24 seconds into the second overtime when Weist's blast from 25 yards out sailed perfectly into the upper center of the net just over the outstretched arms of Marian goalie Megan Bricely.
The Mustangs went on the attack after that goal in a desperate attempt to tie the game, but to no avail. Brodsky pulled the goalie for an extra attacker with just under four minutes to play.
Marain's lone good look during that time was another Engel shot which sailed just wide of the Prep net.
Notre Dame Prep now heads to the Division 2 regional semifinal set for 5 p.m. Tuesday at Farmington Harrison. The Fighting Irish will play the Saint Clair Shores Lake Shore district champion. (Hometownlife.com, May 31, 2015)