South Lyon East snags 5-0 win over rival in LVC semifinal

The South Lyon East Cougars rolled to a 5-0 win over their cross-town rivals, the South Lyon Lions in the Lakes Valley Conference semifinals Thursday night.

“The girls were ready. They, I think from start to finish they played our brand of soccer,” Cougars head coach Pete Stoyanovich said. “Not to take anything away from South Lyon, they’ve had a great season. But the girls, we wanted it more. And we showed that tonight. I just told them that I think they played their best game of the year, and we’re really peaking at the right time.”

Offensively, the Cougars were led by their two all-state forwards Alyssa Melquist and Emma Pompo. Both Melquist and Pompo scored twice as the Cougars controlled play most of the night. South Lyon East opened the scoring with 21:26 to play in the first half when Melquist crossed a ball in tight and Pompo redirected it in from point-blank range. Melquist made it 2-0 with 12:18 remaining in the first half when she cut across the top of the penalty area and ripped a shot back across goal into the lower left corner.

The Cougars seemed to be everywhere on the night. They always seemed to outnumber the Lions near the ball as the midfield, led by Jessica Boulard and Kaylie Samluk swarmed everyone and everywhere, giving the Lions no time to play the ball and few options of what to do with it as well.

“We’ve got terrific midfielders,” Stoyanovich said. “I felt like we held possession the entire time. I really did. Like I said, I owe it to our kids. They played probably their best game of the season, and hats off to them.”

After a first half where the Lions could not get anything going offensively, South Lyon had a bit better possession in the second half. Led by the play of Rhianna Schermerhorn, they came close a couple of times including hitting the post early in the second half and having a goal called back late.

“It just wasn’t clicking for us, one of those days. That happens when you play this game. There’s just brutal nights like this where things don’t go your way. We hit the post twice. We had a goal called back for offsides. I think if you look at those sit

KEN SWART — FOR MEDIANEWS GROUP South Lyon’s Gianna Spano (22) gets a leg up on South Lyon East’s Autumn Neville (18) during the Lakes Valley Conference semi-final match played on Thursday at South Lyon East High School. The Lions lost 5-0as the Cougars advance to next week’s conference final.