STATE CHAMPS
Bloomfield Hills wins first-ever state title with 2-1 shootout win against Northville
EAST LANSING » The Bloomfield Hills Black Hawks won their first state title, defeating the Northville Mustangs 4-1 in a shootout to claim a 2-1 victory Saturday in the Division 1 title game.
“We haven’t even won a regional, and so for this team to come all the way to states and dominate almost every single game is unreal. I don’t think there’s a better feeling for any of these girls right now,” senior cocaptain Drew Martin said.
The Black Hawks made all four of their penalty kicks, punctuated by a final kick from Ava Badallo that sealed the win and set off the celebration.
“No one ever wants to lose like that — or win like that. You hope you can finish it on the field,” Mustangs head coach Jeannine Reddy said. “I think both teams played a great game.”
The shootout hero was goalkeeper Jenica Opdahl who stopped two of the three shots she faced. Opdahl got the Mustangs’ first kick with a dive to her left, then stopped the third kick with a diving stop to her right, setting up Badallo with the chance to finish things off.
“I actually read it. We practice a lot of penalty kicks, and I’ve improved my reading of the shooting,” Opdahl said. “That boosted my confidence after the first one.”
Bloomfield Hills opened the scoring just over five minutes into the second half when Brooke Green got deep down the left flank, cut inside and crossed a ball to the front where Badallo stuck out a foot to redirect the ball into the far side for a 1-0 Bloomfield Hills lead.
Northville tied the game 1-1 with 15:27 to play when Lauren Moraitis whipped a corner kick into the box, and sophomore Kate Gonzalez headed it home over a crowd of players.
Both teams had excellent chances in the first half but each team came up short. Bloomfield Hills appeared to go on top in the 19th minute when Alice Spiegel’s 50yard free kick bounced in the box and appeared to get tapped in on the back post; however, the play was ruled offside. About six minutes later, Northville got a player in behind the defense for a breakaway, but Opdahl came up with a big save, tipping the ball over the crossbar for a corner kick.
The teams continued to trade momentum throughout the game, and each team had a couple of chances to get a second goal, including another goal for Bloomfield Hills that was waved off for offside in the first overtime.
“I think playing in the OAA Red, playing down a man in our district final for 50 minutes, coming back from 1-0 to win 2-1 in the regional final just created that resilience for us,” Bloomfield Hills head coach Alan Zakaria said. “This is what you would expect in a championship match. Kudos to Northville — (they have) an unbelievable team, and there was just a lot of ebb and flow. And I think we went through that and were able to pull it off.”
The Black Hawks finish the year 15-2-3 and will return 15 players from this year’s team.
“We’ve got a young team. Our senior class was unbelievable though. What a class — talent-wise, character, belief everything. But yes, I think we’re going to be strong for years to come, and it just showed them what they’re capable of,” Zakaria said.
Northville suffers its only loss of the year to finish 18-1-5.
“I’m super proud of them. Obviously, they wanted this. Everybody did,” Reddy said. “I thought both teams played hard, and it was a good division one state final. That’s what you want to see, in my opinion, both teams battling. And I think we did that.”