ROCHESTER HILLS — Detroit Catholic Central’s soccer team learned its lesson at the right time.
After putting together an eight-game win streak throughout September to clinch the Central Division title and earn a spot in the Catholic League finals early, the Shamrocks played second-place University of Detroit Jesuit to a draw and dropped a match to last-place Toledo St. John’s Jesuit.
“Sometimes when you think you’re entitled to the win, that’s the wrong way to approach the game,” said coach Gene Pulice, who was tasked with bringing his team out of its funk prior to its showdown with AA Division champion Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook.
“That was exactly what our (pre-game) meeting was about,” he said. “At this time of year, every game counts, every game is going to be a dogfight, so you just have to come out, play your best, do your best, leave it all on the field, don’t have any regrets when you play, and get through it.”
The Shamrocks (12-3-3) took those words to heart, blitzing Cranbrook (10-2-0) with a pair of early goals and capturing the Bishop Division championship with a 4-0 victory Oct. 1 at Oakland University.
A.J. Palushaj knocked in a redirect before the contest was eight minutes old, and Kei Zarco struck with a loose ball on a rebound less than a minute later, giving the Shamrocks a chance to assert their dominance throughout the rest of the match.
“An early start always helps, right?” Pulice said. “We got off to a great start with A.J. It was kind of a weird shot; he kind of came up and juggled it and volleyed it out of the air. It was a little bit of a dramatic first goal to have, too.”
Catholic Central (12-3-3) doubled its lead early in the second half behind goals by Grant Mooradian and Gavin McLenaghan. Jake Sievert earned the clean sheet in goal, with Aiden Greib finishing the match in a relief role over the last two minutes.
It was Catholic Central’s third Catholic League championship in six seasons, as the Shamrocks also won in 2023 and 2020. Cranbrook (10-2-0) last earned the crown in 2021.
“I would say that I had confidence in our guys from day one,” Pulice said. “From day one we put together a great philosophy of play with the personnel that we had, and I think we played within ourselves — and our ceiling is higher yet.”
Liggett rolls over Shrine in Cardinal Division contest
Coasting through the Catholic League regular season undefeated and earning a No. 1 ranking in the statewide polls, it looks as if things have come easy this fall for Grosse Pointe Woods University-Liggett.
But after the Knights beat Royal Oak Shrine, 4-2, to win the Cardinal Division title, Liggett head coach David Dwaihy said the victory involved more than meets the eye.
“It looked really good, but there was a lot of hard work behind it and I think the boys really just found their stride collectively,” he said. “I also think a lot of credit goes to Shrine because they’re such a quality opponent and they’re so capable that it brought the best out of us. Best-case scenario, when you play a good team you rise to their level, and I think that is what happened for us tonight. I feel like tonight really went our way.”
It was a scoreless contest for half of the first stanza until Liggett’s Brady Ancona approached from the right, and fired a low shot to the far post for the game’s first goal in the 21st minute. Although the score remained 1-0 for the remainder of the first half, Liggett gained confidence from the advantage and controlled the flow of play.
“Goals change games, and I think when we scored, it helped us relax a little bit,” Dwaihy said. “The first 15 minutes of the game were really tense and neither team seemed to be very comfortable — which is natural for a final — but I thought the goal was a turning point just in terms of how we were able to take a little extra second on the ball, be more calculated and have a little bit more confidence in ourselves. It showed in our play."
That enabled Liggett (13-0-0) rack up two more goals in the second-half and open up a 3-0 lead. Liam Gady got a breakaway and sent his shot to the upper 90 of the net, and Brendan Logan scored on a header following a 40-yard free kick.
“They did a great job — they pressured us, they worked hard, they played a really aggressive, physical game and it threw us off. We weren’t prepared for it,” Shrine coach Mark Soma said. “Literally, we were asleep. They were stepping in front of us for the challenge balls, we weren’t winning balls, we were getting out-hustled, we were getting out-battled.”
Soma’s senior son, Caesar, finally got Shrine (16-2-0) on the scoreboard with 17:35 to play by rifling a line-drive into the net, making it 3-1. Each team added goals in the final six minutes, scored by Liggett’s Logan and Shrine’s Soma, to account for the final margin.
The action was unusually wide open for a Shrine-Liggett match.
“We just seemed to be really on tonight, in terms of our timing and anticipation. We really felt good about the number of times we intercepted passes and blocked passing lanes. It was definitely a team goal before the game to make them play out, because we know that they’re a team that likes to pass,” Dwaihy said. “I think we were effective, but there were phases of the game where they reclaimed possession of the ball and we had to struggle to get back into it, so it was a really good experience for us to have the ups and downs of the game where we came out on top.
“It was a lot of hard work and a lot of persistence.”
