Just before leaving rival Birmingham Seaholm's stadium after Tuesday's 1-0 win, the Birmingham Groves women's soccer team gathered by the bench and posed for a photo together.
And it was guaranteed.
Five minutes into the second half, Falcons senior Camryn Pepper kept the ball on the near sideline and managed to tear through Seaholm defenders Maggie Roble and Avery Schwartz before holding onto it and heading toward the net about 20 yards. Prayers were recited from a distance.
The ball skimmed over the outstretched hand of 6-foot-1 goalie Sydney Ryan and into the inside of the right post.
“She's one of those players that they know is left-footed, and they know she's going to go left,” Groves first-year coach Reed Lossie said. “And they don't really have an answer for her. The moment she got her head up and tried to take a shot, you could see it go into the back of the net. ”
In Game 1 of the home-and-home series on May 1, the rivals tied 0-0, playing scoreless football for 125 minutes until Pepper got one point past Seaholm's stout backline.
That's saying something, as the Maples controlled the offense for the majority of both games.
more:Birmingham Seaholm girls soccer's starting goalkeeper hasn't played since fifth grade.
“She scored that from a free throw, but she shouldn't have had the ball, right?'' Seaholm coach Miguel Rodriguez said. “We lost the ball in midfield, we didn't make any tackles and that was a bit disappointing. Most of the time we thought we had 70% possession. The problem we have is that we're not giving up every chance. I think we had plenty of time in the first half. We have to get the ball in the back of the net, and if we don't do that, we're going to keep a team like them in the back of the net. , and that's what happened. Give them credit because they just stayed there and made us play tough.”
There is a good explanation for Seaholm's failure to score.
Indeed, Rodriguez felt that the midfielders held the ball too long before making a play.
But what is the main reason? Groves goalkeeper Eva Loisel had another great game.
Seaholm fired rockets left and right at Junior, just like he did in their first match. And just like in the first matchup, Loisel made plays left and right.
That included her outscoring an onslaught of scoring chances in the final stretch as Maples tried to tie the score and force a stalemate. In the final three minutes alone, she had to make diving saves, grab rebounds and jump into the air to snag a potential score off a Seaholm corner kick.
“This is a game where you put the ball in the back of the net, and if you don't do that, you leave your team in it, and that's exactly what we did,” Rodriguez said. “We had too many chances. The goalkeeper is great, but what if we couldn't get the ball past her? Hmm. And we probably had 15 shots too.”
“She made some crazy plays. But again, we have to finish them.”
Groves (8-5-1) and Seaholm (4-6-3) could meet again in the postseason.
more:Eva Loisel saves the day for Birmingham Groves women's soccer team
If the Falcons can defeat Berkeley in the first round and the Maples can pull off an upset over Troy Athens, the two rivals will meet in the second round for the Division 1 district championship.
“It's very difficult to play the same team three times,” Rodriguez said. “I told the team this was their (Globes') Super Bowl. You could hear the cheers and everything else because they won. But we're going to get them here again. We have a strategy for Athens and we've done it.'' We have to go through Athens, but we all know the district is a different animal. ”
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metropolitan Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on Twitter @folsombrandonj.