By John Raffel
It would be hard to have had a more perfect girls’ soccer season than the one Saline enjoyed this spring.
A 4-0 victory over Grand Blanc in the Division 1 title game on June 13 at Michigan State University capped off a 22-0-3 season for a team that outscored its opponents, 104-4, during the entire campaign and 22-0 in the playoffs.
The Hornets had ties of 1-1 with Ann Arbor Skyline, 2-2 with Brighton, and 0-0 with Ann Arbor Pioneer. The only other game that wasn’t a shutout was a 5-1 win over Skyline later in the season.
The postseason was just as impressive as the regular season, with 1-0, 8-0, and 3-0 wins over Ann Arbor Pioneer, Lincoln, and Ann Arbor Skyline for the district title; 2-0 and 3-0 over Woodhaven‑Brownstown and Canton in the regional, and 1-0 over East Kentwood in the semifinal.
Taylor Mulder scored her 41st and 42nd goals of the season, and the third and fourth for Saline, at 16:38 and 78:32 of the game. Molly O’Sullivan and Allison Luurtsema scored in the first 10 minutes of the game.
“Grand Blanc is a great attacking team,” Saline coach Dana Restrick said. “They have talented players and work well off one another. It’s something we tried to emulate in practice the last couple of days.”
Saline had a 12-10 shots advantage. Sofia Sweier was the winning goalkeeper.
“At halftime, we had a three-goal lead, and we kind of talked about not trying to bleed away the next 40 minutes,” Restrick said. “We did let down a bit in the second half, and Grand Blanc showed their stuff and really pushed. When you get to five minutes left, you realize maybe they won’t score three goals. I wait until the buzzer goes off.”
It was Saline’s first state title appearance.
“We were ready,” Restrick said. “We really put a big emphasis on what the first 10 minutes would be. Our first 10 minutes were lights out. That put us in a position where we just had to manage the game from then on.”
Restrick admitted it was comforting getting a 3-0 lead in the first 16:38 of action.
“I didn’t know if would happen today, but we felt we could put some goals on this team,” Restrick said. “We can put goals on anybody.”
By last season, Restrick realized that 2015 could be special. “You never know how it’s going to be from the end of one year to the next,” Restrick said. “But we had a really great season last year and felt good about what we did, but we wanted more. This team was focused. They knew what they wanted. You have to take every game one at a time. We knew from day one this is what we wanted.”
It helped having a scorer like Mulder. “Taylor had a season of a lifetime,” Restrick said. “That girl is very humble, a great teammate, great leader, and very positive. All those things come together to make her the leader she is. She had a mission in mind. She wanted this and led us to it.”