BY DAN STICKRADT
CORRESPONDENT
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
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TROY — A year ago, Troy saw its season come to an unexpected end following a 1-0 overtime loss to Birmingham Seaholm.
This time around, Troy made sure there would be no heartbreak.
“We made sure that would not happen again,” said Troy coach Jim Stachura, who carries 18 seniors on the roster. “We dominated this whole game. It’s tournament time. These guys want to keep playing.”
The Colts, who fell out of the Division 1 rankings the previous week, rolled to a convincing 4-0 shutout Seaholm to stay alive in this postseason.
Troy (11-5-3) will face unranked Birmingham Brother Rice, which upset No. 3 Troy Athens 2-1 Monday, in the district semifinals Wednesday at Birmingham Groves.
Darius Ferer scored a goal and two assists to lead Troy, giving the University of Detroit-Mercy bound senior 19 goals and eight assists on the season. Joey Mason scored twice, giving him 16 tallies on the campaign, and Oscar Cabrera also scored for the Colts, who have not won a district crown since 2011.
“Darius has had a great season,” said Stachura. “He’s a defender in club (soccer), but he plays a lot of forward for us and he’s finishing. He has 19 goals, Joey Mason has 16 goals. When we are playing well and finishing, we’re a good team. But there has been games this season where we struggled to score goals and we lost a few games that we shouldn’t have lost.”
Seniors Nolan Regan and Will Myers shared the shutout in goal for Troy, which recorded its sixth clean sheet of the campaign.