Bowling Green senior Tomas Meek (14) tries to get past a Springfield defender. Springfield defeated Bowling Green 4-1. (Scott W. Grau | Sentinel-Tribune)
HOLLAND — For the second year in a row Bowling Green and Springfield boys soccer teams were facing off in the final week of the season for the Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division championship.
For the second year in a row, Springfield found a way to prevail and win an NLL title, defeating visiting BG, 4-1, on Tuesday.
A year ago, all it took was the Blue Devils taking the Bobcats to a 0-0 tie at Bobcat Stadium, and they played for that. This year, BG could have clinched the NLL title on Saturday, but lost to Napoleon, 1-0, opening the door for Springfield.
Earlier this season, BG defeated Springfield by the same score, 4-1, and the Bobcats had also defeated Napoleon, 3-2, in their first meeting.
BG coach Josh Fox says that’s what can happen when teams face off for a second time in a season.
“It was kind of like this past Saturday against Napoleon, you know,” Fox said. “We’ve played these teams so much, we know each other so well, and they didn’t play the same as they did the first time around, which we expected. But we just couldn’t adjust.”
Fox said Springfield junior midfielder Kyle Mortus was a thorn in BG’s side. Mortus was not only controlling midfield, he played a role in both of Springfield’s second half goals that put the game away.
After leading 2-0 at halftime, just over a minute into the second half Mortus had a steal at midfield and drove the length of the BG’s defensive zone, beating a defender and scoring to put the Blue Devils up 3-0.
With 12:46 remaining, Mortus did it again against BG’s back line, took a shot on goal, which deflected. Springfield junior midfielder T.J. Pappas was there waiting, and Pappas one-timed an easy shot into the net for the Blue Devils’ fourth goal.
“We let No. 10 (Mortus) dictate the entire game,” Fox said. “We couldn’t win our duels against him, and it just affected everything we did.”
Plus, the Blue Devils put a stranglehold on BG’s top scorer, senior Tomas Meek, who came into the game with 17 goals and eight assists. Meek controlled the tempo and possession much of the first half, but he failed to score.
“Playing against BG is a tough task,” Springfield coach Adam Sloan said. “I’ve watched Tomas Meek for the last 10 years — dynamic player, absolutely deserving of every accreditation that he’s gotten.
“The big thing with us really wasn’t focusing on him, but if you take the tools away around him also, if you focus on your shape and focus on maybe holding that middle of the field, it takes away that ability for them to attack right up the gut.”
Meek and his teammates were able to control possession so well, about 75% in the first half, that the Bobcats ended up outshooting the Devils, 18-11, including 11-10 in shots on goal.
BG starting goalkeeper, junior Kole Evans, never had to take a goal kick, and senior keeper Teigan Gulgin, who came in with 6:20 remaining, didn’t have to boot a goal kick until there was 2:20 remaining in the game.
But Evans and Gulgin did combine for eight punts and Springfield senior goalkeeper Cole Murphy had multiple top shelf saves, putting a hand high to deflect a shot over the crossbar. BG even had nine corner kicks to Springfield’s four, but the Bobcats failed to convert.
Finally, after Springfield had it’s 3-0 lead, BG junior midfielder Hayden Fox outsmarted Murphy, flipping a high arcing shot from just 10 yards away over Murphy’s head, and then racing in to score, almost as if he had the assist and score.
Fox’s goal with 29:57 remaining gave BG some life, but the Bobcats were unable to find the back of the net again.
Springfield got on the board first off of a corner kick, the Blue Devils’ only CK of the half, compared to BG’s six. Booted by junior midfielder Aiden Sloan, it was one-timed in the air by senior midfielder Bryce Steinmiller directly into the net nearly 16 minutes into the game.
Then, with 2:46 remaining in the half, Springfield sophomore defender Johnny Bates scored off a deflected ball originally sent into the crease by senior forward Taylan Akdeniz.
Springfield improves to 9-3-3 overall and 7-1-2 in the NLL after winning just three of its first six games. Coach Sloan says the Blue Devils are a different team than they were when they lost to BG, 4-1, on September 10.
“I think intensity out of the group, tempo of play, and then just like last year, it’s part of the process,” coach Sloan said. “We weren’t playing our best in the first half of the year. Every coach wants to peak when it’s time to peak and here we go.”
After starting the season 7-0, BG falls to 11-4 overall and 6-3 in the NLL, losing three of its last four league games with one remaining at Sylvania Southview next Monday.
After that, the Bobcats will be seeking their straight trip to the district finals, a far cry from where the BG program was at when coach Fox came on board. However, BG has never won an NLL title in boys soccer, and the Bobcats wanted to make that happen.
“We don’t want to be playing for morale victories at this point. We wanted to win today, and we just got bested,” coach Fox said.
“I told the boys pregame that I’m proud of them,” coach Fox continued. “I’m moving, so I’m going through my closet, and I see these old BG jerseys when I first started coaching and you remember back then. You compare it to now and it’s a million miles away.”
