Iron Mountain sophomore Seth Greenleaf (2) takes on Boyne City’s Dylan Pererito (6) during Thursday’s MHSAA Division 3 District 33 opener at Mountaineer Stadium. stole the ball from (Sean Chase/Daily News Photo)
IRON MOUNTAIN — After giving up an easy goal to Boyne City in the first minute of the second half, the Iron Mountain boys varsity soccer team needed to make something happen to keep its season going.
The Mountaineers found the spark they were looking for in sophomore Seth Greenleaf and defeated the Ramblers 3-1 at Mountaineer Stadium in the MHSAA Division 3 District 33 opener.
“This was a total team effort to win.” IM head coach Greg Klas said. “Strong defense, great goaltending from Cade (Davey) and an aggressive offense from a lot of guys.”
The Mountaineers entered this contest with a better record (5-7) than the Ramblers (3-12-1), but Coach Kuras made sure to remind his players of the importance of not overlooking any team in the postseason. It reminded me.
“We were the higher seed and had a better record, but I told you guys yesterday, ‘Come tournament time, everyone’s record is 0-0.’ said the class. “(Boyne City) came out and took the lead.”
Iron Mountain and Boyne City were tied scoreless at the end of the first half. But the Mountaineers suffered a scare when Anthony Pineda went down with just over 10 minutes remaining.
However, Pineda would return later in the game.
“He just got hurt and twisted his ankle a little bit.” said the class. “Our trainer, she did a great job wrapping him up and he was ready to go.”
After controlling the ball in the first seconds of the second half, Boyne City senior Mason Vadnais dribbled through the Iron Mountain defense. Vadnai somehow made it through unscathed and stood in front of the Mountaineers’ goal. One soft shot later and the Ramblers held a 1-0 advantage.
“Yeah, it kind of took the wind out of our sails.” said the class. “It was like, I don’t know if I fell asleep at halftime or what. Normally we don’t allow players to dribble past us and score goals.
“They just caught us off guard and then we shut them down for the rest of the game, which was good.”
Twelve minutes later, IM junior Austin Gayan collected a loose ball in front of Boyne City’s goal, evaded a scrum of players and buried the ball in the back of the goal.
In the blink of an eye, the game was tied to one point.
As time approached, talk of overtime began to circulate around the stadium.
But Mountaineers sophomore Seth Greenleaf had other plans.
With 11 minutes left, Greenleaf took advantage of a Rambler mistake in their own half. He immediately turned his attention to the goal and sunk a shot into the top left corner of the goal, giving Iron Mountain its first lead of the game at 2-1.
Greenleaf didn’t have many scoring opportunities in the first half, but Klass made some adjustments to his lineup at halftime and took advantage of it.
“We talked about it at half-time and I thought, given his speed, he wasn’t really being challenged.” said the class. So we switched Cole (Davey) to that position, moved Dylan (Lindgren) back to defense, and put Seth there. We thought we could play defense between Seth and Anthony, and it ended up working out for us. ”
Boyne City had multiple chances to find the back of the net late, but Greenleaf added another goal with five minutes remaining to seal the Mountaineer’s victory, 3-1.
“Seth Greenleaf made two great plays that prove that if you never give up and run hard, good things can happen.” Mr. Klass added.
As the game began to wind down, a group of fans dressed in maize and blue could be heard cheering on the Flibers. It was the Kingsford University soccer team.
“No matter who’s rooting for you, it’s nice to have fans.” said the class. “It’s nice to have their support. We’re an urban rival, but they came out and we appreciate that.”
Victories are always worth celebrating, but Thursday’s win marked Iron Mountain’s first playoff win in program history.
“This is our first time winning a district championship.” said the class. “Last year was our first year in district and we lost our first game, so that’s kind of cool.”
Iron Mountain heads to Memorial Field on Tuesday to face Kingsford in the District 33 semifinals.
The Frivers defeated Iron Mountain 7-0 at Co-Memorial Field on August 28 and 8-0 at Mountaineer Stadium on September 16. Kingsford finished the season with a record of 14 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw, entering the first round with a bye.
“We know we have a difficult task ahead of us.” said the class. “The tough thing about winning this game is we’re now playing Kingsford, but it’s a chance to go out there and see what we can do against them.”
