Dexter High School Girls' Soccer Upsets Livonia Ladywood

By Alex Hardie

In the girls' varsity soccer regional semifinal match on Tuesday, fans were treated to what could be considered an instant classic as the Dexter Dreadnaughts avenged last season’s 2-0 regional final loss.

Both Dexter and Livonia started the match attacking their opponent's back line. Though the Blazers from Ladywood carried a bit more of the play, Dexter’s team created some dangerous pushes forward with some long balls. The Blazers played some good pressure defense, quashing most of Dexter's attacks.

With constant pressure, however, something was bound to break. With 6:22 left in the first half, Olivia Vollemrs played a penetrating pass up the middle of the field into Nicole Lucas’ run, to take advantage of that break. The break-away was almost blocked by the onrushing Ladywood keeper, however Lucas got a quick shot off, which deflected off of the keeper, but kept rolling into the goal.

Attacking soccer continued in the second half as the speed of play slowed down. Both teams had their opportunities but couldn’t get past their opponent's defenses. With the last 15 minutes on the clock, the Blazers created three solid opportunities to tie the game, but were met with three saves by Dexter’s keeper Sarah Silvasi.

“Those saves propelled us into a solid finish as we looked to manage the games finish.nThe players did a great job of breaking down their defense for our opportunities and a solid job of organizing our defense to limit Ladywood’s ability to create quality shots,” Dexter coach Scott Forrester said.

The Dreadnaughts will face host Trenton in the regional final match Thursday with a 7 p.m. kick-off.