Soccer playoffs underway

Photo by KELLY STANLEY Imlay City's Sylvester Galeana put his best foot forward against Almont Tuesday in the district opener at Armada. STATEWIDE — Monday marked day one of the Michigan High School Athletic Association 2009 boys' varsity soccer district playoffs, with the semifinals scheduled for today and tomorrow, followed by the district finals Saturday. With first-round byes in short supply and mother nature whipping up a fresh batch of winter winds, let's take a look at how our area teams fared:

District No. 24-2, Fenton

Lapeer West hosted Fowlerville in the initial contest of this year's chase for the state title, losing, 3-1.

“Fowlerville outplayed us in the first 15 minutes, with their first goal being a header off a corner kick and the second was a nice poke to the side netting on a through ball,” said coach Matt McCaffrey. “The next 25 minutes was all West. We had five shots on goal with a couple knocked down by their keeper and rolling along the goal line. We also had three corner kicks during that time. Had we been able to get one before the half, I think it would've been a different game.”

After going into halftime down 2-0, Brad Deane scored his team's only goal in his final high school game on an assist by O'brien.

“We created many opportunities but couldn't finish,” McCaffrey said. “The bottom line was they created a few more opportunities and finished and we didn't..”

As for the rest of the bracket, Fenton beat Kearsley, 5-1, Goodrich defeated Orchard Lake St. Mary's, 4-1, and Linden fell to Auburn Hills Avondale, 2-0.

“Sophomore Dakota Carie played an excellent game at left back. He's improved drastically this season, while freshman Zack O'brien played with much intensity and vigor,” said McCaffrey. “Freshman Trevor Schalau earned himself a starting position, as well as freshmen Spencer Ferrell and Andrew McGeary. Junior Josh Celebak played a very controlled game, making big plays offensively and defensively.”

District No. 25-2, North Branch

St. Clair kicked off this year's postseason at the Broncos, losing' 2-0. Heading up the offensive attack for North Branch were Elliot Orr and Billy McKnight, both of whom were assisted by Cody Kipp. Defensively, goalkeeper Luke Smith helped secure the shutout with five saves. The Broncos are now 11-8-3 overall. They next host Lapeer East today.

In other district action, Marine City beat Marysville, 5-0, and will play Thursday against Algonac, which had a round-one bye. Cros-Lex also hosted Lapeer East, losing, 7-1.

District No. 38-3, Armada

In a battle of Blue Water Area Conference rivals, Imlay City was at Almont Monday for round one of district competition, edging out the Raiders, 2-1.

The story of the game for the Spartans was Sylvester Galeana, who drew first blood for Imlay City at 11:26 of the first half on assists by Jorge Valdovinos and Ethan Walker. A little over 20 minutes later at the 34:23 mark, Galeana once again hit nothing but net, this time getting the assist from R.J. See, to give Imlay City a 2-0 lead.

In the second half, Almont played it tight, even mounting a comeback by connecting on a penalty kick at 23:21, but that's as close as they'd get. In net, the Spartans were led by Jonathan Torres with a half-dozen saves. Imlay City is now 16-3-1 overall and next plays today.

Elsewhere in the district, Memphis hosted Flint Southwestern, winning, 2-0; Richmond was at Lake Fenton, taking a 3-0 victory; and Armada welcomed Capac to town, winning, 7-1.

District No. 45-3, Frankenmuth

LakeVille was at Cass City Monday to begin district play, winning, 3-2. Frankenmuth was also in action against Caro, eeking out a 1-0 victory; Elkton Pigeon Bayport bested Millington, 2-0; and Sandusky hosted Bad Axe.

District No. 56-4, Genesee Christian

Dryden and Cardinal Mooney both have roundone byes and will go headto head today. The rest of the district includes Auburn Hills Christian, Genesee Christian, Kimball New Life Christian Academy and the New Haven-Merritt Academy.