No. 6 Gull Lake holds off Mason to advance to regional finals in girls soccer
Gull Lake, a perennial power in girls soccer, is in the business of winning postseason games. And business is good.
No. 6-ranked Gull Lake kept its postseason alive with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Mason in challenging, rainy conditions in a Division 2 regional semifinal at Harper Creek High School on Wednesday.
The victory puts Gull Lake (18-2) in a regional final, just three wins away from the Blue Devils' ultimate goal of a state title. Gull Lake faces Zeeland West at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Harper Creek.
"We take a business approach to this. We knew if we won tonight, we would just have three games left to achieve our goals for the season," Gull Lake coach Colton Johnson said. "We talked all season. The goal is to hoist three trophies, which means a state title if we take care of our business."
After collecting its first trophy, a district title win over No. 1-ranked Marshall last week, Gull Lake will look for some regional championship hardware this week. But the Blue
Devils first had to get past a gritty Mason team that had a defensive mentality.
"We knew they were a really good team coming in," said Mason coach Christie Hursey, whose team ends the year at 12-7-1. "We saw them beat up on Marshall a little bit. So we were trying to play a little more defense on their better players. But we also thought we had some good opportunities and thought we could get one and tie the game at any point.
"I thought we put up a really good fight. It was such a dogfight in there and I'm really proud of the way our girls played."
The only goal of the game came at the 17:35 mark of the first half with Gull Lake's Mackenzie Ford finding the net for a 1-0 lead.
Despite Gull Lake playing most of the game on the offensive end, and getting several shots on goal, Mason keeper Audrey Walkington was able to keep her team in it the rest of the way. On the other side, the Bulldogs couldn't sustain enough pressure offensively to make up the difference.
"We have three quality girls in the middle with Lyla Smith, Aleah Minehart and Madison Bilbia, so we know we can be a team that can control possession," Johnson said. "So the big thing is if we can take advantage of the chances we get. We had really good chances that just didn't fall our way. You can blame it on the weather or whatever, but one (goal) was good enough today."
Contact Bill Broderick at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter @billbroderick.
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: No. 6 Gull Lake holds off Mason to advance to regional finals
