Farmington Hills Mercy beats Cranbrook for first CHSL tourney title in 31 years
By MICHAEL J WALLWORK Oakland Press
ROYAL OAK – The Farmington Hills Mercy Marlins claimed their first Catholic High School League Tournament title in 31 years with a 3-1 win over the Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood Cranes in Saturday’s Bishop Division Championship. “It means a lot, especially being on varsity since my freshman year,” Marlins senior Luwam Abraha said. “We were in the finals my freshman year, and we took a hard loss to (Warren) Regina. So coming into this game, we were just mentally prepared. We worked our butts off every day in practice, worked as hard as we could.”
The Marlins started hot and took advantage of some early mistakes by Cranbrook. Mercy capitalized on a turnover in Cranbrook’s end with 29:08 still to play when Brianna Mikha let rip a shot from the top of the penalty area that gave the Marlins a 1-0 lead.
Mercy doubled that lead with 15:27 to play in the first half on another goal by Mikha, whose shot from the left corner found its way into the far side of the net to make it 2-0 Marlins. Overall, Mercy was the better team in the first half, dominating the stat sheet.
But despite all that statistical dominance by the Marlins, Cranbrook was slowly finding their footing, and when Carola Gorlier headed a ball in with 5:44 left in the first half to pull the Cranes within one, the game had a much different complexion heading into half\time.
The Marlins quickly re-established dominance in the second half, however, as Madison Linton let fly with a shot from 40 yards out that went in off the post barely three minutes after halftime to restore Mercy’s two-goal advantage.
Cranbrook continued to battle throughout the second half, tightening up defensively and generally improving as the game went along, but they couldn't dent the scoreboard again.
“I think we forget that these are high school kids out here playing. We go back in our mind to when we were in high school and yes, nerves are definitely a part of it. But I think we settled in pretty nice and we had to find some solutions for the way they were attacking us, and I think that we were able to find some of those. We had a little too little, too late,” Cranes head coach David Brown said. “But our hats go off to Mercy. They were outstanding today.”
With the win, Mercy (8-4-5) claims its first CHSL tournament title since 1993, when there was only one tournament for the whole league.
“We are a young team, but it’s just taken a lot of grit and work,” Abraha said. “We have had some trouble scoring at the beginning of the season, but we always just made it a point every day in practice, to work on it, drill on it, get together and do team bonding, get to know each other as people off the field. Once that started getting together, and we had our Traverse City trip that helped a lot with the team bonding. So we came out on the field and we’re gelling over a family. We all know each other, now how to play with each other, and it shows on the field.”
Cranbrook falls to 7-6-1 after making the tournament final in their first year as part of the CHSL Central, the league’s top division.
“This is our first year of playing up, and I was pleased with the way that our team played and battled. They never stopped and kept fighting the entire time,” Brown said.
Both teams will now turn their attention to playoffs, which start on Wednesday. The teams are both in the Avondale district with Cranbrook facing Lamphere in the opener and Mercy slotted to play Oak Park. If the each win their openers, they could meet again in the second round shortly after Memorial Day.