Macomb High’s 2-1 Class 1A Regional title victory over Beardstown Wednesday evening shattered ceilings and busted down doors for the girls soccer program.
In existence since 2002, the Bomber girls had never won a regional title, posting an 0-5 record in title contests. That included each of the last three seasons.
At Pattee Fields in Monmouth on a cool, cloudy, breezy evening, the Bombers made ‘her-story” with regional title glory.
“(The players) wanted this. I wanted this,” said MHS coach Heather Allen. “We’ve been there. We know what it’s like to get to this spot. To have that plaque to represent women’s soccer for Macomb. It’s awesome.”
“These girls are making history,” she added. “They’re breaking records. I couldn’t be more proud.”
Macomb was playing in its fourth consecutive regional final and it was the third meeting between the Bombers and Tigers this season.
Beardstown lost to the Bombers 2-0 back on Apr. 7 in Macomb. The two teams played again in Beardstown on Apr. 17 with the squads playing to a 1-1 draw.
“We felt a little bit of pressure,” said Macomb’s Kate Stortzum. “But I think we had a lot more confidence. I think beating Canton (1-0 in the semifinals) made us feel more powerful in a way.”
“We have a very young team,” she added. “As much as we have a lot of seniors, there’s a lot of underclassmen. Getting that first postseason game out of the way, I think it gave our team a lot of energy going into this game. I think that ultimately helped us.”
The Bombers got on the board with 1:36 left in the opening half on a goal by Stortzum that was assisted by Kylie Robinson.
“I think a big part of that goal was having Kylie (Robinson) out there,” said Storzum. “They didn’t know which one of us was going to shoot it.”
The Tigers pulled even with 20:23 remaining on a high, lofting shot over a leaping Jesse Trost that found its way in the goal.
“We had taken so many more shots on goal than (Beardstown),’ said Stortzum. “Once they made that (tying goal), I knew a lot of girls were going to kind of panic. But as long as we kept our confidence, we were getting lots of shots on goal.”
“You can’t back down after a goal like that,” she added. “You just have to keep going. Knowing that we were getting a lot of shots on-goal really helps.”
Stortzum scored the eventual game-winner with 8:14 remaining with Robinson notching her second assists of the match.
“We (coaches) had been telling (Stortzum) several times all game ‘One more touch. One more touch,’” said Allen. “She finally took a couple more touches and tapped it right in there.”
“There’s been plenty of times this season I’ve missed goals like that,” said Stortzum. “Every one of those misses, I learned something. And every one of those misses, my team is there to back me up.”
The Bombers finished with 26 shots that included 10 by Robinson and nine from Stortzum.
Lorna Brown also had six shots and Kaili Bacon one for Macomb.
Trost finished with 13 saves.
Stortzum noted that the regional title belongs to all the players of the program, past and present.
“We had these amazing seniors before us who always kept us wanting to come to practice, kept us wanting to play as hard as we could,” said Stortzum. “For us, it leaves behind a legacy of a team that works together, but it also the legacy of all the teams that came before us.”
“Anything’s possible,” said Allen. “A lot of these kids are playing this year for the first time. As we rebuild, just knowing everything they’ve learned with this group (of seniors) and they’ve seen what we can do, they can build on those steps and try to accomplish something again like this in the next couple of years.”
“There’s a little bit of winning,” said Stortzum. “I think the program we’re building is about high school kids having fun and high school kids playing a sport they enjoy being around.”
“It takes a lot of determination, hard work and apparently a whole bunch of goofiness and laughter,” Allen noted.
Macomb improved to 9-6-3 on the season and will head to Monticello Saturday to face Williamsville (20-5) at noon.
The Bombers faced the Bullets in the season opener, losing 7-0 to the program that finished second in the Cass 1A State Finals last spring.
“We’ve seen them. They’re an awesome team. We’re just going to go have fun and try our best,” said Allen.
Saturday’s first match will have (1) Athens/PORTA (19-5) facing host (2) Monticello (24-3) at 10 a.m.
The title match is slated for May 27 at 4:30 p.m.
