BEVERLY HILLS – The Detroit Country Day Yellowjackets and Birmingham Marian Mustangs played to a 0-0 draw on Wednesday night.
The Mustangs dominated the game territorially in both halves. Led by the play of Katie Freese and Nia Bordogna, Marian was able to control the ball and the game for long stretches and piled up a 15-2 advantage in total shots. But for all of the possession, the Mustangs failed to create many quality chances against a well-coordinated Country Day defense anchored by Jenna Shaban.
“We have an extremely young team, a totally different team from last year; and one of the goals for today was to be defensively organized,” Yellowjackets head coach Laura Hamway said.
The Yellowjackets offered few cracks in their defense for the Mustangs to exploit, and while Marian did clip the crossbar twice in the second half, they rarely tested Country Day goalie Mercedes Arinez. When they did, Arinez was up to the task, making eight saves to earn the shutout.
“As I said to the girls, possession doesn’t mean anything if you don’t put the ball in the back of the net. We were just a little bit gun shy in front of goal. We rung two off the crossbar in the second half that I thought were going to go in,” Marian head coach Danny Price said. “It’s not like we’re not creating chances. It’s just having a little more composure in the final third of the field to put the ball in,” he added.
Photo gallery from Bloomfield Hills Marian at Detroit Country Day girls soccer
Offensively, the Yellowjackets struggled much of the night. Their counterattacks rarely led to dangerous chances, even when Country Day could get them started. With Lily Robinson and Olivia Zahnow settled into the defensive center, attacks from Country Day that looked dangerous and promising 50 yards from goal were consistently shut down before the Yellowjackets could get within 25 yards of goal and create any kind of shot.
With Megan Mateer leading the forward line late, the Yellowjackets did create a bit more towards the end, including one glorious chance on the counterattack with just under 10 minutes to play, but despite having had little to do for much of the night, Marian goalie Dani Mertz was sharp when necessary and came off her line for a fine sliding save to defuse the situation.
Both teams will have some time off for their respective spring breaks before returning to action in early April.
Marian (1-0-1) is off until April 8 when they will face Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood in a Catholic League game.
“It was a great team performance in the second half, really. There was a lot of energy to it, a lot of bite, a lot of work rate, a lot of effort and moving the ball really well. It was just end product was lacking it was that final ball – final pass, final delivery, final shot. And those are all things that we just need to continue to work on,” Price said.
The talented Mustangs are still trying to put things together under new coach Danny Price.
“I said to the girls it’s going to take time,” Price said. “We’re essentially a new coach with new ideas, and you’re a powerhouse program. It’s going to take time, and they have to realize sometimes that they’ve got a big target on their back every time they step on the field. And I give every credit to Country Day. I thought their defenders were superb.”
Country Day (1-1-2) has even more time off. The Yellowjackets do not play for more than two weeks, until they face Grosse Pointe North on April 12.
The Yellowjackets are also looking to find themselves in the early season as they feature many freshmen and sophomores.
“If you look at how many freshmen are starting this year, and sophomores, it’s unbelievable, and so it’s going to take a little bit of time to get that chemistry going,” Hamway said. “I’m super pleased. We’re headed into spring break now, so we’ll come back in a week and a half, and hopefully pick up where we left off.”
