OURSPORTS

SECTION C
Log onto our Web site
for additional stories, local
video and daily updates
on everything Ann Arbor.

Heritage Media April 21, 2011

Department
GENERAL
ADMISSION

Girls’
lacrosse
needs an
overhaul
MIKE LARSON

of
defense Huron shuts down rival
Skyline 1-0 in SEC opener

L
acrosse is a beautiful By Mike Larson
game. A2 Journal

It’s fluid, fast-paced and
high-scoring.
It’s fun to play and it’s
fun to watch, even if you aren’t
an expert with the rules.
In short, lacrosse is every-
thing that a sport should be.
But the sport is flawed, spe-
cifically in the girls’ game.
I know, I know.
I’m sure a red flag just went
up in your brain and the words
“sexist” and “pig” are flashing
through your grey matter like a
neon sign.
But hear me out.
It’s no secret that there are
several women’s sports that,
even at the professional level
get a bum rap because they are
perceived as boring or uninter-
esting.
Think WNBA.
Yeah, I’m sure those signs
in your head we were talking
about earlier are flashing dou-
ble time now, but think about it.
Even when there was a
WNBA franchise in this area
(before it packed up and moved
to the sports’ Mecca that is
Tulsa, Okla.), the team was
playing for championships and
the franchise had to give tickets
away in area gas stations to
even get people to show up.
But lacrosse isn’t like that.
Lacrosse isn’t boring at the
men’s or the women’s levels and
the girls’ game isn’t any less fun
to watch than the boys’ game.
My beef with girls’ lacrosse
is that there are just too many
stoppages.
The stoppages are because
the rules of the girls’ game
allows little to no contact.
In the boys’ game, players
wear helmets, shoulder and
elbow pads and gloves.
They play a physical style
that almost rattles your teeth
just watching the game.
The girls, however, with the
O
Photo by Kelton Kaye/A2SPORTSPHOTOS.COM
Huron’s Casie Ammerman attempts n Saturday afternoon, experience defeated
to get the ball past Skylines Rachel youth.
Johnston. Or maybe it was a staunch defense that
shut down a dynamic offense.
Any way you slice it, when the Ann
Arbor Huron girls’ soccer team traveled across
town to play Skyline, it was the senior-laden
River Rats that came away with the 1-0 victory
in the first Southeastern Conference Red game
for both squads.
“Skyline did a great job,” Huron coach Reese
Richardson said. “But our defense was just a
little too much for them.”
Huron (1-1-1 overall, 1-0 SEC), which recent-
ly played state finalist Plymouth to a 0-0 tie, is
a team that is very defensive-minded.
“Our strength is our defense,” Richardson
said. “We know that. We know that we have to
hold teams scoreless if we are going to give
ourselves a good chance to win. And
that’s what we did against Skyline.”
Huron got on the board early, get-
ting a goal from McKinlee
Ward in the ninth minute of
the first half.
After that, the River
Rats put the clamps on
and refused to give up an
inch.
Huron kept its focus
largely on Skyline
freshman Cienna Real-
Whitsitt, who has been
a big playmaker for the
Eagles.
“A lot of their key play-
ers are underclassmen,”
Richardson said. “So we
had to really work hard.”
The Huron coach said he
was happy with the way his
team played defense over-
all, but that he was really
impressed with the play
of Becca Wurster.
Wurster, a senior cap-
tain, did everything right,
PLEASE SEE DEFENSE/2-C
GIRLS LACROSSE BOYS LACROSSE

Pioneer beats the clock, FGR wins

exception of goalies, aren’t
allowed to wear helmets. They
PLEASE SEE OVERHAUL/2-C

We’re more than just

a sports section
In addition to all of the sports
stories and information found in
these pages, the A2 Journal
sports section offers even more
media online.
Check us out on Facebook
(www.facebook.com/
A2JournalSports) for stories,
photo albums video and more.
Follow us out on Twitter to get
up to the minute scores from
your favorite high school teams
and get updates game
cancelations or time changes.
You can also become facebook
friends with sports writer Mike
Larson (www.facebook.com/
A2SportsGuy) and follow him in
realtime as he updates his
location using Foursquare. Track
him down in and around Ann
Arbor to get the scoop on local
sports happenings.
takes down rival Huron rivalry match
By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
Pioneer girls’ lacrosse coach
Zachary Maghes said that his
team’s motto is to start strong
and finish strong.
On Friday night against
Huron, the Pioneers did just
that.
After leading for much of
the first half, the Pioneers fell
behind just before the break.
They then trailed for almost
the entire second half, but came
through in the waning seconds
of the game to win the contest
17-16.
“I thought we played really
well,” Maghes said. “We moved
the ball well and really stuck it
out late in the game.”
The cold weather couldn’t
stop the Pioneers from heating
up early in the game, as Pioneer
senior Emy Guttman scored
just 33 seconds in.
The River Rats tied the game
less than a minute later when
Taylor Standiford found the
back of the net.
Guttman answered right back on Huron’s campus. The game was close all the way through,
PLEASE SEE CLOCK/3-C on a goal from Rachel Freeman. Pioneer won 17-16.
Irish hold of
Gryphons, win 11-3
By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
Last Thursday the
Greenhills lacrosse team
crossed over Plymouth Road
and traveled to Gabriel
Richard to take on the
Fighting Irish.
The home team took control
of the game early on, and
never really looked back.
Gabriel Richard ended up
winning the game 11-3.
“I thought it went really
well,” Richard coach Jim Carl
said. “We controlled the tempo
of the game. We were able to
do some things offensively
that we are not normally able
to do.”
The Irish were led by
midfielder Colin McMahon,
who scored five points on the
game with three goals and two
assists.
Photo by Buck Overton/A2 JOURNAL
Huron and Pioneer faced off last Friday at Riverbank Stadium Adam Kolevar also had a
strong game, scoring two goals
but the Pioneers came back in the final minute to take the lead and two assists. He also had 11
shots.
Other scorers for Richard
were Daniel Modes with
a goal and an assist, Alex
Ziolkowski with two goals
and Nick Bierley and Mike
Meyer with a goal each.
Coincidentally, the goals
by Meyers and Bierley were
career firsts for the players.
“It’s exciting for those
guys,” Carl said. “They both
have been working really
hard and it’s nice to have a
chance to get a lot of guys
in.”
Greenhills scored all
three of its goals in the sec-
ond half, as Kyle Wozniak,
Bryan Catalfano and John
Lazarsfeld all tallied scores.
Lazarsfeld also had an
assist.
“We played them tough
in the first half,” Greenhills
coach Mike Costello said.
“Defensively, we were
matching up pretty well.
Offensively though, we
couldn’t do much. Our lack
of experience hurts us, but
PLEASE SEE FGR/3-C
Page 2-C  Thursday, April 21, 2011 • HERITAGE MEDIA/A2 JOURNAL

Skyline lax tames Tigers

By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
The Skyline lacrosse team
took its best shot Friday night
when it took on Belleville.
In fact, it took several.
The Eagles unloaded on the
Tigers, blasting 73 shots en
route to a 16-2 blowout.
“I was happy with our
offense, Skyline coach Nick
Zoroya said. “We did a good job
of keeping the ball in our offen-
sive end.”
The Eagles wasted no time
taking control of the game,
scoring five goals in the first
quarter.
The team added four more in
the second quarter to take a 9-1
lead at the halftime break.
In the second half, Skyline
outscored Belleville 7-1 to take a
16-2 victory.
Sam Olson led the way for the
Eagles with three goals and two
assists.
Sophomore John Crowley
“Considering our
only loss of the sea-
son was against
Pioneer, I can’t be
mad about that loss.
We are winning
games that we
should win.”
NICK ZOROYA
Skyline boys’ lacrosse coach I can’t be mad about that loss,”
also had a good game with two
goals and an assist.
Don Weidner added four goals com. Check out his page on
as well.
“I was happy with our
amount of scorers,” Zoroya
said. “We had six guys score
goals and our setup guy (Aaron
Dziubinski) had four assists.”
The coach also said he was
happy with his team’s faceoff
specialist, Trevor hill, who
won 16-of-20 faceoffs against
Belleville and has won 74 per-
cent of his attempts this season.
With the win, Skyline
improved to 4-1 (however the
team’s record has changed as it
took on Chelsea on Wednesday
after press time).
The team will take on
Greenhills on Saturday.
Zoroya said he was happy
with his team’s production so
far this season.
“Considering our only loss of
the season was against Pioneer,
the coach said. “We are winning
games that we should win.”
Mike Larson can be reached
by email at Mlarson@A2Journal.
Facebook at www.facebook.
com/A2SportsGuy and follow
him on Twitter at www.twitter.
com/A2JournalSports.

Photo by Michael Steinberg/A2 JOURNAL

Huron’s Sofie Tzotzinis closes in on Skyline midfielder Shelby Wyatt. Huron defeated Skyline 1-0
on Saturday

DEFENSE Skyline (2-2 overall, 0-1 SEC)

FROM PAGE 1-C
according to her coach.
“She’s a really hard worker
and knows how to play the
game,” Richardson said. “She
leads by example.”
will look to even up its con-
ference record when it hosts
Ypsilanti tonight.
Huron will also be in action
on this evening when it hosts
Chelsea.
“We think we can play with
anyone,” Richardson said. “We
think we can play with any
team in the state.”
Mike Larson can be reached
by email at Mlarson@A2Journal.
com. Check out his page on
Facebook at www.facebook.
com/A2SportsGuy and follow
him on Twitter at www.twitter.
com/A2JournalSports.

Pioneer baseball splits

By Mike Larson
A2 Journal
The reigning Class A state champion Ann
Arbor Pioneer baseball team had a rough time
against Ypsilanti Lincoln on Friday.
The Pioneers split with Lincoln, winning the
first game, but losing the second.
In the opening game of the double header, the
Pioneers came away with an 8-4 win, while in the
nightcap, the team fell 6-2.
In the first game, Pioneer jumped out to a
quick lead, scoring five runs in the top of the
first inning.
Lincoln got a run in the bottom half of the
inning, and then three more in the bottom of the
second.
Leading 5-4, Pioneer added two more runs in
the fourth inning and another unanswered in the
fifth.
Neither team scored for the rest of the game as
Pioneer held on for the 8-4 win.
Despite the win, the Pioneers were plagued
with miscues in the field, committing six errors.
PLEASE SEE PIONEER/3-C

OVERHAUL
FROM PAGE 1-C
just wear goggles to protect
their eyes and mouth guards.
They are also prohibited from
body checking.
In fact, contact with the head get the ball to an open player.
is so out of bounds that even an
accidental brush with a stick or player can get the ball and liter-
body part within a seven-inch
“halo” of an opposing player’s
head is a major penalty.
And these brushes happen
pretty frequently.
How could they not?
And every time it happens the
whistle blows and play stops.
The flow of the game suffers
tremendously. It makes the
game so much harder to take in.
It’s like watching some kind
of riveting action movie, only
somebody hit’s the “pause” but-
ton every 17 seconds.
I believe the lack of contact
actually hurts the game.
Are girls really that fragile?
Go watch a high school girls’
soccer game and try to tell me
with a straight face that high
school girls aren’t capable of
banging around on the lacrosse
field.
The lack of contact also
allows teams that have speedy
players to completely take
advantage of the rules.
In boys’ lacrosse the majority
of the scoring happens because
a team works the ball around
the goal using crisp passing to
In the girls’ game, a quick
ally take it the length of the
field and score.
I saw it happen Friday dur-
ing the Pioneer-Huron game.
Is that how games should be
decided?
Fastest player wins?
I don’t think so.
I think this idea that female
athletes are like delicate flow-
ers needs to be tossed.
They aren’t made of glass;
they aren’t going to fall apart if
they get bumped.
These girls are tough and
they are capable of playing a
contact sport at a high level.
The game as it is now is dis-
jointed and defective.
But it can be fixed.
All it’s going to take is some
simple rule changes and a few
helmets with holes in the back
for pony tails.
Mike Larson can be reached
by email at Mlarson@A2Journal.
com. Check out his page on
Facebook at www.facebook.
com/A2SportsGuy and follow
him on Twitter at www.twitter.
com/A2JournalSports.