Leland took advantage of practicing on Glen Lake’s artificial turf over the past week as the Comets breezed to a regional semifinal victory over Tawas 8-0 at Cadillac High School Tuesday.
“It totally helped us out, they got the assist for sure. That was really nice of them to let us do that,” Leland coach Rob Sirrine.
Leland has been on a tear that has led them to a regional final game against Western Michigan Christian today at 6 p.m.
The Comets defeated Glen Lake to capture its third district championship in-a-row. WMC defeated Harbor Springs 5-2 in their respective regional semifinal. The Comets defeated WMC in September 4-2 in its first win over the private school in several years. Today’s match will be a rematch of the 2022 and 2023 MHSAA Div. 4 state semifinals that resulted in a Leland loss each time.
“We played them earlier in the year and we’re excited to get them again. We’ll have to take care of business,” Sirrine said.
WMC has an electric offense that can cause problems, even for a Leland team that hasn’t allowed a goal so far this postseason.
“They’re a similar team to ours … They pass the ball pretty quickly and like to get their outside backs up and involved in the play,” Sirrine said.
The favorite part of Leland’s win over Tawas win is the Comets didn’t get scored on for at least the fourth or fifth straight game.
Leland senior Landon Allen was on fire against Tawas, scoring four goals against in the blowout win.
“I think all season we’ve been really good with possession. All of our top line has been good with finishing all season, but I think our back line can contain their fastest players that we struggled with last year.,” Allen said.
All four goals scored by Allen happen by dribbling through multiple defenders before finding the back of the net. This is the most goals he has scored this year, along with a pair of hat tricks earlier this season.
The Comets went to Culvers after their blowout win, before going back and watching WMC play against Harbor Springs.
Leland senior Trey Roman was patrolling the defense all afternoon and recognizes that defense will have to be on par if they want to make it to another quarterfinal.
“Defensively, our communication is very good and our pressure and our covering has always been very good. We’ve been focusing on it in the last couple of practices, and I feel like it’s paying off and it’s showing in the games,” Roman said. “We are going to have to be very composed on the ball. A lot of communication in the back and making sure everyone has their marks and not slipping up … “I feel like if we beat them, nothings going to stop us,” Roman said.
The Comets certainly have revenge on their mind during today’s match.
Max Waldrup and Nano Creamer each had a goal and an assist against Tawas, along with Weston Burda and Adrian Spencer each scoring goals. Talen Graham (2 assists), Evan Keen, Roman, Jael Gutierrez each found their teammates for goals. Leland goalkeeper Ravello Smith is credited with the shutout.
Leland made quick work of Glen Lake in an 8-0 victory over the Lakers to claim its fourth district championship. Keen and Colby Connor each scored two goals. Nano Creamer had a goal and an assist.
Graham had another goal and an assist, along with Max Waldrup and Adrian Spencer each scoring goals. Allen also found the net with two assists along with Brian Mosqueda and Trey Roman each tallying an assist. Smith was credited with a shutout once again.
Glen Lake finished a bounce back season with its first district finals appearance in quite some time. The future is bright for the Lakers who are young and hungry for the future.
“They had a lot of growth, they learned how to deal with adversity, against Leland where we went down a few times and fought back each and every time. It was good to see that they had a strong spine and didn’t just fold under pressure,” Glen Lake coach Jared Boynton said. “The fact that the rest of those guys are coming back with hopefully a good off season under their belt and hitting the ground running. I’m really excited about what’s going to happen in the future with these two classes of sophomores and juniors that are gonna turn into juniors and seniors,” Boynton said.
