Leland senior Beckett DeFour led the Comets to an 8-0 win over Buckley in the MHSAA D4 district semifinal Monday with a four-goal performance.
“I'm excited for the district finals; We need to keep playing how we have been with one to two touch passes, moving off the ball. If we do that, we can go pretty far,” DeFour said. “My back line did well at shifting and clearing them out. That's how I was able to come in and put in a couple of goals.”
Buckley (9-9-1) started fast and held their own for the first 20 minutes, finding multiple runs led by senior Jake Robinson that couldn’t get past the Leland defense and junior goalie Edgar Mosqueda.
The Comets (14-5-2) finally broke through when Beckett dribbled off his foot and launched a shot from outside the box. Beckett scored a minute later, and Manny Houdek found the net a few possessions more to take a quick 3-0 lead. DeFour completed the first-half hat trick after juggling the ball off his body and into the net from outside once again.
The Comets didn’t waste time in the second half as sophomore Levi Ulbrich scored to make it 5-0. DeFour would score his fourth goal after a centering pass deflected off a Bear defender and into the net Ulbrich scored the seventh, and senior Campbell Fedderman found the back of the net to end the game with five minutes remaining.
“One game at a time … I told them, don't be satisfied. We've been there before, and they've got a chance to do something pretty cool that no one has done at Leland before (win two state championships in a row),” Leland coach Rob Sirrine said.
Defour added an assist along with Myles Bison, Gossett and Gage Lazar.
Leland sophomore Embyn Vann added two assists.
Edgar Hernandez Mosqueda and the Leland defense led the team to its 14th shutout of the season.
The Comets will continue the state title defense against Glen Lake for the third time this season, and each contest has been competitive, with the Comets coming out on top 3-0 and 1-0 in September. Leland and Glen Lake battle at Keystone Park Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.
“It's hard to beat a team three times in the season,” Sirrine said.
Glen Lake defeated McBain NMC 3-1 Monday to advance to the district championships.
Buckley finished the season at .500 (9-9-1), in the middle of the NWC, with its last conference and district championship coming in 2021.
“This is a resilient group. It's been a lot of fun. We've had some ups and downs and had a lot of good games … They are tough, and they're what Buckley's about,” Buckley coach Bryce Guernsey said. “We've got tons of talent and young, ambitious kids coming up to the ranks.”
The Bears graduate two seniors, Parker Robinson and Yaroslav Pudovkin, and welcome back 11 juniors next year. Bear junior goalie Parker Breithaupt led the effort with 13 saves against the Comets.
Buckley defeated Suttons Bay 5-3 in overtime Thursday during a thrilling quarterfinal contest as Guernsey won his first district game as a coach.
“That was straight out of the movie, back and forth all the way to the end in the cold rain. The boys were warriors for the whole game,” Guernsey said.
