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Sports

Anchor Bay's Speed Too Much for Dakota Soccer

Quick sophomore Michelle Dear scores two and defense provides a clean sheet in Tars' soccer crossover victory.

Oh, Dear!

sophomore Michelle Dear did her job in scoring two beautiful goals to help the Tars defeat 2-0 Monday night in a Macomb Area Conference crossover match.

Dear's first goal came at 12:59 in the first half on a sweet assist from junior Hunter Dolan.  Moving left to right across the field, Dolan fed Dear a nice through ball toward the corner flag. Dear sneaked behind the Cougar defense and beat keeper Rachel Doptis cleanly to open scoring.

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It was the set-up to Dear's second goal, though, that prompted some oohs and ahhs from the bleachers.  Let's just call it a "give-and-go-and-give-and-goal."

On a ball in from senior captain Alexandra Schneider, Dear combined with junior Daniella Bruce in a give-and-go clinic up the right wing. On her final touch in the middle, Dear finished with the shot at 35:09 in the second half.

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"Michelle is dynamite, especially with Daniella up top," Anchor Bay coach Kevin Grammens said. "Also, I thought Hunter played extremely well tonight, as well as our whole defense."

The chilly evening was fraught with high, gusty winds and plunging temperatures.  Dakota won the coin toss and elected to have the wind at their backs in the second half. Although the score does not show it, Anchor Bay had chance after chance in the box and dominated possession throughout the match.   

"We just couldn't match up with their speed," Dakota coach Mark Ruth said.  "Basically when it came down to it, they were just faster than us.  They had a lot of skill and speed coming at us." 

For Dakota, Doptis and senior defenders Sarah Sands and Caroline Mueller did a good job with damage control, holding the Tars to just two goals within a myriad of shots they faced especially in the first half.

"Rachel and Sarah kept us in the game, but Anchor Bay was just the better team tonight," said Ruth. 

"Offensively, I think we controlled most of the play and we had 25 shots on net without counting the ones that were off net," said Grammens. "So I don't think the score was indicative on how we played, but we're happy with the shutout."

Anchor Bay junior Christy Burko and her team in the back provided strong defense all night for the Tars and grabbed the clean sheet.

"Christy is our rock back there," said Grammens. "One of her teammates on the bench said 'I trust her with my life.' That's just kind of their attitude with Christy in the back. She wins the ball in the air and does everything you need."

This week starts league play for both teams, with Anchor Bay in the MAC white and Dakota in the MAC blue.    

"I was a little worried about today, coming right off of spring break," said Grammens. "Eighty percent of my team were on vacation and it's always a concern coming back. But we had a good two-mile run yesterday and this is a good game going into league play Wednesday." 

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