Late header earns Anchor Bay 1-1 draw with Stoney Creek

PREP SOCCER

Stoney Creek senior Zander Champine sends a ball up the left sideline in the first half of Friday night’s match against visiting Anchor Bay. The teams played to a 1-1 tie. PHOTOS BY BRYAN EVERSON — MEDIANEWS GROUP

Anchor Bay junior Robert Torres (9) celebrates with teammates after his game-tying goal in the final 15 minutes of Friday’s match against Stoney Creek.

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By Michael J Wallwork

For MediaNews Group

Stoney Creek and Anchor Bay played to a 1-1 draw after the visiting Tars found a late leveler Friday night.

The game was really a tale of two halves as the Cougars dominated the first half. Led by the play of Yaya Khandelwal, Stoney Creek controlled the ball and filled up the stat sheet in the first 40 minutes.

The Cougars’ efforts paid off late in the half when Leo Muculaj laid off a ball for Simeon Koch near the top of the box. Koch’s initial shot clipped the underside of the crossbar and dropped down near the goal line, but he followed his own shot and tapped in the rebound to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead with 9:52 remaining in the first half.

“I thought we came out and we were excited. We were moving the ball around a little bit better. We had some opportunities we just didn’t take advantage of early on,” Stoney Creek head coach Bryan Mittelstadt said. “I thought towards the second half, when things start getting exciting and are stepping up and giving everything they have —and I thought Anchor Bay did that — it starts putting a little pressure on you.

You have to be composed in this game and be able to handle pressure. It’s early in the season. We’ll work on that a little bit.”

But as good as Stoney Creek was in the first half, the Tars were just as good after halftime. With Camden Parker directing things in midfield, Anchor Bay controlled the play during the second half and similarly piled up the shots and the set pieces over the final 30 minutes or so of the half. The tying goal came with 11:13 remaining when Caiman Collins blasted a ball from the right wing that found Robert Torres on the far side for a driven header that found the back the net.

“It was a good match between two quality programs, definitely,” Tars head coach Nate Williams said. “They came out and did some nice things, so we made some adjustments to kind of rally and gave ourselves a great chance to win.” He added that “there was a lot of good team morale effort tonight to help give us those opportunities to win in the second half.”

The game was a tightly-contested affair that got rather heated at times, particularly in the second half, but the teams largely avoided any serious unpleasantness as they each tried to scrap out a win.

“There are things that we’re going to do about that to help clean that up so we can be more locked in on the game. But it was just two teams with competitors on both sides,” Williams said.

“I thought the officiating was fair. It was controlled. We’ve just got to do a better job under pressure and not foul as much,” Mittelstadt said. “But I give them credit. It’s early on. I thought they played organized. I got a lot of guys into the game to give them the experience.”

Stoney Creek (3-1-1) will jump back into league play Monday when they face a road test against West Bloomfield in an OAA White battle.

Anchor Bay (1-1-1) is also back in action on Monday. The Tars host a MAC crossover game against Grosse Pointe South.