DEARBORN >> Earlier this year, the Farmington Hills Mercy and Dearborn Divine Child girls’ soccer teams battled it out to a 2-2 tie.

Fast forward to the Division 2 regional semifinals on Wednesday, June 4 and the two Catholic League rivals met again at Divine Child High School. This time, however, someone had to win and someone had to go home.

The season sequel proved to be another tightly-contested and emotional affair but when 80 minutes was up, it was the visiting Marlins from Mercy on the winning side of the 2-1 final, ending the season of the hometown Falcons.

“Whenever you get two Catholic League teams together it’s always a battle and that’s exactly what we did,” Mercy coach Tom James said. “It was a game of back and forth, back and forth.

“We had the momentum for a while,” James added. “Then when we started the second half, it was all (Divine Child).”

Thankfully for James, he saw his team lead at halftime. And throughout the game, their recent practices proved effective as both of their goals on the night came on set pieces.

“We were lucky enough to put two of those in and get it done against a really tough team,” James said. “We played (Divine Child) once before and it was 2-2, so we knew what we were up against.”

After a hard-fought opening 40 minutes, the Marlins got the first goal with 5:04 left in the first half when captain Brianna Mikha scored off a corner kick.

Divine Child came out strong in the second half, firing shots with the eagerness to score. They were, however, just right or just over their intended target and, instead, it was Mercy who capitalized on the other end.

With 20:58 to go, Brynn Reichert netted the game-winner. The senior Mikha sent the corner shot and in an absolute jumble of traffic in front of the net. The sophomore Reichert found a rebound bouncing down in front of her feet before pushing it through the traffic for the 2-0 lead.

“We were able to get that second goal off the corner kick,” James said. “We’ve been working on that a lot. A lot of times in these tight games it just comes down to these set pieces.

The host Falcons were able to break up the shutout bid as they continued to give it everything they had. With 2:24 left, freshman Avery Cubr broke through the Marlins’ defense to cut the deficit in half, but it simply was not enough.

James was proud of his team for the win against the tough opponent, specifically his defense with their junior varsity goalkeeper, sophomore Cailie Harvill.

“It’s kind of all over the place,” James said. “But we knew (Harvill) was really solid and she showed today. She was ready today and she did a great job.

“I’m just hoping that everybody sees that we’re not just about one player,” James continued. “We’re a solid team and that’s what today was about for us.”

UP NEXT

Mercy (9-5-6) heads into the next round of the D2 state tournament with the same mentality they have all post-season: taking things one game at a time.

Mercy will take on No. 4-ranked New Boston Huron in the regional final on today beginning at 7 p.m. back at Divine Child High School.

Huron in the first semifinal on Wednesday used a big second half to earn a 6-0 win over Madison Heights Lamphere.