ROYAL OAK >> The Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett Knights edged past the Clarkston Everest Collegiate Mountaineers 1-0 in Thursday’s D4 regional final at Shrine High School.

Senior Kerith Short scored with 15:24 remaining in the first half when her free kick from 25 yards out on the right side managed to get up over the wall, down to the turf, and then take a high spinning bounce into the top of the net on the short side.

That was Liggett’s only shot of the first half, and it would prove to be the only goal of the game.

Everest otherwise dominated prior to the interval. The Mountaineers controlled play for the first 40 minutes as the Knights often struggled to even get across midfield for much of the first half. But for all their possession and their statistical dominance, the Mountaineers struggled to create quality chances, and more importantly, they could not finish any of the chances they did create.

A big reason why was the play of Short, who in addition to scoring the game’s only goal, was instrumental for the Knights defensively, breaking up numerous attacks from her defensive midfield position and plenty to help the Knights slow down Everest whenever the Mountaineers starting running at goal.

“She is a smart player,” Knights head coach David Dwaihy said of Short. “She’s an amazing soccer player, bur she’s very intelligent. I think she saw where the needs were tonight, and she filled those gaps really well and she attended to their most dangerous moments with total focus and resilience. She was one of many who played very well tonight. I think our back line was fantastic and that she was key in front of them.”

The second half was more evenly played as Liggett came out strong, controlled the first 10 minutes or so after halftime, and then the teams settled into an evenly-played half. Liggett produced the best chance of the half, an early breakaway that Everest goalie Emme Phyle came off her line to smother and keep the Mountaineers within a single goal. Everest also got strong games from Natalie Cross, Erica Walker, and Maria Saad, but it wasn’t enough to stave off elimination.

“I felt like the first half I couldn’t have asked any more of the girls. We pressured. We had shots on goal. In the second half, it balanced out a little bit. But I still felt that we had the ball down at their end quite a bit and had a couple of other great opportunities but couldn’t find the back of the net,” Mountaineers head coach Richard Cross said. “I’ll give a lot of credit to David and his group of girls. They’re a quality program, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy to move on to the next round.”

Everest finishes the year 10-5, including last week’s district championship victory over Oakland Christian.

“We had a couple early wins against teams that were strong last year, so that gave us a lot of confidence,” Cross said. “Overall, when you look at the games we won, when you look at their effort, when you look at just who we were as a team, we were very complete, a very complete team this year,” he added.

The Mountaineers will graduate five seniors — all starters — from this year’s team, which was full of freshmen and sophomores.

“We’re graduating five seniors, so it’s tough. I’ve been coaching those seniors since fifth grade. I’m just proud of them. They’re not only soccer players. They’re scholars. They’re strong Catholic women who, everyone that they encounter, they make better. And I’ve said this before: sports is just a platform to help all these girls, both teams, become who they are meant to be in life,” Coach Cross said.

Liggett (13-3-4) advances to the state semifinals next Wednesday against Plymouth Christian Academy. The game will be played at Waterford Kettering High School.

“They (Plymouth Christian Academy) are really good. We’ve kind of seen them all season. We never played each other, didn’t have a ton of mutual opponents. But I know Ryan (PCA coach Ryan Thomason) well. They’re going to be a well-coached team. They’re going to be talented, and they’ll be motivated because they’re in the state semi. I hope we can give them a good game. I hope we can match them up and keep the dream alive a little longer,” Dwaihy said. “I also would love the opportunity to say what an honor it was to coach against Rich Cross at Everest. The guy is a class act, and his team plays with a lot of class. We just want to acknowledge what a worthy opponent they were.”