DEARBORN >> Around this time a season ago, the Bloomfield Hills Marian team found themselves in rather uncharted waters.

A 3-2 loss to eventual Division 2 state champion Grosse Pointe North in the regional semifinal round of the playoffs ended the Mustangs’ bid for a potential seventh straight regional title. It was also just the sixth time in the last 21 seasons that they had failed to reach the state semifinals.

Standards are understandably high for the nine-time state champions. But head coach Danny Price says this year’s Marian team has been especially motivated this spring following some atypical postseason runs the last two years.

“I think they are starting to believe again,” Price said. “Losing in the state finals two years ago and going out in the regionals last year, that knocked their confidence off a little bit. But they’ve come back this year and we’ve talked about building it back up and how strong we are as a group.

“Iron sharpens iron,” Price added. “We wanted to test ourselves against the very best.”

With a chance at a return trip to the final four in D2, Marian in a regional final round game at Dearborn Divine Child High School found themselves matched up with a very game-ready Trenton team that ousted the regional hosts from the tournament two nights prior.

As has been the case seemingly all spring, defense and execution on set pieces was on full display for both sides on Friday. And much like they did in their 2-0 win vs St Clair on Wednesday, it was the subsequent aftermath of a corner kick that led to the only goal of the game necessary to earn Marian a 1-0 win over Trenton.

The result not only marks the 16th regional title for Marian, it is a season-best five straight wins, four of those coming on this current playoff run and all of which have been the shutout variety. Each of the last three shutout wins have been decided by two goals or fewer.

Price best summed up the Mustangs’ latest showing with two words: grit and determination.

“It has not been an easy road for us actually,” Price said. “Through districts and now regionals, we have not conceded a goal yet. We’re just so solid defensively and these girls work so hard for each other. We just find a way to win.

“And credit to Trenton,” Price added. “They came out and put a lot of pressure on us and made it difficult. I’m super proud of the girls.”

Friday might as well as been each side looking at themselves in a mirror for 80 minutes as the two similarly-constructed teams were in a power struggle in the midfield for the majority of the game.

Marian in the first half had a handful of chances on net, one of which was on a corner kick early in the 13th minute, but they were largely not of the highest quality. Sandwiched in between that was a Trenton free kick on net from far out closer to the midway point of the first half.

It all amounted to a scoreless 40 minutes between the two sides.

Trenton picked things up after halftime and it showed with even fewer chances and rushes on the part of Marian. The forwards for the Trojans were understandably and not surprisingly a point of emphasis for Price and company.

“We were worried about their forwards (Claire Gonyea and Kate Haveman) up top,” Price said. “They’re both really great players in their own right. So we wanted to stop those balls over the top to those faster players. We talked about cutting it off at the source or cutting it off defensively. The girls were terrific.”

Wednesday was the seventh head-to-head meeting on the pitch between the two programs in a little more than a decade. Four of the prior six matchups, all of which were in favor of Marian, came in the postseason with the most recent of such coming in the 2018 regional final round.

Last year, however, the Mustangs eked out a slim 2-1 victory over Trenton in the regular season, the smallest margin of victory over that span. So it was no surprise that Trojans head coach Michael Hatfield felt confident in his team’s ability to match up the perennial state powers.

“We can match them 11 players on the field,” Hatfield said. “Besides corner kicks, there wasn’t any super dangerous stuff. Both back lines played really strong. It was going to be who gets the lucky bounce.”

“We’ve never played Marian that tight,” Hatfield added. “That is a legacy program in the state.”

Play continued on in a scoreless stalemate well into the second half until the 71st minute when Marian garnered a corner kick try.

A ball off the foot of sophomore Lily Robinson was sent into the box through immense traffic in front. A second, third, and event fourth try were all turned away by Trenton goalkeeper Leila Gorno, who found herself sprawled out on the ground frantically trying to corral the ball. But Marian senior Madeline Stenger was able to find enough space to slip it past the senior netminder for the Trojans and into the back of the twine.

“It’s been a thing for us this year,” Price said of corner kicks. “It’s something we work hard on in training because we have the players that want to attack the ball. I think with that one, we got a little bit of luck with it which you need sometimes in a regional final, a little bounce here and there.”

The back-and-forth action in the midfield resumed on the ensuing restart for play following the Stenger score, which favored Marian in an effort to bleed away time. Trenton’s last true chance for a hopeful equalizer went by the wayside with around 90 seconds to go.

With a free kick of their own, a long ball set on net was not initially hauled in cleanly but eventually cleared out by a host of Marian players in front. The Mustangs were able to drain the remainder of the time and clinch a fifth straight shutout win.

Trenton (17-6-2) with the loss sees their sping season end with half of their defeats coming to teams who are still currently in the state playoffs. A fourth of those losses was against an Ann Arbor Skyline team that played in a regional semifinal game earlier this week.

While they will see four key seniors graduate — Gonyea and Gorno among them — the Trojans figure to continue being a primary threat in the Downriver region with a battle-tested and experienced core intact moving forward.

“They were the first ones to rebuild the program,” Hatfield said of the seniors. “They went from losing two districts in a row to making two regional finals in a row. They set a standard and embraced a mentality of playing the toughest teams. And then they build that culture within the younger girls. That is what we had for those 11 straight years (of district titles).”

“I’m so proud of the girls, proud of this program, and proud of this senior class.”

Up next

Marian (14-3-3) with the win now advances to the D2 state semifinals, which takes place next Wednesday, June 12 at Parker Middle School in Howell. The Mustangs will do battle with a DeWitt team that captured its first regional title in six years after blanking Orchard Lake St Mary’s 2-0 on Thursday.

Game time is set for 6:00p.