Turning to Dad's Memory, Kropp Seals Leland Title with Unforgettable Clincher
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
November 1, 2025
GRAND LEDGE — As he made the walk toward the ball, all Leland senior Howie Kropp could think about was his late father.
With Leland mired in a shootout against Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett in the MHSAA Division 4 Boys Soccer Final, Kropp approached the ball facing the dream scenario – an opportunity to give his team the championship.
He could have been thinking about the fact that he hadn’t scored a goal all year, or that he had never taken a shot in a penalty kick shootout before.
Instead, all that was on his mind was his father, who passed away when he was 8 years old.
“My Dad, he’s up there. I knew he would take over if I just put the ball on the ground,” Kropp said. “He coached me in soccer throughout my entire life. Ending on this note meant the world to me.”
Kropp stepped up and calmly delivered the winning goal, giving Leland a 4-2 advantage in the shootout for a 2-1 overall win and Leland’s first Finals championship since 2018.
“I kind of let myself go,” Kropp said. “I know he helped me put it in the back of the net.”
Leland head coach Rob Sirrine knew Kropp, who was a goalkeeper his first three years of high school before transitioning to the field this year, entered the game having not scored this year.
However, that didn’t prevent Sirrine from putting Kopp as the fifth shooter for his team.
“He couldn’t buy a goal in the regular season,” he said. “We kept telling him that you’re going to get an important one in the playoffs. He kept going and he kept going, and didn’t get one. I was like, ‘Howie, now is your time.’”
With the game tied 1-1 after regulation and overtime, Leland took a 1-0 lead after the first round of the shootout following a successful conversion by senior Ignacio Creamer and a save by senior keeper Ravello Smith.
After Leland’s Weston Burda and Liggett’s Ollie Cooley traded conversions, Liggett tied the shootout at 2-2 on a goal by Brady Ancona.
Leland then went up 3-2 in the fourth round with a goal by senior Adrian Spencer and another save by Smith, which set up the title-clinching opportunity for Kropp.
Despite the loss, Liggett head coach David Dwaihy still had lots of reason for optimism. Not only did his team make it to the championship game, but the future looks bright with a roster laden with sophomores and freshmen who played big roles all season and throughout the game.
Liggett was aiming to win its first title since 1999.
“We’ve got a really strong collection of ninth and 10th graders who made an impact,” Dwaihy said. “It was neat to see them step up on a big occasion and not back off.”
Leland took a 1-0 lead with 24:24 remaining in the first half on a goal by Spencer, who took a pass from junior Jose Roman and fired a shot from just outside the box inside the far post.
Liggett answered with 5:55 left in the first half on a goal by sophomore Sekou Manneh, who found a loose ball on his foot in the center of the field just outside the box and fired a perfect low shot into the net.
That would be all the scoring in regulation and overtime, which set the stage for penalty kicks and Kropp’s memorable moment.
“I’ve never even been in a shootout,” he said. “I was just trying to take deep breaths and let the emotions flow out of me. I really just had a lot of faith.”
PHOTOS (Top) Leland’s Howie Krupp and his teammates begin to celebrate his game-winning goal and the Division 4 title Saturday at Grand Ledge High School. (Middle) Comets keeper Ravello Smith makes a save during the shootout. (Below) Liggett’s Sekou Manneh celebrates his equalizing score. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Athens' Success Fueled by Players' Drive to be Part of School's Soccer Tradition
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
November 9, 2023
GRAND LEDGE — Troy Athens boys soccer coach Todd Heugh stood on the field Saturday at Grand Ledge High School and reflected while his team was celebrating with fans on the other side of the stadium.
Athens had just won its sixth state championship in school history with a 2-1 overtime triumph over Brighton in the Division 1 Final, and while talking about how his team won this particular title game, he also put a historical perspective on the key to the program’s success.
Heugh – also the school’s first-year athletic director – said that while any player who comes through the program obviously has ambitions to one day play college or professional soccer, there is something else that drives them more than anything.
“An advantage I think we have at Athens is that a lot of times, a lot of our kids, their goal in our city is to make the varsity soccer team at Athens,” Heugh said. “When they make it, they give it everything they have.”
This has pretty much been the pattern since legendary head coach Tim Storch built the program into one of the state’s gold standards during the 1980s and ’90s.
Heugh saw it firsthand growing up in the community and as a member of Storch’s squad that won the 1989 Class A title.
That motivation to be part of the fabled varsity has filtered all the way down to current players, who echo Heugh’s sentiments that desire No. 1 is to put on the Athens uniform once they get to high school.
“I went to Troy vs. Troy Athens games since I was in sixth grade,” said Athens senior Adriano Shauya, the team’s leading goal-scorer this season. “We used to sit together, I looked at those players and I was like, ‘One day, I want to be on that field as a Troy Athens player.’”
Shauya said he had roster spots available to him on academy teams over the last two years and he could’ve skipped high school soccer, but he wanted to fulfill his dream of playing for Athens.
“I just took a look and said, ‘I love every single one of my teammates, and I love my city,’” Shauya said. “I grew up in the city.”
Because of the ambition of so many players in Troy to play high school soccer, it not only creates unmatched drive and determination for Athens, but also provides unmatched depth each season.
Heugh said his team was able to go 17 or 18 deep during games this season, which allowed the Red Hawks to be the fresher team throughout three overtime victories during the MHSAA Tournament.
Athens was clearly the better team in overtime against Brighton, building a 10-1 advantage in shots, eight of which were on goal.
“When we are able to throw waves of players like that at people, it’s been nice,” Heugh said. “We took a large roster at the beginning of the year, and it was tricky. There were some unhappy kids. Kids that don’t get the minutes that they want to get, and they are pretty good players who probably could get those minutes. But they are willing to do what’s best for the team, and they’re willing to take their minutes when they get them.”
Athens will have the unenviable task of replacing 16 seniors from this year’s squad. But if there’s a high school program that never has issues reloading instead of rebuilding, it’s Athens soccer.
As the team was celebrating with fellow students, parents and fans after the game, it’s a good assumption there were youth players in the community sitting in the stands who are now dreaming of one day being on the same field wearing an Athens jersey.
“I was in eighth grade, and I saw those guys win the championship (in 2019),” said senior Manny Aigbedo, who scored the winning goal in overtime. “I’m like, ‘Man, I want to do something like that one day. I want to be on the field and step up and score for the team and celebrate, and win a championship.’ I was inspired by the guys before me, and I hope that this win today will inspire players to come next through Troy Athens soccer.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties
PHOTOS (Top) Troy Athens players celebrate their overtime victory Saturday night at Grand Ledge. (Middle) Troy Athens JD Hupman (16) and Brighton’s Devlin McGinnis work to gain possession during Saturday’s Final.