Rockford Finishes Unforgettable Run
June 8, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
ROCKFORD – Erika Neumen was a freshman the last time Rockford won an MHSAA girls lacrosse championship. She scored three goals in that 2010 Finals win over Brighton – but said she doesn’t remember much about it.
She’ll never forget Saturday.
Neumen scored this Division 1 Final’s first goal 24 seconds in and added three more and an assist as the Rams claimed their second girls lacrosse championship and she finished her high school career with a 16-7 win over Bloomfield Hills United.
“This moment, when we won the state championship; we’ve been talking about it all season, and now it’s become a reality,” Neumen said. “I think that’s what is going to be most memorable. From day one, we’ve been focusing on this one goal.”
Rockford (21-5), No. 1 in the computer rankings heading into the postseason, had fallen by a goal in the Semifinals in each of the last two years. Beating Bloomfield Hills, ranked No. 4 at the end of the regular season, gave the Rams wins over all of the other four teams ranked among the top five in Division 1 at the tournament's start.
Coach Mike Emery has led his team to a 103-28-5 record and six Semifinals appearances during his six seasons. As he and an assistant coach worked the scorer’s table at last spring’s Final, they said “there was no way we were doing that again.”
He and his staff designed this season’s training to point toward peaking during the playoffs. He took the team on a preseason retreat, and then took his seniors to lunch this week. The juniors already are asking where they’ll be going to lunch before the 2014 Finals.
“The kids responded all year,” Emery said. “This is the hardest-working team I’ve ever had. It didn’t matter what we asked them to do; they did it. Bloomfield played a great game, but my kids were a little faster, played a little harder and came through for a victory.”
Five more Rams joined Neumen in scoring Saturday. Junior Kyleigh Egnatuk scored five goals and had two assists, and junior Kendall Short had two goals and three assists among the team’s highest statistical contributors.
Bloomfield Hills senior Margaret Metzger – who will play next season at University of Michigan – found the net four times in her final high school game to finish with a season total of 90 goals, which unofficially places her 11th in the MHSAA record book for scores in a season.
“I’ve said it before: If she’s not an All-American, I don’t know what an All-American is. I’ll put Margaret up against anyone in this state,” BlackHawks coach Andy Reed said. “She’s a real leader. She played hurt today, got hurt in the first half, and it didn’t even seem to slow her down.”
The BlackHawks made history despite the loss – the Finals appearance was the program’s first and came after the team fell in a pre-Regional game in 2012. Bloomfield Hills finished 19-6 after eliminating four ranked teams on the way to Rockford, including No. 3 Ann Arbor Pioneer.
Emery noticed Rockford’s history sitting in the stands, as a number of former players cheered on their high school team Saturday.
The 2010 championship game was played at Troy Athens. That “upbeat” atmosphere of winning on the Rams' home turf is something else Neumen said she’ll surely remember as she goes on to play next season at Hofstra University.
As one of only three seniors, she very well could be cheering on these teammates as they play for a repeat title in 2014.
“I’m really glad this group of girls was able to stick together and win this together,” Neumen said. “We had better chemistry, and we were able to stick together better. This year you could just tell the girls really wanted it more.
“We’ve been playing pretty good the last couple of games, and it was fun to see the girls really want it.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Rockford junior Molly Simmet (12) charges forward as Bloomfield Hills’ Paige Tornow (3) and Maria D’Angelo close on the ball. (Middle) Bloomfield Hills junior Christina Arens prepares to launch a shot that ended up in the back of Rockford’s net.
Country Day Repeats as Cook Serves Up Another Title-Clinching Goal
By
Drew Ellis
Special for MHSAA.com
June 6, 2026
HOWELL – Charlotte Cook is building quite a reputation for herself at Detroit Country Day.
In 2025, as a freshman, Cook scored the game-winning goal in overtime to lift the Yellowjackets to the Division 2 championship over Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
On Friday night, in pouring rain, Cook found herself with the ball in the final minute of the 2026 D2 Final with East Grand Rapids, with the score tied 12-12.
Cook once again came through, putting the ball in the back of the net with 29 seconds to play for what would be the game-winning score in DCD’s 13-12 victory.
“Taking the ball at the end, I wanted to prove to everyone that as a sophomore, even when I was being face-guarded, I could get in there and I could make something happen,” Cook said of her game-winning goal. “I wasn’t just doing it to win, I wasn’t doing it for myself, I was doing it for my team around me because they wanted me to take that (shot) and I’m glad they could trust me.”
Cook tied the game with 2:52 to play as part of a six-goal effort to lead Country Day to its first repeat MHSAA girls lacrosse championship, and third Finals title overall.
“She’s someone that we can consistently depend on and rely on to be the one to set the tempo,” Detroit Country Day coach Liz Nussbaum said. “I think that takes so much character and so much preparation on her part. She puts in the work in advance so she’s ready for these big moments, and she carries the team on her back in that way.”
The win for Country Day (15-5) avenged a pair of losses during the season to the Pioneers (19-3). East Grand Rapids led for the majority of Friday’s game, including the 12-11 advantage in the closing minutes, but came up just shy of claiming its first championship since 2022.
“I think the reason they fought so hard is because of their love for each other and their love for the game,” EGR coach Kira Schoonveld said of her team’s effort. “It’s been a while since we’ve been back on this stage, so they were hungry for it.”
The Pioneers took control of the game in the second quarter with a four-goal surge that put them up 6-3. Senior Rylee Renker had two of the goals during the run to help EGR lead 6-4 at the break.
“I think the girls actually came out pretty settled. Of course, they have nerves, but I think they managed those pretty well,” Schoonveld said of her team’s first half.
Country Day came out in the second half and scored the first four goals. Two came from Cook and the other two came from senior Adri Zuk.
“That was absolutely huge,” Nussbaum said of the scoring surge. “We are very young, so a lot of this game is really mental for us. Having that kind of momentum shift was super important.”
East Grand Rapids answered the Country Day run with one of its own. The Pioneers scored the next three goals to regain the lead at 9-8.
The lead would change hands three more times over the remainder of the game, including with Cook’s game-winner.
The drama was heightened by the consistent rain, which never let up throughout the match.
“Rain is never fun and we’ve been fortunate that we’ve never had to play in the rain this season, so that of course poses more challenges,” Schoonveld said. “But, between every quarter and time out, our girls were still fired up and pumped and just ready to take on the challenge ahead of them. It’s just unfortunate that it didn’t go our way tonight.”
Jane Weaver finished with three goals and an assist to lead East Grand Rapids, while Nora Williams, Livia Burgess and Renker each had two goals and an assist. Avery Albers made 10 saves in net.
Cook finished with six goals to lead Country Day, while sophomore Bella Papsin had six assists.
“She’s always been a really good feeder, but she’s improved with her patience and waiting for more open opportunities,” Nussbaum said of Papsin. “She really found the open player today, and that was important because we knew that we weren’t going to be able to drive very well against this EGR defense.”
Junior Jackie Calso had four goals in the win, while Zuk tallied the other three.
After graduating a large senior class in 2025, Nussbaum wasn’t sure if her team would be able to get back to the Finals in 2026. Despite the rain pouring down, Nussbaum was all smiles after the match given her team’s difficult achievement of repeating as champion.
“We lost 11 seniors last year and had almost a completely new squad this season, but the consistency and dependability of the team, and the culture they have built, led them to this championship,” Nussbaum said. “It really is such a reward and a joy to be able to coach these girls and see all their work pay off.”
PHOTOS (Top) Detroit Country Day’s Charlotte Cook makes a move while directing the offense during Friday’s Division 2 Final. (Middle) The Yellowjackets’ Adriana Zuk (10) winds up to take a shot. (Below) DCD's Jackie Calso (8) and EGR's Ella Alguire (9) contend for the ball.