Liggett Shoots, Scores first Title since 2005
June 17, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Although his team found itself in an unfamiliar situation Friday afternoon, David Dwaihy had an idea how at least the first part might play out.
As Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett readied for its first tie-breaker shootout of this spring – and in the season’s final game – Dwaihy, the eighth-year coach, decided to simply ask his players to raise their hands if they wanted one of the penalty kicks.
“I had a few in mind who I wanted to take the shot,” Dwaihy said. “I ended up just saying raise your hand if you want one. The hands flew up, and the freshmen all raised their hands.”
And then the most “courageous and bold” of them all finished the Knights’ first MHSAA championship run since she was getting ready to start kindergarten.
Freshman defender Kate Birgbauer was her team’s fourth and final shooter and put her attempt just past the crossbar into the top of the net to give Liggett a 4-2 advantage in the shootout and a 1-0 win over Montrose in the Division 4 championship game at DeMartin Stadium.
Sophomores Kelly Solak and Alexis Wenger and junior Maddie Wu also made kicks as Montrose missed their first two tries, setting Birgbauer up to end the game.
“I love shootouts. I like the pressure,” Birgbauer said. “I actually turned to my friend Izzy (Brusilow, the team’s second-leading scorer this season) and I was like, ‘Are you 100 percent sure you’re going to make this?’ She was like, ‘Oh, I’m not sure,’ so I was like, I’ll take it. So I stepped up and shot it.”
“They’re courageous and a very bold, confident group – especially our center back who scored the winner, Katie Birgbauer,” Dwaihy added. “She wanted it.”
Liggett (19-2-1) won its fifth straight District title to start this run and repeated as Regional champion as well, but hadn’t played in an MHSAA championship game since winning Division 4 in 2005.
Despite their relative youth – the Knights had only three seniors this season – a number of key players gained experience during last season’s run. But they still hadn’t been pushed to this brink during a season in which they gave up only 14 goals.
Montrose (23-4-1), meanwhile, was playing in its first MHSAA championship game in girls soccer after winning its first Regional title, and ended this season giving up only nine goals.
The more upperclassmen-laden Rams went on the attack immediately. Sophomore Remington Hobson broke away at 28:04 in the first half, but Liggett junior keeper Kara Francis jumped in front to deflect the drive away from the goal. Senior Ellory Barnette sent a header over the net off a corner with 14:04 to go in the half, and Liggett sophomore defender Teagan Cornell headed away another Montrose shot midway through the second half that would have found the net had she not dropped back to cover the corner.
The shot differential wasn’t much during regulation, with Montrose tallying nine to Liggett’s eight. But the Rams had 11 corner kicks in the game to Liggett’s one, giving them better opportunities to attack.
“That’s turned out to be our bread and butter this year, set pieces, corners, and we came close,” Montrose coach Jason Perrin said. “If you get 11 of them, you’ve got to put one in.
"But they’re very similar to us – they get 10 girls behind the ball, they clog up the passing lanes. We do that. It was kinda like playing ourselves, a little bit.”
The game appeared over before the shootout, but only for a minute, when a Liggett throw-in landed in the Montrose net with 5:09 to go in the second period of overtime – but the goal was called off because it didn’t touch a player from either team on the way.
“I think that lit a fire in our hearts a bit,” Birgbauer said. “We got mad, and we came back.”
Montrose had more experience in shootouts – they’d gone 1-1 previously, with a win that way over No. 2 Elk Rapids in the Regional Final. But Liggett apparently was plenty prepared despite a lack of shootout experience.
Liggett’s Francis and Montrose senior keeper Alexis Rush both made four saves while controlling play in front of their respective nets. Rush is one of eight seniors who will graduate from the Rams’ most successful team.
“We had a good core coming back. We won 17 games (last season). But we hadn’t won a District since 2001. So it’s hard to dream too much beyond the District or Regional level,” Perrin said. “But this team grew with confidence. Really, once we beat (Saginaw) Nouvel in the District Finals, I could just tell we had the mindset to go as far as they wanted, and they put on a good run.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Teammates converge on Liggett’s Kate Birgbauer after the freshman’s winning shot in Friday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) Liggett’s Rebecca Lohman moves the ball to a teammate while Montrose players pursue.
Unity Christian Stacks 4th-Straight Finals Title, 24th-Straight Postseason Shutout
By
Drew Ellis
Special for MHSAA.com
June 13, 2026
EAST LANSING – The unblemished championship run of Hudsonville Unity Christian continues.
The Crusaders completed their fourth-consecutive playoff run without allowing a single goal Saturday, this time defeating Bloomfield Hills Marian 2-0 in the Division 2 championship match at DeMartin Field.
“It’s a credit to the girls,” Unity Christian coach Randy Heethuis said of the recent run and 14th title in program history. “I know it is a cliché, but we just play one game at a time. Next game, next team up and let’s put our best foot forward and let’s do what we do, and what Unity soccer does. They know the prescription for success and they were able to carry it out, and I couldn’t be prouder.”
Unity Christian (24-0) has claimed its second-straight D2 title after winning the Division 3 championships in 2023 and 2024. In all four cases, the Crusaders didn’t allow their opponents to get on the scoreboard throughout all six postseason matches.
This time, the Crusaders allowed just one goal for the entire season, matching an MHSAA record previously set by Livonia Stevenson in 1997.
On top of all that, Unity Christian has now gone 55 consecutive matches without being defeated, a run dating back to May 22, 2024.
“I’m not sure how much they are really aware or think about records or streaks or this, that, and the other thing,” Heethuis said of all his team’s accomplishments this season.
Marian (21-3) knew the lore Unity Christian had created for itself, but the Mustangs were appearing in their 15th MHSAA Final, seeking their 10th title in program history.
They survived the early charge from the Crusaders and started to turn the momentum of the match in their favor midway through the first half.
“We didn’t start quickly enough. That pressure that (Unity Christian) put us under in the first 5-10 minutes, we rode it. We rode that pressure,” Marian coach Danny Price said. “I felt like we defended well through it and then sort of grew into the game a little bit.”
The Mustangs thought they may have had the first goal 30 minutes in when junior Nia Bordogna put a shot that went off the bottom of the crossbar and bounced near the goal line before Unity Christian senior goalie Payton Barendsen corralled it.
“It that goes in, their record is gone. It changes the game and puts them under a little bit more pressure,” Price said of the near-goal. “Now somebody’s scored on (them) and they’ve conceded (a goal) in the Final. So, I felt the momentum swing a little bit after that.”
Just five minutes later, the Crusaders would get the first goal of the game. Senior Kiersten Witte made a run toward the net and collided with a pair of Mustangs, including keeper Caitlyn Curtis. The ball trickled over to the foot of junior Myla Obande, who casually put it into the back of a wide-open net to make it 1-0.
“I just knew that this shot had to go in and when I hit it, the ball was rolling so slowly, it felt like it took forever to go in,” Obande said. “When it went in, I was so relieved, and so happy. I just wanted to help the team get the job done.”
With three minutes left in the half, Unity Christian junior Kyla Kobrzycki got in open field and charged toward the Marian goal. She played a shot that hit the right-side post, but then landed on the foot of senior teammate Tessa Ponstein for another goal to make it 2-0.
In the second half, Marian made Unity Christian earn the shutout. Barendsen recorded five saves in the match, including a pair of diving saves during the final 40 minutes.
Not to be outdone, Marian’s Curtis, a freshman, tallied 10 saves as she kept the Crusaders from building on their lead.
“She was brilliant,” Price said of Curtis. “She made some cracking saves. She’s just fantastic. She’s a good kid and she reads the game well, and has good positioning. What a performance from a freshman goalie in a big, big game like this.”
Avery Dekker, Ava Steen, Karli Rose, and Ruthie Hall handled the back-line defense for Unity Christian in yet another shutout, the program’s 23rd of the year.
“Our entire team, they bought into their roles, whether they are on the bench or whether they start,” Heethuis said. “They just do what is asked of them, and that’s a credit to them.”
PHOTOS Unity Christian’s Kiersten Witte (14), Marlie Moelker (15) and Myla Obande (24) celebrate during their team’s Division 3 Final victory Saturday. (Middle) The Crusaders’ Kyla Kobrzycki (21) attempts to nudge the ball past Marian keeper Caitlyn Curtis, far left. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)