Lots of Fight in Pontiac Notre Dame Irish

NEW BOSTON – Lately, New Boston Huron senior soccer player Ian Petrick has been immensely enjoying his newest bedroom decoration. 

On his wall sits a soccer ball signed by teammates and his coaching staff commemorating a significant milestone he achieved Aug. 22 during a win over Flat Rock. 

That’s when Petrick scored his 100th career varsity goal, and now the ball used to score that goal is something wonderful to stare at every day. 

“It just kind of sits there,” he said. “It’s nice to look at it when I wake up in the morning to remind me of everything I’ve put in.”

Now with 118 goals for his career (and 30 this season), Patrick joined 43 other players in state history by getting to the 100-goal career mark. 

“When it happened, it just meant everything to me,” he said. “All the training over the summer and work I had put in over the past four years at the high school level had really paid off in that moment.”

Petrick said he has played soccer since he was 3 years old, but for a majority of his career, preventing goals was more of his task. 

He was a central defender for his club team until he was in seventh grade, when his coach decided to have him give the striker position a try. 

Since then, scoring goals has become his passion on the field. 

Petrick said there have been two main technical aspects of the striker/forward position he has tried to master since switching to the position. 

One is knowing when to move without the ball, and what type of movements to make.

“When you see the midfielder pick their head up to send the ball, you start the run,” he said. “The runs can’t be just vertical. They’ve got to be diagonals, and they have to be overlaps.”

The other has been finishing in the box when he comes up on the goalkeeper with the ball. 

“Finishing one-on-one with the keeper is huge,” he said. “I’ve trained on that so much. If you are running up the box from different sides of the field, you have to figure out where you need to shoot the ball. If you are coming from the left side, (the shot) has to be far post right side. If you’re coming from the right side, it’s got to be far post to the left. Sometimes it’s a chip over the keeper. It’s just all those different scenarios where the keeper comes out or the keeper stays in net. Making that final finishing touch to the shot is the most important thing.”

Huron head coach Matt Lividin said the way Petrick has contributed offensively of late has been one of his biggest transformations. 

Lividin said during his underclassmen years, Petrick would score goals simply on his raw speed and strength. Now, he is becoming a more technically complete player who is scoring and generating more assists, something that should make him more attractive to college programs currently recruiting him.

“I think they have been kind of holding off to see if he’s more than just the speedster,” Lividin said. “To see if he’s someone they are looking for to add depth to their forward lines. This year, I think he’s trying to complete the full package to make sure the colleges are still interested in him.”

In addition to his individual accolades, Petrick has helped elevate the Huron program to heights not reached in a long time. 

Last year, Huron (14-1-2) won its first District title in 18 years before falling to eventual Division 2 champion Warren De La Salle Collegiate in a Regional Semifinal. 

With 12 seniors on this year’s roster back from last year’s team, Huron is understandably eyeing big things for when the MHSAA Tournament begins next week. 

“That has meant everything to the school, to rejuvenate the soccer program,” said Petrick, who said he will run track in the spring, hoping to specialize in the 200-meter dash. 

If Huron can win it all in the coming weeks, a Finals championship medal would be a nice display partner for that 100-goal ball in Petrick’s room. 

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) New Boston Huron’s Ian Petrick celebrates scoring a goal this season against Grosse Ile. (Middle) Petrick reached 100 career goals this August. (Photos courtesy of the Petrick family.)