BHS women’s soccer team wins conference championship

On May 23, the Belleville High School women’s varsity soccer team won its second consecutive Western Wayne Athletic Conference championship with a 3-0 victory over Dearborn Edsel Ford in a game at Belleville.
The win left the Tigers with an 8-0-1 league record and an overall record of 15-2-2 going into next week’s District Tournament.
Belleville started the game aggressively, maintaining possession and looking to find a weakness in the Edsel Ford defense. Gradually the momentum changed and the Thunderbirds maintained a few minutes of pressure in the Belleville end without creating many scoring chances.
Finally after 20 minutes, the Tigers broke through as a Morgan Marshall pass found Madison Marshall open in front of the Edsel Ford goal. She made no mistake and buried a hard shot for the game’s first goal.
At that point, Belleville upped the tempo and increased the pressure on the visitors. With nine minutes left in the first half, Morgan Marshall scored from a centering pass from wingback Jazmine Carter. The half ended with the Tigers ahead by two but with the result still in doubt.
The second half was more of the same, with the Tigers dominating the play and frequently threatening to score again, but the Thunderbirds also getting their share of scoring chances. Several well-struck Edsel Ford shots went just wide of the Belleville goal, and Tiger goalkeeper Katie Byrd was called on to make a few challenging saves. Finally with just under 12 minutes left in the game, Madison Marshall struck again with a bullet drive from a sharp angle that found the far corner of the visitor’s goal. That ended the scoring as the Belleville team watched the clock tick down toward another league title.
“Every season our number one priority is to win the league, so we are delighted to have achieved that goal,” said Belleville coach Bill Cline. “We are very proud that we have been able to win back-to-back championships, and our two-year league record of 16-1-1 is a remarkable achievement. This game today, however, was much closer than the score might indicate. Edsel Ford is a very good, well-coached team, and we had to be at our best to defeat them. Now we have to turn our focus to the State Tournament.”
The Tigers open their District play with a home game against Southgate Anderson on Tuesday, May 31 at 4 p.m.