Crestwood’s Natalia Sobh was responsible for both goals scored in the Chargers’ 2-0 victory over Fordson in Wednesday’s D1 girls’ soccer district quarterfinal. (Alexander Muller – For MediaNews Group)
Familiar foes squared off in a Division 1 girls’ soccer playoff opener on Wednesday as Dearborn Crestwood battled area rival Dearborn Fordson.
Even with it being now “win or go home” mode, Crestwood and Fordson were in desperate for victories. Both teams came into Wednesday’s matchup on mini two-game losing skids; Crestwood in particular had lost five of their final six regular games coming in.
It was ultimately a team captain stepping up and delivering for her team when they needed it most. A pair of goals from Natalia Sobh helped the Chargers from Crestwood pick up the 2-0 shutout win over Fordson.
PHOTO GALLERY: Dearborn Heights Crestwood vs Dearborn Fordson Girls Soccer
The win for Crestwood is just their sixth on the season but the fifth in shutout fashion. Low-scoring affairs have been the norm for the Chargers this season as they have surrendered two or fewer goals in all but two of their 15 games played this year.
The two outliers were their two final regular season games when they fell to Berkley and Dearborn High by a combined score of 11-0. Head coach Bassam Mroue talked about how defense was the key to success.
“Our game plan against (Fordson) was ‘a good defense is a good offense,'” Mroue said. “So I figured ‘let’s hit them first and attack them first’ and that is what happened. We were able to sustain the pressure.”
“We developed a game plan while studying film,” Mroue added. “I was glad to see the girls stick to the game plan. They fought hard, and Fordson fought very hard too. They gave us a handful.”
Crestwood took control in the opening minutes of the game with a couple looks on net. That early pressure eventually paid off when the aforementioned Sobh cashed in on the first of her two goals early in the ninth minute.
By maintaining possession and pressure, the Chargers were able to keep any and all of Fordson’s opportunities minimal and isolated throughout the game.
The Tractors’ Rokaya Ajami had a couple quality shots on net late in the first half. Outside of those as well as a corner kick try in the 11th minute, there was not much doing for the de facto visitors in the opening 40 minutes.
Perhaps the most important stretch of the game came around the halfway point of the second half. Fordson had their best opportunities to score with multiple shots on net in the span of just two minutes. One of which was deflected and nearly rolled in but was turned away at the last second by the Crestwood back line.
Just a few minutes later, the Chargers were working their way down the other end into the box and induced a Fordson infraction, resulting in a penalty shot. Sobh was the beneficiary of that opportunity as she peppered it past the outstretched hands of Fordson goalie Sarrinah Ajami to give Crestwood the two-goal lead.
Mroue called that Fordson no-goal “game-changing” for his team. Fordson head coach Mitchell Azzopardi after the game said the penalty kick “sunk their ship.”
Azzopardi was very candid and accountable on his end for the team’s lack of sustained chances and opportunities throughout the match.
“I guess the opportunities stemmed from my decisions,” Azzopardi said. “I admittedly played a little more passive than I should have. Adjustments should have been made sooner and I take full blame for that.”
“Circumstantially, I don’t think anything went our way,” Azzopardi continued. “We don’t need to point to any specific thing. The easiest way to put it would be it just was not our day.”
The loss on Wednesday wraps up a 6-10-2 mark for Fordson on the season. The Tractors over the last two seasons have shown considerable improvement in both the eye test and overall results, winning 11 combined games after mustering just six victories over the four seasons prior (2017-19, ’21)
A junior class heavy Fordson team will see just two seniors graduate. The returning talent continued with the gradual development has Azzopardi encouraged with the program moving forward.
“I’m looking forward to the buy-in that the girls have,” Azzopardi said. “Sadly this season is over but everyone has said that they want to continue working, not take a break off, and come back better next season.”
As for Crestwood, they move on to the D1 district semifinal round, which will take place on May 30 at Grosse Pointe South. The Chargers will take on Detroit Cass Tech, who edged out Dearborn High by .002 MPR points for the district’s 1-seed.
It will be yet another game away from home for Crestwood, who has played almost exclusively road games this season as renovations for a new artificial turf field at the high school continue in preparation for next school year.
Wednesday’s game was held at Dearborn Divine Child, which is where Crestwood also held their ‘Senior Night’ game back on May 12.
Mroue was expressed his gratitude towards Divine Child and talked about what the road-only 2023 season has been like.
“It’s been very hard,” Mroue said. “We tried to schedule most of our games away. But the few home games, I would like to give (Divine Child) a shout out. I cannot thank Divine Child enough. We got to treat this like our home field so we can wait for our new field next year.”
Game time for Crestwood’s district semifinal game vs Cass Tech is set for 6:00p on May 30.