File photo by Wes Morgan
The Sturgis boys soccer team was bumped out of the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference Gold Bracket semifinals Thursday after a 3-2 loss to Portage Northern.
The defending-champion Huskies’ Cam Doyles buried the game-winning goal in the second half to push his team to the league championship next week against Kalamazoo Central. Brandon Bye scored the other two goals for P-Northern, which improved to 12-3-4 overall.
Juhnuel Rubio got the Trojans on the board near the midway point of the second half and Carlos Maldonado connected on a penalty kick with 10:27 remaining.
“My plan was to contain Portage for the first 20 min of the game, because we knew that Portage Northern would try to score early in the game,” Sturgis coach Luis Olivares said. “Portage scored early off of two nice headers both from corner kicks.
“[In] the second half my players came back and showed composure and were able to put a couple of goals on the net. My players proved that they have the ability and the mental composure to overcome high-pressure situations. Sometimes you learn more when you lose than when you win.”