Northville Girls Soccer Falls to Canton By One Point, Ends Season

's varsity girls soccer team ended its season Saturday with a loss to Canton High School, 3-2, in the district playoffs.

"This was a heartbreaking defeat for a team. For eight seniors this is the end of their high school careers. We had to withstand a lot of adversity (Saturday) and the end result was not what we wanted," said Northville Coach Eric Brucker. "I am very proud of the effort that this team put in this season and for the never-give-up mentality that they displayed today. Its tough to put into words how emotionally crushed this team is today. My hope is the that pain will subside in time and that the players can reflect on what happened and grow from it."

Here's a recap of the game from Northville coach Brucker:

In the first half, Junior Gabbie Guibord gets her second goal of Districts with an unassisted right foot blast from 25 yards out. With the keeper shielded by a scrum of defensive players, Guibord laced a hard shot that curved right and over the left shoulder of the Canton keeper.

Later, Canton defender Robyn Mack ran through senior Mallory Weber as she made a break for goal in Canton's penalty box. A penalty kick was awarded to Northville. Senior defender Sasha Gardner calmly buried the left footed PK to put the Mustangs up 2-0.  

At the 28-minute mark, off a corner from the right hand side, Canton defender Rachel Winters played a beautiful cross into the Mustangs goal mouth. Canton's senior midfielder, Megan Trapp jumped higher than the rest and header the cross into the net to cut the lead in half.  

Then, again off a corner from the right hand side, the cross into the box resulted in a lots of pushing in the mass of bodies. Northville was called for a foul and Canton was awarded a PK. On the penalty kick, Canton defender Robyn Mack fired a shot directly at Northville keeper, Kiki Hilmer, who made the initial save. The rebound bounced back to the foot of Mack who shot the deflection into the net before Hilmer could recover from the initial save.   Halftime score 2-2  

In the second half, off a deadball, 40 yards out and right of center.  Canton flooded the box with players. Canton defender Gabby Epelman played a long rainbowed ball into the box toward the back post. The direct kick drop just under the cross bar and inside the back post into the side netting, on the fly.   With a last gasp effort, Northville would push everyone forward and take three corners in the last 8 minutes but could not find the back of the net to even the score. Northville finishes a the season at 18-1-4 Canton moves on to the Region Semi-finals against Deaborn on Tuesday at Saline High School.