Father Gabriel Richard girls soccer wins 5th straight district title

ONSTED - Orchestrating perhaps the prettiest goal of the season isn’t a bad way to christen a girls soccer district final.

That’s exactly what Father Gabriel Richard High School did when Sarah Falvey arched a corner kick to Monica Pagani, who planted the ball - without it ever touching the ground - into the net five minutes in.

The goal paved the way for the Fighting Irish’s eventual 6-0 shutout win over Leslie in a Division 3 district championship game Saturday at Onsted Community High School. The win marks Gabriel Richard’s fifth straight district crown.

“It was one of the best goals that we scored this year,” said FGR coach Matt Caroll. “It was a tone-setter. It was really nice.”

Pagani agreed.

“That set the tone for the entire game. It was how we wanted to play,” said Pagani, who finished with a three-goal hat trick. “I really wanted to score today, but getting three was just even better.”

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Mary Yocum followed Pagani’s lead two minutes after the game’s initial goal on an assist from Marlena Stante, giving the Irish a 2-0 edge.

“We came out right from the beginning and played our own game and didn’t play down to their level,” said Falvey. “And we came out and let them know that we’re not fooling around.”

This was most evident by the fact that Irish starting goalie, Anna Zekany, didn’t face a single Blackhawks shot in the first half.

“We normally control possession,” said Carroll. “We’re a possession team, we really rely on that. The overall percentage of possession was maybe a little bit more than in some of the other games.”

It wasn’t long before Gabriel Richard was back on the board, this time on a Martha Sorenson goal with 2:19 left to give her team a 3-0 halftime command.

Fresh out of intermission, the Fighting Irish wasted no time adding to the count in the second half, scoring 40 seconds in when Pagani netted her second goal on a Yocum assist.

Less than seven minutes later came Pagani’s third goal on a Sorenson assist to extend the gap to 5-0.

The Blackhawks put three shots on the Irish in the final 30 minutes, but each was collected by second-half goalie Angela Broggi.

Meanwhile, Falvey rounded out the game’s 6-0 tally with 13 minutes remaining when she minced through Leslie’s defense and ripped the right corner of the net.

Gabriel Richard moves on to the Division 3 Regionals held in Williamston on Wednesday. The Fighting Irish have never won a regional championship.

“It feels good to continue the (district title) streak, but we want to move to the next step. We want to get the next trophy,” said Carroll.

Kaleb Roedel is a sports writer for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734)623-2562 and e-mailed at kalebroedel@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kaleb_R.