Mountaineers get first playoff win | News, sports, jobs

Iron Mountain sophomore Seth Greenleaf (2) takes the ball from Boyne City’s Dylan Pellerito (6) during the MHSAA Division 3 District 33 opening game on Thursday at Mountaineer Stadium. (Photo by Sean Chase/Daily News)

IRON MOUNTAIN – After Boyne City allowed an easy goal a minute into the second half, the Iron Mountain boys varsity soccer team needed to make something happen to keep its season alive.

The Mountaineers found the spark they were looking for in sophomore Seth Greenleaf and earned a 3-1 victory over the Ramblers at Mountaineer Stadium in the MHSAA Division 3 District 33 opening round.

“It was a total team effort to get the win” said IM head coach Greg Kulas. “Strong defense, incredibly good goaltending from Cade (Davy) and aggressive offense from a lot of guys.”

Although the Mountaineers entered the contest with a better record (5-7) than the Ramblers (3-12-1), Kulas made sure to remind his players of the importance of not overlooking any team in the postseason.

“We were higher seeded and had a better record, but I told you yesterday, ‘Everyone has a 0-0 record when it comes to the tournament'” Kulas said. “(Boyne City) came to play and they took the lead.”

Iron Mountain and Boyne City played to a scoreless draw at the end of the first half. However, the Mountaineers suffered a scare when Anthony Pineda went down with just over 10 minutes to play in the semifinal.

However, Pineda would return later in the game.

“He just got taken out and twisted his ankle a little bit.” Kulas said. “Our trainer did a wonderful job wrapping him up and he was ready to go.”

After gaining control of the ball in the opening seconds of the second half, Boyne City senior Mason Vadnais dribbled the ball through the Iron Mountain defense. Vadnais broke through unscathed and landed in front of the Mountaineers’ net. One soft shot later and the Ramblers had a 1-0 lead.

“Yeah, that kind of took the wind out of our sails.” Kulas said. “It was kind of like, I don’t know if we fell asleep at halftime or what. Normally we don’t allow a player to dribble through us and score goals.

“They just surprised us and then we pinned them for the rest of the game. So that was good.”

Twelve minutes later, IM junior Austin Gayan fended off a loose ball in front of the Boyne City goal and buried it into the net after overcoming a scrum of players.

Suddenly it was a draw at one.

As time expired, rumors of an extension began circulating around the stadium.

However, Mountaineers sophomore Seth Greenleaf had other plans.

With 11 minutes to play, Greenleaf took advantage of a Rambler mistake in their own half. He quickly turned his attention to the goal and shot into the top left corner of the net, giving Iron Mountain its first lead of the game, 2-1.

Greenleaf didn’t have many chances to score in the first half, but Kulas adjusted his lineup at halftime and took advantage.

“We talked at halftime and thought he wouldn’t really be challenged with his speed.” Kulas said. And so we moved Cole (Davy) to his spot, moved Dylan (Lindgren) back to defense and put Seth there. I thought between Seth and Anthony we could challenge the defense and it worked out in the end.”

Boyne City had several scoring chances down the stretch, but another goal from Greenleaf with five minutes left slammed the door shut and the Mountaineers secured the 3-1 win.

“Seth Greenleaf had two really good plays that prove that good things happen when you never give up and run hard.” Kulas added.

As the game came to an end, a group of fans dressed in maize and blue could be heard cheering on the Flivvers. It was the Kingsford varsity football team.

“It’s nice to have fans, no matter who is cheering you on” Kulas said. “It’s nice to have their support, we’re rivals in the city center but they’ve come forward and we appreciate that.”

While a win is always something to celebrate, Thursday’s win was Iron Mountain’s first playoff win in program history.

“This is our first district win ever” Kulas said. “Last year was our first year in districts and we were eliminated in the first game. That’s kind of cool.”

Iron Mountain travels to Commemorative Field on Tuesday to face Kingsford in the District 33 semifinals.

The Flivvers defeated Iron Mountain 7-0 at Commemorative Field on August 28th and 8-0 at Mountaineer Stadium on September 16th. Kingsford had a first-round bye after finishing the season 14-1-1.

“We know that there is a big task ahead of us” Kulas said. “The difficult thing about winning this game is that we are now playing Kingsford but it is an opportunity to go out and see what we can do against them.”