DeWitt blanks St. Johns, captures district soccer title

EAST LANSING — Despite only having one senior on his team, Jamal Mubarakeh always had a feeling his squad could accomplish something special. The 19-year DeWitt girls soccer coach was just waiting for everyone to get healthy.

That moment came in the CAAC Gold Cup tournament earlier this month, with the return of sophomore Mackenzie Dawes, and it was at that time Mubarakeh started to see everything come together.

And on Saturday, the Panthers capped the month of May with a 4-0 victory over St. Johns in a Division 2 district title game at the East Lansing Soccer Complex to secure their first district title since 2012.

"When you play in the playoffs you have to win, you have to score and you have to finish," Mubarakeh said. "And when you finish in the playoffs you get the confidence and you start playing good soccer. We kept it going all game like that.

"We started clicking once we got everybody back ... You can see things clicking well together with us. In the last three or four games, we scored, I believe, 16 goals — more than we had the whole season."

All season long, DeWitt has relied on underclassmen to create scoring opportunities. And in Saturday's victory, a freshman and sophomore set the tone for the Panthers.

Sophomore defenseman Jessah McManus scored the team's first goal with 10:38 remaining in the first half, netting a header off a corner kick from Dawes.

"I wanted to supply some energy for my team," said McManus, who scored two goals in the game. "I wanted to give them strength to carry on in the game."

Nearly three minutes after McManus' goal, freshman Taylor Bishop added another for the Panthers.

"I didn't know I would make it this far and start the way I did," Bishop said.

McManus scored her second goal with 27:43 remaining in the second half, and junior Erika Curley got the game's final score with 47 seconds remaining.

The Redwings, making their first final four appearance in districts in 12 years, came into the championship having scored 17 goals in their first two games of the tournament. However, St. Johns coach Kim Brewbaker knew his team would have to take its play to another level if it wanted to come out on top.

"I expected a little bit more (compared to the first two games)," Brewbaker said. "We knew the quality of the team DeWitt was and we were hoping to matchup with that.

"We played strong for the first 20, 30 minutes ... We missed a couple of coverages and they capitalized on it."

DeWitt will open regional play Wednesday against the winner of Grand Rapids Forest Hills-Grand Rapids Northview at Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern .