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Eisenhower High School

Go Eagles!

Eisenhower High School

Game Summaries & Headlines.

Game Summary

5.0 years ago @ 7:06AM

Boys Varsity Soccer vs. Henry Ford II HS School

Game Date
Oct 23, 2018
Score
EAGLES: 2
HENRY FORD II HIGH SCHOOL: 1

First Alan Cetkovic and then Evan DeJong saved the day for Eisenhower.

Cetkovic scored the tying goal late in regulation time before DeJong made a pair of saves in the shootout as the Eagles defeated Ford 2-1 in a state Division 1 regional soccer semifinal match at Stevenson on Tuesday.

Cetkovic scored with 5:11 left in regulation time, and Dom Nikaj, Cetkovic and Noah Modena converted penalty kicks to send the Eagles into the regional final that starts at 6 p.m. Saturday at Stevenson.

Gabriel Parra scored in the first half for Ford, which was bidding to keep a stirring tournament run going. But aside from Mateo Gjurashaj, no Falcon got a penalty kick past DeJong, a sophomore who stopped two before Ford’s final attempt went over the net.

“I try to read them as much as I can, but at the end of the day it’s just an educated guess,” DeJong said of his approach to stopping PKs. “I felt good about them.

“I never second guess myself, and it worked out in the end. We had to grind right to the end.”

Eisenhower defeated Ford twice on the way to winning the MAC Red Division championship, but had a battle with the Falcons, who reached the regional with a victory over Troy Athens, ranked No. 1 in the state, in a district final last week.

“Our chemistry is great and we’ve been getting some (victories),” DeJong said after the Eagles improved to 17-3-3.

Ford (9-9-1), which finished fifth in the Red, led until Cetkovic’s header off a corner kick tied the match in the 35th minute of the second half.

“Proud of them,” Ford coach Chris Alston said of his team. “We had a plan of attack. We gave up a tough one at the end.

“Getting to PKs wasn’t something we weren’t ready for; we were almost shooting for that. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but I’m very proud of them.

“We knocked off the No. 1 team in the state and came back and played a MAC Red team and took them to PKs.”

Alston said “togetherness” underscored the Falcons’ tournament run.

“We started out as a bunch of individuals and we’ve kind of morphed into 11 kids that are buying into something,” he said. “It wasn't the prettiest soccer at times … but we found our opportunities to put some things on frame, and it got us to this point.”

Parra scored on a restart, depositing his shot into the upper left corner of the net.

Cetkovic, a senior, said Eisenhower had to stick to its game plan as the final minutes of the second half wound down.

"You start to get a little impatient," he said. "You've got to get your nerves in check, got to be calm, cool, let the ball do the work."

The Eagles expected a tough game from Ford, he added.

"We've seen them before. We knew they were coming out to battle," Cetkovic said.

"It means a lot to us. The boys battled. I'm proud of every single person."

Neither team scored in either of the 10-minute overtime periods that preceded the shootout.

De La Salle played Berkley in the second half of the regional doubleheader for a berth opposite Eisenhower in Saturday’s final.


https://eisenhowerathletics.org