Knights crowned district champs for first time since 2009

Walled Lake Northern won its first Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) district championship since 2009 with a 3-1 victory over North Farmington on Saturday, Oct. 22.

Connor Rutz scored Northern’s first goal off an assist from David Cubr in the first half, before North Farmington leveled the match at 1-1 before halftime.

Cubr then scored off an assist from Ricky Carter in the second half and Kyle Boulier also scored off a Carter assist.

Despite the victory, Northern Head Coach Chris Stevanovic said his team has a lot of things to fix before playing in the regional round of the MHSAA Division 1 Tournament.

“Overall, we did not perform well in this game, but we did finish our opportunities well,” Stevanovic said.

The Knights played Grand Blanc in the regional semi-final yesterday, Tuesday, Oct. 25, after press time at Lake Orion. The winner will face either Troy or Midland Dow in the regional final on Thursday, Oct. 29.

Northern began its week by taking on Walled Lake Central on the road in the first round of the district playoffs and came away with a 3-0 victory.

After an own goal by Central, Carter scored off an assist from Gage Coder before Cubr scored unassisted.

“We had a good tempo to the game from start to finish, and finished our opportunities we had to get the win,” Stevanovic said. “It is always tough to start out the state playoffs with your biggest rival. I thought our boys did a good job with a tough opponent.”

Northern then faced Novi Detroit Catholic Central on Thursday, Oct. 20.

Brent Juhnke scored off an assist from Gage Coder, who later scored unassisted.

“We came out to play in the first 15 minutes and got two goals because of it,” Stevanovic said. “Scoring 2 minutes into the game really helped for our start to the game.”

Mitchell Thompson was Northern’s goaltender for all three games.