Troy City Classic Lives Up to its Name in League Cup Final

By Garrett Pog

The fans were in for a treat Wednesday night, as Evolution Sportsplex played host to an amazing League Cup Championship match, with both teams repping the same organization. Troy City White played Troy City Black, and everyone showed up and showed out in an amazing match from top to bottom.

Both teams, coached independently by Liz Wood and Patrick Reyes, respectively, had the same goal in mind: Win! Owner John Arndt was present, sitting in his lawn chair square in the middle, ready to enjoy a spectacular evening. He felt especially proud of his program this evening.

Both teams showed great possession, moving around the ball and creating runs, with some blocked shots and missed opportunities being the key to the first half. Taylor Helton (Northwestern Ohio) blocked a shot from Sarah Fromm (Grand Valley State) with her head, and on the other side, Lydia Hill (Ball State) took a shot that was just wide of the net. Hill mentioned after the game how much she’s enjoyed playing with this team.

“It’s really fun to challenge each other, these are people we’ve grown up playing against and playing with for so long. It’s been a lot of fun to do this in the summer,” she said.

The first shot on goal of the evening didn’t come until nearly 20 minutes in, when Delaney Batur (Adrian) forced Addison Tulik (Minnesota State) to shoot her hand up, forcing a corner. She made another great save just a minute later, and kept the game scoreless.

“This summer’s been about getting extra touches in, and getting to play with people you’ve grown up playing with,” Batur said. “Building the community here and having two full teams that can play who you don’t get to see as much anymore is awesome.”

If I listed everyone that took a shot towards the net, this article would never end. There were a lot of quality strikes from top-notch players on both sides, including Mila Rustin (Minnesota State) and Alaina Polsinelli (Lake Erie), who are not known for shooting towards the net.

As halftime rolled around, the game was tied 0-0, and the possibility of extra time or penalty kicks started to creep into the minds of everyone on the field. It was decided then if the game indeed got to that point, they would go straight into penalty kicks.

Arndt couldn’t be happier with the competitiveness of the game, but both teams recognized they had work to do. Wood, with the help of Keira Boskovich (Lourdes) coached their team on switching some things up to confuse the opposition and create more chances. Reyes’s squad talked about moving the ball away from the centerbacks, and begging the midfielders to rotate and check in.

Mari Stojacevski (Findlay) got the attack started for the black team, but Troy City White would be the first to score though, after Batur took the corner and it bounced off Savannah Spangler (Marian) before slowly rolling past the goalline to break the tie. Spangler put her hands on her head in surrender cobra form, in disbelief that she would be credited with the first goal of the evening. The white bench was also wowed, with Alanna Earl saying “What just happened?”

About 10 minutes later, two-thirds into the match, Bella Iacobacci (Michigan-Dearborn) sent a ball towards the box that looked like a cross off the initial release, and found a way to strike the ball over the head of Avery Eastman (Clarkston HS) to tie it up. The shot was taken from nearly 30 yards away on the far right touch line.

The following 10 minutes could’ve been an entire game’s worth of sequences on their own. Lydia Hill took the game into her hands and scored twice in 3 minutes with a beautiful pass from Earl, and the second on a rocket powered shot to go up 3-1. Leah Nalichowski (Nationals ECNL) said she could do that too, and scored twice in 4 minutes, thanks in part to the great assists by Sarah Fromm. Suddenly, we were tied 3-3 with 15 minutes to go.

“Honestly, [this match] was super fun, the competitiveness is there,” Nalichowski said following the match. “I like playing against my friends, and we bonded more through this experience.”

Many substitutions came on throughout the remainder, with both teams desperate to avoid PKs. Though Stojacevski put a shot on frame in the 85th, the final whistle sounded and we were ready to decide the League Cup Final with 5 penalty shots.

Batur and Madi Bajis (Saginaw Valley State) made their opening shots to go 1-1. Troy City White missed their next one, while Fromm scored to go up 2-1. Mila Rustin (Minnesota State) tied it back up in the next round to tie it 2-2 after Tulik saved TC White’s attempt. Hill got the upper hand on Nalichowski, as she made her penalty kick to go up 3-2 while Eastman saved the attempt by Nalichowski. With Troy City White needing one more make to secure the victory, Maeve Comfort (Aquinas) stepped up to the plate and knocked it in to give Troy City White the 1st Place trophy, with a final score of 3-3 (4-2).

With delight across the faces of everyone on the field, the team in white did a trophy lift to celebrate the occasion, but all were happy with the result. MPSL Commissioner Jack Ciraulo presented the trophies to the team, and had a lot of positive things to say about Troy City WFC since they joined in 2024.

In addition to that, both Liz Wood and Patrick Reyes felt like they learned quite a bit from the experience of coaching their own teams, and on their own terms.

“I knew from meeting the girls at training and throughout the season that we would have a good squad. I’ve been getting to know them for quite a while, so I had a good feeling about tonight’s game,” Wood remarked. This was her first match as a Head Coach at the adult level, after previously coaching youth in many areas.

“The more experience that I get, it gives me new ideas on how to coach, how to train, and in-game adjustments,” Reyes mentioned. He currently serves as the Head Coach for Oakland Christian HS for both the boys and girls teams, and he expressed how good this environment is for allowing players to get more touches in a competitive and fun environment. His daughter, Jessica, plays for Troy City and is currently gearing up for her freshman season at Hope College.

“A lot of these teams [Troy City plays against] can barely field one team, so to showcase the talent these girls have, in a hard-working environment, it was great, I’m really happy about it,” Arndt said delightedly after the game. He spoke very highly of the MPSL, a league that allows for competitive play while still giving young men and women the appropriate chances to get touches with its substitution structure. Arndt also remarked how much he enjoyed the coaching on both sides.

“It was awesome to have [Reyes and Wood] this summer, we’re taking it to another level with what we’re able to offer the girls. It was a struggle last year with just one voice, now we can have different opinions and different ways of doing things…I can trust them with games because I have faith that they’re going to do an incredible job managing the teams.”

In addition to the excellent talent that came back from last year’s squad, Troy City’s made a lot of additions because of the buzz they made. This was especially true in Husson’s Emma Nicholson, who discovered TC through social media, despite residing primarily in Petoskey, MI.

“This is my first competitive season after a two-time knee injury, and I have yet to play college ball since. I didn’t know how I was going to be mentally, but after the first slide tackle in my first game, it flipped the switch and this has been the best experience I can ask for…this was a very big confidence boost, being able to play against highly-skilled girls and get me back in the mood for the fall.”

If Troy City is able to recruit more talent like Nicholson, and more staff like Reyes and Wood, they can continue to grow upon the firm foundation John Arndt has created. The future is exciting for women’s soccer in Troy.