Troy City WFC Capitalizes on Weirdest Night in Club’s History

By Garrett Pog

Lower-level soccer has its positives. The biggest one, among many, is that it provides many men and women the chance to earn some more playing time ahead of their upcoming season, and give them a chance to improve their skills in competitive game conditions. When the organization from all parties is standard, it’s great. When it’s not…you often see the horrors of semi-pro ball.

The result was a 2-1 scoreline in favor of Troy City WFC (3-2-1) over Legends FC (2-1), but the result didn’t happen without its oddities.

Before we go further, we will state that we learned early on in the evening that the Head Coach of Legends FC dealt with a family emergency, which led to Thursday night’s events unfolding in an unfortunate matter. We sincerely hope all is well with the folks involved, and the Legends FC family is in our thoughts and prayers.

When the night began, he acting-HC for Legends jokingly asked his team if there would be enough for the game, which can always be a sign for concern. It turned out that there would only be 12 players suiting up for the away side, which was vastly outnumbered by the 18 women wearing pink for Troy City.

No, that is not a typo. Despite the numbered uniforms for Troy City colored black for home matches and white for away matches, they were forced to wear their pink warm-ups because both teams only brought their dark-colored kits.

Once the clock started rolling, the hits just kept coming. Within a couple minutes, a non-contact injury brought the away team down to 11 players, and they were forced to move their top-tier goalkeeper into the field to be able to keep playing.

Throughout the first 20 minutes, Troy City struggled cohesively, as Legends were able to move the ball through the midfield and backline at will. Players like Morgan Bogacki (Saginaw Valley State) and Cecily Hughes (Lourdes) kept the ball from going near the net, while Kylie Cesarek (Saginaw Valley State) recorded an impressive shot on goal in the early going.

In typical Troy City fashion, they switched nearly the whole lineup halfway through the first half, and the energy and tempo really started to pick up. Less than 2 minutes later, Bridget Kopmeyer (Internationals SC) found her good friend McKenna Clouston (Utah Valley Commit) in the box for an easy strike and score. In the 30th minute, Kopmeyer received the rebound from Sarah Fromm (Grand Valley State), and swung her right foot around and cleared the ball over the keeper’s head for another goal, in an incredible one-fell-swoope move.

“We see the game the same,” said Kopmeyer, following the game. “We see those slot passes and runs that other people can’t, and we can take advantage.”

Despite the impressive runs, Legends would come back minutes later with a goal of their own, splitting a defender through the legs before scoring on the 1-on-1. Throughout the next 10 minutes or so, Legends players would catch every case of the injury bug, including one rolling her ankle, and another hurting her wrist.

In addition to the rain pouring so hard that you couldn’t hear yourself think, Emma Nicholson (Husson) went down on what looked like a non-contact injury, which forced the center referee to have mercy and call for the halftime whistle. Fortunately, Nicholson was okay, but it was very clear that Legends FC were struggling with everything taking place. Their coach politely asked for the game to be over, and Troy City Head Coach John Arndt obliged.

“We’ve all been there,” said Arndt, referring to Legends’ crazy evening. “I understand both sides, but it was an odd thing from the very beginning, especially with them not having enough players. It’s hard.”

Arndt was also very proud of his high school players and the level of energy they bring to the game.

“They have a lot of passion, and maybe it’s because they don’t know any better, but they want to prove themselves. Some of the older girls can play a little relaxed because they feel like they’ve earned their spot, but the younger ones can bring a jolt of energy from the bench.”

“It’s the passion we have,” said Kopmeyer, on why she enjoys playing with this team. “You could hear it on the bench, we knew what we wanted to do, and we have a deep roster too.”

The end result allows for Troy City to get revenge on last year’s loss, and puts them into a tie for 1st-Place with Flint City AFC at 10 Points. Though Troy would’ve liked to play for another 45 minutes, they’ll get some extra time to rest before some upcoming MPSL games, in addition to the Michigan Jaguars rolling into town next Thursday, June 26th, at 7pm. That match will take place at Evolution Sportsplex.