Troy City WFC Clinches Playoffs in Gritty Match

By Garrett Pog

With glory on the horizon, at historic Wisner Stadium, Troy City WFC showed up and showed out in their final UWS regular season match against FC Pontiac. The winner would clinch a playoff birth and play for the UWS Great Lakes Championship on Saturday night. With plenty of drama from start-to-finish, Troy City took a decisive 4-2 win to keep their season alive and earn a playoff match against the Michigan Jaguars.

The night began with a consistent downpour of rain, and the small dimensions of the field didn’t allow for the women on the field to build momentum on either side. It took quite a while before anyone was able to put a shot on frame.

Things took a turn for the worse in the 29th minute, when a defender dove in to prevent a shot attempt in the box, and clipped the Firebird striker in the process. FC Pontiac scored on the penalty, and would be up by 1 for some time after.

The chippiness between the two teams was apparent, and came to a head about 5 minutes before stoppage time. Kayla Butki (Oklahoma State commit) was dribbling the ball up the right touch line before an FC Pontiac player slide tackled directly into her, and made more contact with Butki than she ever could have with the ball. Butki was screaming in pain, and had to be taken to the hospital shortly thereafter. Apparently, the player who slid into her has a history of taking cheap shots, and this action only ramped up the aggressiveness by both sides, rather than deescalating it. Butki was later confirmed to have a broken fibula.

While Head Coach John Arndt and the trainer were tending to Butki, Cam Quidort (Toledo commit) made an excellent run towards the goal and scored in extra time with her off foot to tie the game just before half. Micayla McGee (Northwood) shouted “That was for Kayla!” as the entire team rallied behind their starting outside back in unison. Once the center ref signaled for halftime, each player went over and gave Butki a hug before joining the huddle.

At halftime, it was clear to the team that the midfield was not in-sync, and each side of the field were playing independent of each other. This team needed to switch that if they wanted to remain in this game, and avoid a loss or a draw. A draw would send Flint City AFC to the first round instead of either team playing tonight.

FC Pontiac generated a lot of pressure early in the 2nd half, and the defense held strong for quite a while. Morgan Bogacki (Saginaw Valley State) made a few excellent blocks, and Eva Hill (Detroit Mercy) was all over the place, making saves left and right. As the Firebirds kept earning corners, that quick twitch ability from Hill helped her earn over 6 saves in the match.

About midway through the 2nd half, the dam broke, and FC Pontiac scored with 22 minutes remaining until stoppage time. If this were any other team, you would’ve seen the players hang their head and look to regroup while thinking about what another loss would look like.

But this is Troy City we’re talking about. Giving up isn’t a thought in their head.

After some more magic by Hill, Troy City made a run, and Quidort made an excellent pass to Reese Carmody (Ferris State). With plenty of room in front of her, she faked the keeper out and put it in the back of the net to tie the game up. With all the momentum on their side, Emma Nicholson (Husson) hustled from the back line to take her own shot on goal, which ricocheted off the goalie’s chest and into the feet of McKenna Clouston (Utah Valley commit), who quickly scored to take the lead, now with 12 minutes to go.

FC Pontiac couldn’t help themselves when it came to their physical style of play, and when Carmody was given another chance to score with only the keeper in front of her, the Firebird defender grabbed the back of Carmody’s jersey and pulled her to the ground, resulting in a red card. The Troy side of the stands erupted in applause as it finally felt like the home side was getting their comeuppance for their style of play.

On the ensuing setpiece, there was no action needed by the players off the ball, as all of Troy knew Clouston was ready to take a rocket-powered shot towards the net. Arndt turned to the bench and said, “Someone should get this on video, this is going to be Sportscenter Top-10 right here.” Sure enough, Clouston did what was expected, scored the goal, and secured the win for Troy City just before the end of the game. Arndt did a TikTok dance after to celebrate, much to the delight of the bench.

“I practice [those shots] every day,” Clouston said following the match. “I didn’t feel any pressure. Even if they had 9 people in their wall, I would’ve scored.”

Though the action was chippy the entire way, Troy City never succumbed to the frustration they probably felt throughout the match. Instead, they rose above it and found ways to play through it.

“There’s a lot of games that can become physical,” Arndt said. “With 50/50 balls and slide tackles, it could look like a cheap shot from our end, but a hard tackle in [the other team’s] eyes. While I don’t condone it, I’m happy no one else got hurt, and I’m proud of the way they worked through it…The team that stays composed usually wins the game.”

“I don’t know how I did it,” Clouston said when asked about playing after Butki’s injury. “Kayla’s one of my really good friends, but I have to play for the team, not myself. As much as I wanted to get mad and freak out, I can’t. I love her, but I had to [stay composed.]”

Troy City WFC improves on their 1-3-5 record in the UWS from a season ago, and now marches into the Great Lakes Championship with a 5-2-1 record. They’ll assemble their best available for a groundbreaking match at Lawrence Tech University’s field, this Saturday at 8pm.

“We struggled last year because it was our first season, but towards the end of the season I could see them buying in. Similar to the [Detroit] Lions and the [Detroit] Tigers, when they started to win games at the end and make a leap into the next season. This season was so much fun, to see the team get rewarded for their efforts and play in the playoffs, we’ve exceeded my expectations by a lot.”

On that same day, Troy City will play themselves in the League Cup match in the MPSL at 2pm, at Avondale High School. We’ll have full coverage of both matches here on troycitywfc.com.