Prep highlights: South Lyon stuns Brighton in district soccer opener

A girls soccer rematch between Brighton and Hartland for the district championship isn’t going to happen.

South Lyon had other plans.

The Lions rallied from a 2-1 second-half deficit to upset Brighton, 3-2, Wednesday in a first-round Division 1 district game at Sloan Field.

Ainsley Seiter and Lauren Carrico scored to give Brighton a 2-1 lead. South Lyon tied it midway through the second half and got the game-winner with about 10 minutes remaining.

Sierra Newton scored twice and Rhianna Schermerhorn once for South Lyon (11-4-1).

“I watched them play multiple times,” Brighton coach Ryan Carriere said. “I knew what they were going to be doing and our players knew what they were going to be doing. Sometimes, regardless of how much information you have about someone, the game goes the wrong way. That’s why I love soccer so much; it’s the team that executes that wins.”

Both teams finished in fourth place in their leagues, but Brighton (10-6-3) competed in the much-tougher KLAA West that features No. 1-ranked Northville, No. 3 Hartland and No. 14 Salem. South Lyon’s league, the Lakes Valley Conference, doesn’t have a state-ranked Division 1 team. League champion South Lyon East is No. 10 in Division 2.

“I just feel very, very proud to be part of a program where the expectation is excellence,” Carriere said. “Every night, you have to prove that. The season itself is kind of rewarding, because every night you’re accomplishing something, because you’re playing such high-level competition. All our players this season had an opportunity to play high-level competition and had the experience of playing Brighton soccer.”

Dating back to 2001, Brighton was 6-0 in district games against South Lyon.

“In the first half, we had at least four opportunities to really put the game in our favor where we wouldn’t be concerned going into the second half,” Carriere said. “However, we left some goals off the board. We were up 1-0 at half.”

In other district openers, Milford beat Howell 5-0 and Okemos beat East Lansing 1-0. Howell finished 0-17-1.

South Lyon will face Okemos at 5 p.m. Tuesday and Hartland will take on Milford at 7 p.m. Tuesday in district semifinals at Howell’s Parker Middle School.

Boys lacrosse

Hartland 31, Linden 0

Hartland built a 25-0 halftime lead, pulling its starters in a regional semifinal game that ended after three quarters.

Bo Lockwood had six goals and seven assists, John Weber had seven goals, Mac Tognetti had six goals and one assist, and Drew Lockwood had three goals and three assists.

Zach Spisz won 18 of 20 faceoffs and had 11 ground balls. Evan Busby won 10 of 13 faceoffs.

Hartland has outscored two postseason opponents by a combined 57-0 score. The Eagles will face Bloomfield Hills at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the regional championship game at Hartland.

The winner will face Brighton or Grand Ledge in the state Division 1 quarterfinals at 6 p.m. June 3 at Parker Middle School. Brighton won its regional semifinal, 17-7, over Holt.

Softball

Pinckney 9, Ann Arbor Skyline 3

Pinckney broke open a 5-3 game by scoring four runs in the top of the seventh inning.

Sydney Pease struck out nine batters and allowed five hits. Alli Novick, Violet McWhinnie, Mackenzie Burns and Mallory Dickey each had two hits for the Pirates (24-5-1).

Baseball

Plymouth 2, Pinckney 1 (9)

Drew Dawson’s single in the top of the ninth inning drove in the winning run.

Mason Allen delivered Pinckney’s only run with a double in the fourth inning. Pinckney’s Joey Downer allowed only one hit in 7⅔ innings, striking out five. Ethan Putnam, Nolan Carruthers, Alex Geyer and Allan had two hits for the Pirates (8-19).

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com.  Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.