Andover Soccer Wins District Championship In Tense Game Over Cranbrook-Kingswood

It was a matter of inches.

Darren Weiss hit a miraculous shot for the varsity boys soccer team in the final minutes on Friday to give his team a 2-1 win over and its first district title in school history. 

The game-winner from Weiss made it just over the Cranes' goalie Alex Roed's outstretched hands and under the crossbar. 

“The goalie looked like he got his fingertips on it,” Weiss said. “I sort of out of instinct told the ball, dip. I’m lucky, it was a one out of 10 shot.”

A corner kick from Nick Shabino set the play up. His kick bounced away from a line of Cranbrook-Kingswood defenders right outside the goal box and Weiss was in perfect position to clean it up and loft a shot at the net. 

“It just popped out (of the box) and my job is to clean up the trash in front,” Weiss said. “The guy was coming at me, so I just put a foot on it and it went in.”

The Barons were able to run out the final three minutes left on the clock. When time expired, their home fans rushed the field and celebrated.

“We won a state championship way back in the day, but that was pre-MHSAA days,” Andover head coach Geoff Parkinson said. “It’s great, really nice. We’ve had opportunities before, we lost in the final, we’ve been so close a lot of times, but we’ve frequently been in a really good (district) group.”

A couple of lucky bounces earlier in the game and it might not have been so close. 

Andover had some really good scoring opportunities by kicking the ball down field behind the defense. The Barons nearly had a goal 30 seconds into the game when Jacob Rosenweig had two shots right in front of the goal. 

“First few minutes we had like three point blank shots and couldn’t get it in, had a bunch of free kicks and couldn’t get them in, all our great attacking players were getting snake bit,” Parkinson said.

Will Neef did give Andover a 1-0 lead when he scored 15 minutes into the game. Rosenzweig was tripped up at midfield to set up a free kick. Greg Mitchem passed the free shot to Neef, who hit a quick strike into the back of the net.

The game really tightened up in the second half when Cranbrook made some adjustments and kept the ball in the Barons zone. The Cranes came out of halftime more aggressive and eventually broke through with a goal from Kyle He with 26:20 left in the game.

He found space between three defenders and hit a perfect shot between Andover goaltender Truman Lorick and the post.

“They were going real hard, diving on every foul, it was a real close game, neither team could afford a mistake,” Weiss said.

The Barons will now wait for an opponent. They will play the winner of and on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Andover will have an advantage playing at home, as it is hosting the Division 2 regional.  

“I think we have the team to win it all this year,” Weiss said. “We’ll see what happens, we just have to keep this momentum for regionals.”