Coming together

Canton's mix of veterans, youngsters find the right chemistry in huge 1-0 victory

  Late in Wednesday night's Division 1 Regional semifinal clash against Walled Lake Northern, Canton's pressurized attack was like a water balloon that is connected too long to a running faucet.

  It was bound to explode sooner or later.

  Unfortunately for the Knights, it happened later -- at the 3:12 mark of the second half when Canton sophomore defender Connor Furgason ripped home a rebound off a Brandon Tolinski near-miss to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead they would never relinquish.

  The victory pushed the surging Chiefs (14-7-3) into Saturday's Regional final contest against cross-campus neighbor Salem, which advanced with a 2-1 triumph over Dearborn.

  The final is set for 1 p.m. at Livonia Stevenson High School.

  The winning goal was set up when Mitch Posuniak's bending corner kick was settled by Tolinski in front of the net. The senior captain's chip shot hit the cross bar and dropped straight down. Furgason then alertly pounced on the still live ball and torpedoed it past Northern keeper Mitchell Thompson for the game's only goal.

  "At first, I thought my shot went in," recalled Tolinski. "The ref looked like he was running back. But thankfully Conner was there to get the rebound. I don't really care who scored, as long as we scored.

  "Whichever team had the better heart was going to win tonight and we had the better heart in the second half."

  When the clock wound down to 0:00, the ecstatic Chiefs converged at mid-field for a group hug they won't soon forget.

  "This is amazing," said senior captain Matt "Eddie" Edwards, a few moments after Canton's biggest win in nearly a decade. "With five minutes left, I was getting worried about overtime. When Conner scored, I went crazy. I was so happy.

  "We weren't supposed to do that much this year because we have such a young team. To make it this far is amazing. I can't wait for Saturday. These stands are going to be full."

  Canton's unique mix of young (seven regulars are either freshmen or sophomores) and veteran players provided some challenging moments early in the season, coach George Tomasso admitted.

  But the Chiefs bonded when they needed to, the veteran coach said.

  "It took a long time for everyone to respect one another," Tomasso said. "But I think it all came down to a common conclusion: They all want to win. If they feel this is their opportunity to win, they're going to put their differences aside and play together as a team, and that's what they've proven the past four games. It's been wonderful.

  "I give every one of these kids on the team all the credit because they've worked so hard all year long. Our record doesn't do justice to how hard they've worked. They've done everything I've asked of them."

  Possession-wise, the Knights may not have owned the first half, but they definitely leased it. But every time Northern threatened to break the scoring ice, a Canton defender -- either Jonathan Dugan, Furgason, Tyler Winningham or Connor Shennan -- or senior keeper Kai Walther subdued the threat.

  "We changed our attack a little bit in the second half," said Tomasso. "We tried to shoot more gaps and what-not. We tried to get rid of the jitters that we had the first half. We needed to calm down a little bit and stick to the game plan, which we did very well the last 15 minutes."

  The Chiefs strung together a series of near-misses in the 10 minutes leading up to the goal. The best chances came with just under 10 minutes left when Tolinski barely missed connecting on a cross. On the ensuing corner kick, Bobby Budlong sent a perfect hooking missile that Shennan headed just high of the cross bar.

  But all the misses were old news once Furgason lit up the scoreboard with his opportunistic rebound effort.

  "All season, I've been harping on the fact that we need to be more desperate in the box," Tomasso said, talking about the goal. "When Brandon's chip shot hit the cross bar, the boys didn't stop. They kept going, and when the ball popped out, Conner made a great shot on the ball. It was a fantastic goal."

Ed Wright can be reached at [email protected] or (734) 453-1980.