GAURUDER AND WINEKE GO TOE-TO-TOE IN BATTLE OF LOCAL GOALIE GREATS

Two of the best girls soccer goalies the area has to offer locked horns on Wednesday night in a game where it was an honest shame that someone had to lose. Novi's ace keeper Gabby Gauruder and Rochester Hills Adams' master netminder Jessica Wineke played to a virtual draw for the first 55 minutes of their teams' Division 1 state semi-final game, with both young ladies displaying the GOODS, as they say,between the pipes. Unfortunately for Wineke and the Highlanders, Novi's Nicki Greenhalgh slipped one into the net with roughly 25 minutes remaining to play in the second half to propel the Wildcats into the state finals on Saturday with a narrow 1-0 win.

Oh, and by the way, these girls are ONLY JUNIORS, which means we have one more whole season of watching them get SUPERBAD in the box and continuing to frustrate opposing players with their Brianna Scurry-like heroics. NICE!

Wineke has nothing to be ashamed of as her season comes to a close: she played like the warrior she is the entire contest (the entire year for that matter) and showed everybody that she deserves to be mentioned in any discussions regarding the state's top goaltenders from here on out.  

This season she recorded 10 shutouts (tied for most by any goalie in the OAA with Troy's Victoria Troccoli), three coming in the state tournament and had the best goals against average in the entire conference. In the Highlanders epic quarterfinal clash with Midland Dow, she made an extraordinary save during the penalty kick phase of OT to set up her team's subsequent game-winner.

Now let's move over and talk a little bit about my main homegirl, GABBY the GREAT!!!!! Gauruder has been a human shield of iron in goal all season long. To put it mildly, this girl is THE REAL DEAL HOLYFIELD and then some. On Wednesday night, she picked up her….are u ready for this?......17th shutout of the year. All I can say is….WOW!

Gauruder and Wineke, besides both being excellent goalies, each have considerably upped their college recruiting value with their performances this spring. When you throw them into the mix with likes of Avondale's Andrea Strauss, WOLL's Chantelle Ludwig and Marian's Makenzie Larson, among others, the OC has an ultra-strong crop of goaltenders returning in 2011. As Chris Farley once said in the movie Tommy Boy, "ME LIKEY!, ME LIKEY A LOT!!"