DeWitt and Mason advance to CAAC Gold Cup Final

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – DeWitt and Mason will square off in the CAAC Gold Cup Final for a second straight season after both teams earned wins in the semifinals Tuesday night.

After falling to Okemos 5-0 earlier in the season, Dewitt got some payback with a 4-1 win over Okemos in its Gold Cup semifinal.

After Okemos tied the game in the 23rd minute, Dewitt took over in the in the second half, tallying three goals. Dewitt’s goalkeeper Vince Rose came up with huge saves in the second half as well, including a penalty kick save in the 67th minute.

William Broderick, Carson Soltis (2), and Owen Zelski each scored for the Panthers.

In the other semifinal, Mason’s Kayden Hill scored the game-winning goal in the final 10 minutes of the Bulldogs’ 2-1 win over East Lansing.

Brock Straub scored the other Mason goal on a penalty kick early in the first half and Edner McAndrews scored the lone goal for East Lansing.

Mason also benefitted from some great saves by junior goalkeeper Landyn Loveless, who was making his first career varsity start.

Mason’s starting goalkeeper Mikey Krysiak was hurt in the team’s last game but Loveless was ready when his name was called to step up.

“Landyn was great for us tonight,” said head coach Jacob Derby. “I told him before the game, I said if you weren’t playing here at Mason with Mikey in front of us, you’d be starting. You’ve been performing at a high level in training and tonight he got his opportunity to shine in front of everyone and he stepped up and he held it down. There were some saves there that really kept us in it and we’re really proud of him.”

“He’s good on the ball, technically, he’s good with communication with everything that we need him to be and he’s just all around a good teammate,” added Hill of the trust the team has in Loveless.

“It means everything,” said Loveless of the opportunity. “I’ve been wanting to do this as a kid and now I get to, so it just means the world.”

Mason and DeWitt will play the CAAC Gold Cup Final on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Mason High School.

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