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Bay City John Glenn boys soccer team enters the Division 2 state tournament with a stellar 21-0-2 record, a Bay County Invitational crown, Swartz Creek Invitational title, the Tri-Valley Conference-Red Division championship, a 107-14 scoring edge, 16 shutouts and some team records -- not to mention a No. 8 ranking in the MIHSSCA Division 2 polls.
BY DAN STICKRADT
WEB AND CONTENT EDITOR | DIRECTOR OF NEWS
Michigan Soccer Network | Premier Media Group and affiliates
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BANGOR TWP., Mich. – Sometimes, teams just get better over time.
Bay City John Glenn has done that all over the soccer pitch in recent years – especially this season.
Since finishing just under the five-hundred mark at 9-10-0 during the 2022 season and over to the 2024 campaign where the Bobcats have already set some program records and grabbed some championship hardware. This program hopes to continue winning deep into October.
Let’s just say that this is definitely a program on the rise.
“We lost a couple of good players to graduation but with what we had coming back we felt that we could contend in our league this year,” admitted Bay City John Glenn coach Brian Scherzer. “There are some quality teams in our league like Alma, Frankenmuth, (Saginaw) Swan Valley, Freeland and its not like you can just take a night off whenever you play those schools.”
In that 2022 season, John Glenn scored 83 goals as a team but conceded 63 goals with eight shutouts. The Bobcats were actually mercied in a couple of games two years ago – losing to Tri-Valley Conference-Red Division champion Frankenmuth 9-1 and 12-0 – and had six other losses by three or more goals during that up-and-down campaign. The Bobcats finished fifth in the league and were ousted by Mt. Pleasant (2-1) in a Division 2 pre-district contest that season.
John Glenn finished a school-best 17-4-1 overall in 2023, including second at 9-2-1 in the TVC-Red behind eventual Division 3 state semifinalist Alma, to signal their turnaround from being a middle of the table-type program but into a contender. The Bobcats did post eight clean sheets last year but lost in the Division 2 district semifinals to then-state ranked Cedar Springs (4-0) to end their campaign.
The Bobcats cracked both the honorable mention and top 15 in the Division 2 state rankings for what is believed to be the first time in school history last season.
Things have been much different this time around. Much different. In a positive way and on all ends of the pitch.
With a host of returnees back in uniform along with some talented underclassmen – not to mention technically more skilled soccer players along with a multitude of club soccer products and multi-sport athletes – and this year’s version has been every bit of the part of a high-quality team that is thinking big.
After recording shutouts in the first seven games of the 2024 campaign, Bay City John Glenn has been rewriting the school records books as a team and posted the first unbeaten regular season in program history at 21-0-2. The Division 2 eighth-ranked Bobcats finished 8-0-2 in the six-school TVC-Red this season where they recorded five clean sheets and outscored the opposition 39-11 in their 10 leagues games this season. Bay City John Glenn captured the outright TVC-Red Division league title with 26 points, four points ahead of runner-up and defending champion Alma.
The only blemishes are a 3-3 tie back on Aug. 28 with Frankenmuth, always one of the top teams in the two-division TVC, and a 2-2 draw with Alma (2-2) on Sept. 23, and Alma is ranked 11th in Division 3. John Glenn defeated both Alma and Freeland on the road for the first time in recent memory.
There’s plenty of talent on this team led by several returning starters and a very cohesive unit that has become more of a lockdown defensive team than in past years and has generated a high-powered offense that has scored more goals than any other Division 2 program in the state.
Bay City John Glenn has outscored the opposition 107-14 over 23 games. That is a very respectable 0.61 team goals-against-average and significantly lower than the 2023 numbers where the Bobcats outscored the opposition 94-28 with a 1.28 goals-against-average and substantially better than the 2022 campaign where the team outscored their 19 foes 83-63 but allowed 3.32 goals a game.
The team has captured the Bay City Invitational for the third year in a row, finished 3-0-0 and won the Swartz Creek Invitational to go along with the recent clinching of the Bobcats’ first league title in years. Bay City John Glenn also has a school-record 16 shutouts this season and have not been shut out a single time all season. The team has only allowed seven schools to even score on the Bobcats and no school has scored more than three goals in a game all season and that was the aforementioned Frankenmuth in that tie in the league opener back in late August.
Talent-wise, John Glenn has created a stout defense this season, led by senior Arrow VanWagoner (D/M, one goal, six assists), junior Benjamin Cleland (D, three goals), senior Lucas Blossom (OB) and senior goalkeeper Drew Bailey, who was an All-League First Team player last season. Along with some underclassmen, this unit has done the dirty work in reversing the team’s defensive woes two years ago.
“Our defense may not get the credit they deserve, but they have done a great job here, really, the last two years,” said Scherzer. “We are (much) improved on the defensive end.”
Offensively, the Bobcats have taken things to a whole new level, led by senior Landon Kogelman (M) and junior Asher Clark (M/F). They have taken the reigns and are the straws that stir the drink in this high-powered engine that is already over 100 goals entering the state tournament. Both were All-League First Team last season.
“Landon is one of our senior leaders and has done a great job on both ends of the field,” added Scherzer. “He has really stepped it up.
“As for Asher Clark, he has really taken his game to a new level. Few teams have been able to slow him down at all. He’s involved in a lot of our scoring this year, whether that’s goals or assists, but he draws a lot of attention and he’s still scoring,” continued Scherzer. “He was a contributor last year and one of our leaders (offensively), but he’s really stepped it up this year.”
Kogelman has notched nine goals and 12 assists this season playing more of a holding center midfielder role while also contributing on defense. Clark has put up some gaudy numbers worthy of an All-State First Team bid, scoring 47 goals with 25 assists. Clark’s tallies are second on the school’s single-season list and trails only Ty Richards’ 53 goals set back in 2008 and is also top five in the entire state of Michigan. Clark also had six goals and eight assists in one three-game stretch last month.
Senior midfielder Carter Glaza has also been a key force in the lethal attack, scoring 10 goals with 15 assists. Sophomore forward Dylan Del Amo Langenburg is fourth on the team in points with eight goals and five assists. Several other Bobcats have contributed, with sophomore midfielder Michael Nori (three goals, six assists), senior midfielder Ruben Rivera (two goals, nine assists), senior midfielder Brady Premier (eight goals, four assists), sophomore forward Landon Beson-Montoya (one goal, six assists) and senior midfielder Trent Phillips (four goals, three assists) aiding the charge. Freshman Brayden Lang (F) and sophomores Justin Wingeler (M), Dylan Wood (F) and Will Jeske (F) have also seen some varsity action this year and have picked up some points.
Only one player on the roster has not added any points on the year and that’s one of the team’s marking backs who is assigned to shut down the opposing team’s top forwards every game.
“We have a lot of guys who have contributed in a lot of ways this season and that’s something that I really like. Asher might have a ton of goals, but he is assisting the other players and we’ve had a lot of guys score goals this season,” noted Scherzer. “And on the defensive end, these guys have come together and have made us a difficult team to score upon.”
High-powered Alma swept Bay City John Glenn last season, but the Bobcats were able to gain a 1-0 shutout over the Panthers earlier this season and Alma has also put up some gaudy numbers this year.
With perhaps its best all-around team in program history, John Glenn is hoping to make a run in the postseason this year. They have already checked a bunch of boxes and put together a remarkable regular season and hope to win at least a district and maybe more during October.
Bay City John Glenn opens the postseason Oct. 9 with a pre-district game against winless Saginaw United at 4:30 p.m. The Bobcats will likely play the winner of the Bay City Western-Big Rapids winner next week in the district semifinals.
“We understand that there’s a lot of good teams out there and as you win a bunch of games it kind of puts a target on your back. We can’t underestimate anyone,” reminded Scherzer. “It doesn’t matter if you are playing against some team that is in the lower half of their league, you have to come ready to play. This season, I think these guys have done just that. They love playing with each other. They practice hard and they want to win as a team. They have a lot of goals they would love to accomplish this season and we’ll just keep it one game at a time and never look too far ahead.”
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(Have a story suggestion for the Premier Media Group and the Michigan Soccer Network regarding club soccer, high school varsity, amateur soccer, collegiate soccer or professional soccer involving teams, players or coaches with Michigan ties, contact Communications Specialist/Web and Content Editor/Director of News Dan Stickradt via email at stickradt@michigansoccernetwork.com or dstickradt@thepremiermediagrp.com, or call 248-884-1051 or 248-525-2349. Dan Stickradt is a 31-year veteran of the Michigan Media circles and recently joined the staff full time in March of 2024. Want to schedule a broadcast game or live show, contact PMG/MSN Director of Broadcasting Jonathan Turner for availability and pricing at jonathan@michigansoccernetwork.com and jonathan@thepremiermediagrp.com.)
(MSN will compile a random sampling of game results from around the state each day. To send in results from high school varsity, club, amateur, pre-pro, semi-pro or professional soccer, email all pertinent details to Communications Specialist / Web and Content Editor / Director of News Dan Stickradt at stickradt@michigansoccernetwork.com and dstickradt@thepremiermediagrp.com or submit information right on the correct link on the MSN website at https://www.michigansoccernetwork.com/reportascore. Please submit the competing teams, location and date of game, final score, overall and league records, goals, assists, goalkeepers and saves, standout defenders, players of the match, and any other pertinent details of the game. If there are courtesy action photos available, feel free to submit them at the above-listed emails.)
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