FENTON – Pleasant Hill senior Haley DiMarco replayed the moment in her mind for a year.
State semifinal. Penalty kicks. First shooter. Miss.
“That lit a fire under me this year,” DiMarco said. “I had nothing but drive.”
Against the same opponent one year later, DiMarco exacted her revenge by scoring five goals to power Pleasant Hill to a 5-0 victory over Clayton to capture the Class 2 MSHSAA soccer championship Saturday at Soccer Park in Fenton.
Pleasant Hill (25-2), which reached the state semifinals for the seventh time in eight seasons, won its first state title in its first appearance in the championship match.
The Chicks ended the season on an 18-game winning streak.
“It means a lot,” DiMarco said. “The seniors have been (to Soccer Park) three times. We’ve worked our tails off, in-season, off-season and everywhere in between. We deserve this.”
Four minutes into the Class 2 championship game, Pleasant Hill proved the old Nike ad campaign correct that Chicks, do in fact, love the long ball. Junior Rylee Hill drove a pass from beyond midfield and DiMarco outraced the Clayton defense, retrieved it and scored on a breakaway for a quick 1-0 lead.
“We knew we were ahead of them athletically. We knew that if we could get ourselves in good positions playing through balls, that we could outrun them,” Pleasant Hill coach Edson Ortiz said.
DiMarco estimated that at least half of her 40 goals this season were scored in a similar fashion.
“It’s really just trust,” Hill said of her long passes to DiMarco. “Her speed is unmatched. I just kick it and hope she gets there.”
Seldom does a sense of redemption appear so clearly, but in the 14th minute, Pleasant Hill was awarded a penalty kick. Originally, junior Kaydence Paschall stood behind the ball, but after a short discussion, DiMarco walked to the spot instead.
Her laser into the top right corner made it 2-0.
Just before halftime, Clayton began to tilt the field and find its own scoring chances, including a jaw-dropping opportunity in the final minute. A bouncing ball in the crease found the foot of Greyhounds’ leading scorer Grace Bower, but Pleasant Hill sophomore goalkeeper Breauna McCluer threw out her right leg and prevented a goal with a stunning save.
“When I saw that happening, I thought, ‘We’re going to be 2-1 going into half,’ Ortiz said. “But that’s Breauna. That (save) wasn’t an accident. She’s done that multiple times throughout the season.”
The clear shift in momentum near the end of the first half gave Clayton confidence heading into intermission. The Greyhounds produced several come-from-behind wins during the season, most recently a 2-1 semifinal victory over St. Vincent after trailing at halftime.
“The attitude was upbeat. We were knocking the ball around pretty well against them, getting good looks, but just couldn’t put in that first goal,” Clayton coach Dan Dorsey said. “We went into halftime thinking, ‘We’ve been down before.’”
But DiMarco would not be denied.
Midway through the second half, DiMarco sprinted onto a through ball from midfielder Lily Bouchard and scored. A minute later, she outraced defenders to another long bomb from Hull and made it 4-0. She capped off her magnificent performance by settling a bouncing ball in the box and converting her fifth goal of the night.
“That (performance) was a little bit unexpected, but she is a special player. She has that in her,” Ortiz said. “Clearly, she had a different motivation today.”
Pleasant Hill opened its season with an ugly 4-0 loss to Class 3 runner-up St. Michael the Archangel – a loss that prompted a discussion between DiMarco and Ortiz.
“That game was a heartbreaker. I wanted my senior season to be great, and I really doubted it that game, but I had a conversation with (Ortiz) and he said, ‘You just have to believe in these girls,’” DiMarco recalled. “It flipped my mindset. I believed in them, they believed in me, and this is where it got us.”
The Chicks arrived at Soccer Park for the eighth time since 2018, having gone 0-7 in state semifinals before Friday. In previous years, their weekend schedule included late wake-ups and shopping at an outlet mall.
“I told the ladies, “If we want a different result, we have to be different,’” Ortiz said. “On both days, it was early wake-ups, we’re not sleeping in until midmorning, we’re eating breakfast as a team and then we’re hitting up a trail.”
During their 45-minute nature walks, the Chicks encountered geese, fish, crawdads and four armadillos.
“Apparently, they have very bad eyesight, and they didn’t even see us,” DiMarco said. “One of our team managers petted one.”
“We found out that when there is more than one, it’s a roll of armadillos,” Ortiz said.
After the walks, the Chicks stayed outside for foam-rolling, stretching and gameplan discussion.
“I don’t know if it had anything to do with the result, but it seemed that it changed it for us, so I’m happy that it worked,” Ortiz said. “If we get another opportunity, we will absolutely follow the same process.”
For Clayton, the season ended with the signature toughness shown over a four-year period that included a pair of state championships in 2023 and 2025, the first two in program history. Season-ending injuries to key players resulted in depth issues, but the fight and passion remained constant.
“They are warriors. Even despite the score, they played like warriors until the final whistle,” Dorsey said.
But the desire to make history, combined with a powerful sense of redemption, fueled DiMarco and Pleasant Hill to its own, elusive state championship.
“We deserved this more than anything,” DiMarco said. “I couldn’t ask for a better way to go out.”
For a photo gallery of this game click on the link below: