GREENFIELD — It was only fitting that Wednesday night’s county rivalry girls soccer game went to overtime.
A physical first half went scoreless. The second half was back-and-forth, and the Greenfield-Central Cougars and New Palestine Dragons were stuck at a 2-2 standstill after 80 minutes.
The Cougars struck first. The Dragons fired back with two straight goals before the hosts tied it again. Neither team could get the winner in regulation.
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Hancock County goal leader Kelsi McLaughlin finally found the winner with just over a minute left in the second overtime period. McLaughlin passed to Anne Marie DeKeyser, who split the defense. DeKeyser then found McLaughlin alone in the box.
The sophomore slotted her second goal of the game, and 19th of the season, giving the Cougars a huge conference win, 3-2.
“I was like, oh gosh, Anne’s going, and I passed her a good ball and I sprinted through the middle like, ‘Anne, Anne, Anne.’ I screamed her name so loud,” McLaughlin said. “Then she played it. I had kind of a big touch, but I knew I was going back post. I knew it was all effort from there, and I put it in.”
The Dragons came into the game determined not to let McLaughlin beat them. New Palestine senior Edin Hurst shadowed the Cougars sophomore for the first half, leaving the her almost no room to maneuver.
That was as long as the Dragons could keep McLaughlin contained. Once the second half started, it took her almost no time at all to make an impact.
The Cougars earned a corner four minutes into the half, which McLaughlin took and tapped to Kennedy Trapp. Trapp passed right back to McLaughlin, who got past the defense and fired a shot that easily got past New Palestine keeper Whitney Miller, giving the Cougars the lead.
“Kelsi McLaughlin is a great player. Obviously our gameplan was to really key in on her, and we did it early,” New Palestine coach Erin Clark said. “They were so successful with it early. She just kind of got away from us. She’s a good player and she’s going to find the back of the net.”
New Palestine wasn’t deterred, firing back with a goal of their own barely three minutes later when Addie Halter snuck the ball past Greenfield-Central keeper Schyler Slunaker for the equalizer. Maddy Miller gave the Dragons their first lead of the game at the 27-minute mark, controlling a corner kick right in front of the net and firing the ball past Slunaker.
DeKeyser tied the game with 19 minutes left, getting behind the defense with an impressive hustle play, then deftly sneaking the ball around the goalie before putting it in the back of the next.
The teams battled to a stalemate the rest of the way and through the first overtime period before McLaughlin got the winner.
“We’re young. We’re really, really young. We start five freshmen,” Clark said. “But that’s the hardest we’ve played all season. That is everything we have been working on, put into a game, and just kind of got unlucky at the end. They played their hearts out. That was intense.”
Beating a county and conference rival is a big enough achievement. The win, their fourth straight, moved the Cougars to 8-2 overall and 4-1 in the HHC. That it came on Senior Night — the Cougars started all three of their seniors, Emily Davidson, Sofia Torres and DeKeyser — and that it meant keeping possession of the HHC’s traveling bell trophy, made the win extra special.
“You can’t coach effort. The girls came out and absolutely blistered it the second half,” Greenfield-Central coach Brandon Steeno said. “I am so immensely proud. Especially on Senior Night, to be able to honor those three girls in that way, in that game, that’s awesome.”
The game was a first for Clark and Steeno, coaching against one another after being part of the Cougars’ coaching staff together the past few years. Clark was the head coach at Greenfield-Central before taking the New Palestine job in May. Steeno took her spot in Greenfield after spending several years as Clark’s assistant.
The Dragons fall to 5-4-2 on the year and 1-3 in the HHC after the hard-fought, draining defeat.
“Obviously it was a little bit emotional, but the girls came to play today,” Clark said of being back at Greenfield-Central. “We have not played like that all season, and for a young team with four girls who played varsity last year, to come out and give that kind of effort, I can’t ask for anything more.”