FORTVILLE — Mt.Vernon gave itself a strong challenge to open the 2018 soccer season, playing host to a semistate team from last season in Bishop Chatard.
It was a far cry from last year’s opener, a 14-0 dominating win against Mississinewa.
The Marauders weren’t intimidated by the visitors Monday night, jumping out to an early lead and adding to it before hanging on for what ended up a hard-fought, 3-2 opening-night win.
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“I would’ve felt better if we played the first half like the second half,” Mt. Vernon coach Steve Williams said. “I thought we owned them the first half, and I think we ran out of steam a little bit in the second half. We kind of just hung on there toward the end. The last 15 minutes they were all over us.”
Mt. Vernon (1-0) had a 3-0 lead early in the second half before Chatard (0-1) took over the game. The Marauders, playing with a bit of a makeshift defense due to injuries, hung on by the slimmest of margins.
Scoring was opened in the first 10 minutes of the game, with Mt. Vernon junior Riley Hurst blasting a shot past Chatard keeper Izzy Surinak off a give and go with Shay Stindle in the ninth minute, putting the hosts in front early. Shay Shipley doubled the lead in the 27th minute, scoring off a free kick that slipped past the Trojans defense.
The Marauders defense hung tough, stymieing several Chatard attacks in the first half and taking a 2-0 lead into the second half.
Stindle added a goal of her own less than two minutes into the second half to put the hosts up 3-0. From there, Chatard quickly struck back.
Three minutes after Stindle’s goal, Chatard’s Grace Adams scored off a cross into the box. Three minutes later, Elizabeth Jacobson pulled the Trojans within one, scoring after a deflection left her one on one with Mt. Vernon goalie Jaici Wright.
That’s when a bit of luck came into play for Mt. Vernon.
A Chatard shot hit the post with 25 minutes left. Another hit the crossbar with 15 minutes remaining. Yet another Chatard shot careened off the crossbar with eight minutes left after a corner kick snuck through to the top of the box. A final Chatard shot hit the underneath of the bar in the waning minutes, sending the visiting bench into a frenzy as they thought they’d scored the game-tying goal.
“At least we parked the bus, kind of hung in there a little bit,” Williams said. “I’m glad we won. It also exposed some things that we need to work on, which is really good. We needed this.”
The Marauders couldn’t seem to get control of the ball in the second half, letting Chatard dictate the pace of play and pile on shots on goal.
The defense did just enough, though, and the Marauders prevailed in the tough opening test against one of Class 2A’s top teams last season.
Both teams had chances in the opening minutes. Jaici Wright made several big saves in goal, and freshman Maddie Swingle made several key defensive plays in the first half, keeping the Trojans off the board.
Just two minutes into her first ever high school game, Swingle found herself one on one with an attacker. She deftly poked the ball out just yards in from of Wright, stopping the scoring threat before Chatard could get a shot off.
“It was scary, but once you’re in the moment, it just comes naturally,” Swingle said. “Once you get in it, it’s just so much fun.”
Swingle again found herself in a precarious position in the 25th minute, when she again foiled a breakout from the visitors and knocked the ball away before a shot could be taken.
“She’s really good,” Williams said of Swingle. “She saved our butts.”
An incredible defensive scramble by the Marauders kept the ball out of the net with five minutes left in the first half, as a Chatard pass got to an attacker right at the goal line. Swingle and the swarming Marauders defense were able to clear it before it crossed the goal line, one in a string of near-misses for the Trojans.
The Trojans hit the post or crossbar a half dozen times, coming inches away from the tying goal over and over again. At the end of the day, though, the Marauders came together against a tough opponent.
They found a way to win.
“I think it went really good,” Swingle said. “We clicked instantly, which is really rare, because we’re a high school team. You usually don’t bond like that. We just bonded so well.”