NEW PALESTINE — The Dragons struck first. The Cougars couldn’t seem to answer.
With the hosts putting the first two goals on the board, Greenfield-Central had chance after chance to respond but couldn’t find the back of the net until a penalty kick got the visitors in the goal column late in the first half.
Greenfield-Central picked up the one first-half goal on a dozen shots, while the Dragons took a 3-1 lead into the break. New Palestine weathered the Cougars’ attempts at a comeback, pulling out the 4-1 win against their county rivals Wednesday.
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It was a much different result from last year, a game the Cougars won handily, 6-0.
“We didn’t come out to play that game at all,” New Palestine coach Gina Fannin said. “This year, when they came out, they really wanted to come out to play.”
“They just came out and played hard and didn’t quit during the whole game,” she added. “We knew they were going to be fast, we knew they were going to put the ball through. I think they just played well. They came out ready to play hard.”
Olivia Lambdin got the Dragons (6-3, 3-1) on the board first in the seventh minute, blasting a shot from outside the box past Greenfield-Central goalie Schyler Slunaker and into the back of the net.
The Cougars (6-2, 3-2) looked to counter immediately, with Kelsi McLaughlin splitting two Dragons defenders near midfield and racing out for a one-on-one with Dragons goalie Haley Weinrich. Weinrich got enough of the shot to watch it bounce off the goalpost, and then stopped the follow-up shot from nearly point-blank range.
Maddy Miller doubled the Dragons lead in the 13th minute after a shot from Victoria Crowder hit the post and nearly went in. Miller got the rebound and pushed the ball across the line for New Palestine’s second goal.
“We made two mistakes and they scored two goals at the beginning, and then we got super unlucky and their keeper made a great, point-blank save, and I don’t know how many times the ball hit the post, rattled around,” Greenfield-Central coach Erin Clark said. “Just a lot of unlucky things as far as scoring goals went, but we made terrible defensive mistakes and every time we made a defensive mistake, they capitalized and scored.”
The visitors had plenty of opportunities to get on the board after the Dragons’ second goal.
Anne Marie DeKeyser looked to halve the lead with 23 minutes remaining the first half, breaking out after a perfect through ball and getting a clean shot on goal that sailed just wide.
Rita Aguye-Cots found herself alone in front of Weinrich minutes later, only to have her shot stopped. The rebound went right back to Aguye-Cots, but New Palestine’s Edin Hurst got a leg on the ball and stopped it up against the post.
DeKeyser found a loose ball in the middle of the box a minute later, only for Weinrich to again come up with the stop.
With just over 10 minutes remaining in the half, DeKeyser drew a penalty kick after a collision with Weinrich, earning the keeper a yellow card. Greenfield-Central’s Lucy Brand stepped up for the PK and calmly put the ball in the back left corner of the net — twice, after she was forced to re-kick — getting the Cougars on the board.
But just as soon as Greenfield-Central got the lead down to one, the Dragons struck again.
Moriah Corey answered for the Dragons on a long, floating shot with eight minutes left in the half. The ball dropped right into Slunaker’s hands, but the keeper lost control and the ball slipped across the line for a 3-1 New Palestine lead.
Miller scored her second goal of the game after a steal near midfield, closing out the scoring. She ran half the field alone right at Slunaker and extended the lead to 4-1 with a breakaway goal.
“Turnovers in the defensive end — you can’t do that,” Clark said. “Really, all four of the goals just came off mistakes. Really bad mistakes inside 25 yards, and when you do that, good teams are going to score. They did.”
The win was the first for the Dragons in nearly two weeks. They were outscored 9-0 in those two losses.
Picking up the win Wednesday, against a county rival, was a perfect way for the team to get back on track.
“I feel like it seems like we hit a midseason lull, and we did it last year against Greenfield,” Fannin said. “This was really important for us. We’re almost to the end, so we’ve got to start ramping back up towards sectional. I think tonight will get them back on the right direction.”