NEW PALESTINE — It was as competitive as a conference soccer match ought to be on Thursday night’s collision between county rivals Greenfield-Central and New Palestine, both county coaches said.
Greenfield-Central emerged victorious from the closely-contested match 1-0, still leading the Hoosier Heritage Conference. But Greenfield-Central head coach Bobby Holden said the match was a little too close for comfort.
Greenfield-Central established control of the field at the onset of the game. The Dragons initially made several defensive clears against the Cougars’ repeated drives toward their goal, but their efforts were eventually overcome.
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Ten minutes into the match, Greenfield-Central junior Zack Bell juggled his way past the defense and snuck a goal past New Palestine goalkeeper Adam Hunt to put the Cougars up 1-0.
Greenfield-Central kept up the pace and held the offensive front, keeping New Palestine’s defense on their toes with a string of precise passes and some slick ball handling. But the Dragons held the line, keeping the Cougars at bay throughout the remainder of the first half.
The Dragons held up their defensive barrier and prevented Greenfield-Central from scoring for the rest of the game. Despite several close defensive plays, including a clean last-ditch slide tackle by New Palestine’s Austin Burks and more than one diving save from Hunt, the Dragons were not able to launch a successful counter attack.
The game ended with no more scores and the Cougars ahead, 1-0.
New Palestine head coach Justin Sass said his team knew what they were up against before hitting the field. Greenfield-Central always puts together a highly-organized team, and he was hoping for a win against a strong opponent to help push them through the rest of the season.
But it just wasn’t their night, he said.
“I’m disappointed because at the end of the day you always want to win and get a result,” Sass said. “But the boys battled hard, and that’s all you can ask for. Unfortunately they just capitalized off of one of our mistakes.”
“I thought it was a battle, and I loved it,” he added. “It’s definitely what you want to see in a conference matchup.”
Holden said while his team got the better of their county rivals in a tough exchange in the first 10 minutes of the match, the gameplay got really tight there at the end of the second half, leaving his offense unable to find their rhythm.
“I think that New Pal just disrupted us enough to keep us out of our flow,” Holden said. “I thought maybe we’d put a couple more away using our style of play, but we didn’t.”
“And kudos to them for shutting us down there,” he added, crediting their opponent.
The Cougars will play back to back games starting this weekend and moving into next week, and Holden said he is hoping they’ll be back to putting consistent points on the board before then.
“I don’t want want to go into Shelbyville on Monday without finding that rhythm,” Holden said.
