NEW PALESTINE — With just one conference game remaining for each team, Wednesday night’s Hoosier Heritage Conference clash was vital to both the New Palestine and Pendleton Heights girls soccer teams.
The Dragons and the Arabians, tied for second in the HHC behind Mt. Vernon, both needed a win to stay in contention for a conference title.
Pendleton Heights got the win they needed.
The Arabians (8-3-2, 5-1 HHC) picked up the big conference victory, 4-0, at New Palestine, keeping their chances at an HHC title alive.
“We just didn’t show up to play. I don’t know how to explain it any more than that,” New Palestine coach Gina Fannin said. “We had Edin (Hurst) go down with a concussion on Monday, so we had to put a few things differently, but that shouldn’t have mattered. We just didn’t put it together tonight.”
Pendleton Heights, which came into the game averaging 5.5 goals per game this season, is powered by two high-scoring seniors in Helena Talbot and Taylor Fort, who each had 38 points coming into the game, with Talbot scoring 14 goals and Fort scoring 12.
The Dragons (8-4, 4-2) kept the pair off the board in the first half hour with a strong defensive effort and pressuring offense. That was as long as New Palestine could hold down the Arabians’ goal leader.
Talbot scored the game’s first goal, just shy of 30 minutes into the game, on a shot that got past New Palestine keeper Haley Weinrich. The goal, Talbot’s first of three she’d score in the game, was the 14th shot of the game and sixth for the Arabians.
New Palestine’s Grace Voelz blocked two shots in a row with just over two minutes remaining in the half, but the Arabians got possession of both rebounds and put in the third shot attempt, a goal from Lexi Hill.
With a 2-0 lead entering the half, the Arabians had all the scoring they would need to keep the Dragons at bay and keep a conference championship dream alive.
Talbot scored again, her 16th goal of the season, just a minute and a half into the second half to put the game even further out of reach for New Palestine, then shut the door with her hat-trick goal just over eight minutes into the half.
“They always come out to play tough, so we knew they were going to be tough,” Fannin said of the Arabians. “It was just a matter of us being able to handle that or not, and tonight we didn’t handle it very well.”
The game started at a fast pace, with the Dragons getting five shots on goal and the Arabians two in the first eight minutes.
New Palestine had several big opportunities in the early going. A perfect cross from Victoria Crowder found Maddy Miller right in front of the net, but Miller’s first-touch shot saw the ball sail just over the crossbar in the third minute. Crowder had her own opportunity a minute later when she got around a defender in the corner of the box and launched a shot on net that was stopped by Arabians keeper Megan Mills.
The hosts had controlled the pace for much of the first half, getting eight shots on goal before the Arabians scored. Once the visitors got the lead, though, they tightened up their defense and kept control for much of the rest of the game.
New Palestine closes conference play against Shelbyville on Monday. Pendleton Heights faces Mt. Vernon in each team’s last conference game, also Monday. The Arabians can earn at least a share of the HHC title with a win, or win outright if Mt. Vernon also loses to Delta this Saturday.
“Through the next week, it’s going to be important to get back on a roll again,” Fannin said. “It’s always tough when you miss someone like Edin, who is kinda your center stronghold back there. They’re going to have to learn to deal with that. Tomorrow is going to be another learning curve.”