FORTVILLE — When Greenfield-Central needed a goal, Zack Bell and Caleb Mundell came through.
Clinging to a 2-1 lead with just under 15 minutes remaining in a boys soccer sectional championship game against East Central, Bell found Mundell alone in the center of the penalty box.
Mundell buried the shot in the top of the net, giving the Cougars a 3-1 lead and effectively punching their ticket to Saturday’s Carmel Regional.
Enzo Sartorio Cervera added the exclamation point with 1:43 left, getting behind the pushed-up defense of the Trojans and easily beating the keeper for the final goal, his second of the game.
Greenfield-Central held on from there, winning 4-1 on Saturday at Mt. Vernon.
“I’m overjoyed right now,” Greenfield-Central coach Bobby Holden said. “Oh my goodness, these boys show up day in, day out. They are an impressive group. Every single one of them, whether they are in the game or not, they are special.”
The sectional championship was Greenfield-Central’s third in a row and seventh overall. The Cougars won a Class 2A sectional in 2016 before moving up to Class 3A and winning a sectional there last year.
“To win three in a row, it takes a special program,” Holden said. “They’ve built this family atmosphere. It has nothing to do with me, it’s seriously all love, the love and passion they put in every day. It’s impressive. It goes back a long, long ways, but it has come together so well. You don’t get the three-peat without that kind of atmosphere. It just doesn’t happen.”
The Cougars got on the board first from a throw-in just over 10 minutes in the game, which Zack Bell took possession of and put in the back of the net.
A great individual effort and dribble move by Sartorio Cervera led to a goal with 36:21 remaining in the game, doubling the Cougars’ lead.
East Central answered back eight minutes later, earning two corner kicks in quick succession and converting the second for a goal, cutting the lead in half.
The Trojans pressed hard for the equalizer, upping the intensity in an attempt to even up the score in front of a raucous crowd.
Both schools packed the stands. Cougars fans were out in force for the sectional finale.
“Big shout-out to the fans,” Holden said. “Without the fan support, without the administration support that we had, we don’t have that atmosphere that we need. It was packed, it was loud, it was the soccer atmosphere we wanted.”
Greenfield-Central moves on to face No. 2 Zionsville at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Carmel Regional. The regional championship game will be played at 7 p.m.
“We thought once we got past Shelbyville and then Connersville, we thought we had the momentum and the mindset of we’re going to finish this one out, we’re going to get the three-peat,” Greenfield-Central junior Brantley Kuntz said. “My first two sectionals for this team were sitting on the bench, practicing with the boys.
“To earn this one, all season long to constantly play every game, earning this one as a team, it just feels so good. I’m just speechless.”