FORTVILLE — The Mt. Vernon Marauders have had the number of their Hancock County rivals in recent years. That didn’t change this week.
First, they eliminated New Palestine from the girls soccer state tournament Tuesday night, topping the Dragons, 2-1. The trend continued Thursday, as they did the same to Greenfield-Central, ending the Cougars season for the second straight year.
Meeting in the Sectional 21 semifinal hosted at Mt. Vernon, the Marauders jumped out on their county rivals with a goal just 4:05 into the game Thursday. They doubled their lead before the half.
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A quick goal two minutes into the second half helped spark the hosts, and a big last half hour helped Mt. Vernon cruise past Greenfield-Central, 7-1.
“We know Greenfield does really well in the second half, usually. I think we were all mentally prepared for that,” Mt. Vernon senior Riley Hurst said. “Physically, we know what we’re doing. It’s not a new game; we play them all the time. They’re definitely always super strong, but we were so ready. We were focused.”
Greenfield-Central came into Thursday’s game riding a 10-game win streak, but they fell behind quickly and couldn’t catch up.
Katie Gawrys opened the scoring just over four minutes in, chipping a shot from near the top of the box that got past Greenfield-Central goalie Schyler Slunaker.
Slunaker had stopped a Hurst shot from the middle of the box in the opening minutes. Hurst didn’t miss on her next clean chance. With 6:12 left in the first half, the Mt. Vernon senior got around an injured Cougars defender and blasted a shot from the top of the box that got past the outstretched arms of Slunaker.
That was a turning point. Greenfield-Central senior Emily Davidson slipped on the play and went down awkwardly, which opened the room for Hurst. The Marauders were already down two starting defenders heading into the game, so losing another left a big hole in the defense.
“I think what got us was when our senior leader went down, when Emily got injured,” Greenfield-Central coach Brandon Steeno said. “She’s our heartbeat. She’s our motor. She’s the one that gets everybody else going. When she went out, that was a void we couldn’t fill.”
The Marauders quickly took advantage. Maddie Swingle took a free kick from 15 yards outside the box just minutes into the second half, finding Anna Isger perfectly on a run. Isger controlled the ball just in front of the net and put it past Slunaker, giving the Marauders a three-goal cushion with 38 minutes left. Gawrys scored her second goal of the game 12 minutes later and Rylie Pearson added the fifth goal three minutes later.
“I think we got after it a little. We talked about getting our shots off, finishing,” Mt. Vernon coach Steve Williams said of his team’s five-goal second half. “We didn’t change a lot — we just needed to do better. I like that we’re peaking at the right time right now.”
Greenfield-Central’s offense had very little room to work. The high-scoring duo of Anne Marie DeKeyser and Kelsi McLaughlin was held in check, only registering a handful of shots on net and no goals.
The Cougars finally got on the board with 21:38 left, a long shot from near midfield by Sarah Contreraz that slipped past Mt. Vernon’s Alex Overshiner. The Marauders responded with goals by Shay Shipley and another from Pearson in the final 10 minutes to reach the final margin of victory.
Now that they’ve knocked out both of their county rivals, the Marauders (13-5) advance to Saturday’s 7 p.m. championship game against No. 17 East Central, who rolled past Shelbyville in the second semifinal on Thursday, 11-0.
“East Central’s a well-coached, really good team,” Williams said. “That’ll be a war.”
The Cougars finish their season — Steeno’s first as head coach — with a 14-3 record, a two-win improvement from 2018.
“I am over-the-moon ecstatic with the growth,” Steeno said. “For them to play for one another, with one another, I’m proud of the growth. I’ll take that. Youth was served tonight, for sure. We got it handed to us — just a step slow — but what’s good is they are already talking about next year and what they did today to make sure it doesn’t happen next year. That’s a win.”