ST. LEON — Nothing was going to stop the Greenfield-Central Cougars.
With their eyes set on a fourth-straight sectional championship, it didn’t matter who got in their way. First, a tough Shelbyville team in the sectional opener. The Cougars rolled, 3-0. Then, another tough team, this time tournament host East Central. The Cougars cruised again, 4-0.
The fact that Saturday’s sectional championship opponent was county rival Mt. Vernon didn’t stop the Cougars, either.
The Marauders held the Cougars off the scoreboard for 50 minutes. Then, Tyler Murphy found himself in the perfect place at the right time after a cross from Trevor Sawyer, knocking in what would be the game-winner with 30:57 remaining.
“It was a cross in, and (Zack) Bell jumped up for the ball like he always does,” Murphy said. “I’m just trying to read the ball, figure out where it’s going. It bounces towards the keeper, goes right off of him, and I’m just sitting there waiting for the ball. I just tap it in. If Bell wouldn’t have jumped up, it would have never gotten there.”
Murphy scored again 10 minutes later, assisted this time by Drew Oakley. Bell rounded out the scoring with 5:30 left, assisted by Derek Owen, and the Cougars defense held strong for a 3-0 win.
It was the third straight shutout for the Cougars, who have yet to give up a goal in the tournament. They allowed a handful of shots in the first half and buckled down in the second half, allowing Mt. Vernon to get just one quality shot off in the final 40 minutes.
“The defense has just been outstanding,” Greenfield-Central goalie Abe Buescher said. “There will be games where I don’t even have to do anything. They just don’t let anything through. Midfield stops it most of the time, and whenever midfield lets one go through, it’s the defense.”
The Marauders looked like they jumped ahead halfway through the opening half when Drew Heitman controlled a free kick in the box and got it past Buescher. Heitman was whistled offside, negating the goal.
Mt. Vernon keeper Noah Whitehouse kept the Marauders in the game, recording nine saves in the first half and a big one early in the second half before the Cougars opened the scoring.
“He’s got some great hands. He does a good job of trying to dictate in the back and talk,” Mt. Vernon coach Matt Mayhew said. “He came up with some great saves, point blank. He’s a great anchor for us. I’m thankful we have one more year with him.
“We played fairly well against New Pal and came out today and just took it to ‘em. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get some of the bounces they got.”
The Cougars came into the game having won three straight against the Marauders, including a 6-1 win this season on Sept. 28. Their only blemish this year was a 1-0 loss in the Great Midwest Classic against a team from Illinois, Highland Park.
They beefed up their schedule this season in an effort to prepare for what lies ahead. The big senior class for the Cougars has been to this stage three times before, but has only won one of three regional semifinal attempts and fell in that 2017 regional final, 3-2.
This year they want more.
“When they came in as freshmen, from day one, they were pushing everything and everybody,” Greenfield-Central assistant coach Matt McConnell said. “Everybody has been pushing the whole time. One of things they bring to it is they create so much trust with all the players. They’ve built so much trust with everybody that it leads to this. This is the nice reward after those guys worked so hard to build a program. It’s exciting to go to your fourth regional, but honestly as a coach, it’s probably more exciting to be with players like that.”
Greenfield-Central (18-1), ranked No. 12, moves on to a loaded Saturday regional at Carmel. They’ll play in the 10 a.m. regional semifinal against Avon, winners of the Mooresville sectional by a 1-0 score against Plainfield.
The winner of that regional semifinal would face the winner of the noon game between Cathedral and No. 1 Zionsville, who is undefeated and ranked No. 2 nationally by MaxPreps.com.
“From the beginning of the season, we’ve been preparing for regionals. This group, we know that we can get through the sectional, but regionals is real tough,” Buescher said. “At the beginning of the season, we got really good teams on our schedule like Fishers, Noblesville, teams ranked in the Top 25. We got good competition we played against. I think that really boosted our morale and got us to play better and settle down under pressure.
“I think if we play our game and everyone relies on each other, I think we can go pretty far.”