GREENFIELD — Win your first game.
Win the conference traveling trophy.
Win the cup.
That sounds like fun, just like coach Rob Thomas wanted his soccer players to have.
At the Greenfield-Central Soccer Complex on Thursday, the Cougars defeated their Hancock County and Hoosier Heritage Conference rivals, Mt. Vernon, 2-0, to claim hardware and hopeful momentum for the rest of the season.
The cup is the Rob Thomas Cup, a new traveling trophy that will be played for in head-to-head county matches between Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon and New Palestine. It is named in memory of the late coach who died in March of 2018 after a battle with cancer.
Thomas was the former head coach at New Palestine High School, a junior varsity coach at Mt. Vernon and was instrumental in club soccer across the county, including the New Palestine United Soccer Club, Greenfield Area Soccer Club (Strikers FC Academy) and Boys Academy Soccer. He was a Greenfield resident.
Thursday’s game was the first time the cup was up for grabs.
It was announced prior to the game, coach Thomas’s six golden rules of soccer, sport and life. They are: know the game, listen to your coach, practice continually, know your strengths and weaknesses, believe in yourself and have fun.
“This really means a lot. (Coach Thomas) was my coach growing up as a kid,” said Greenfield-Central junior Bryce Kinnaman, who scored, on a header, the Cougars second goal. “I always remembered that last rule, have fun. That means the most to me throughout my career. If you love the game, good things will come to you. It means a lot. I loved him.
“Lots of defenders here and attackers here (on both teams) played for him (at the Academy). Mt. Vernon’s goalie (Bryce Glazier), my best friend played for him,” Kinnaman added.
The Cougars did not look like a team that came in winless on the season.
In the opening period, the Cougars created more opportunities than the Marauders and ended up with the first-half’s only goal.
They dominated possession much of the first 40 minutes and scored the game’s first goal 13 minutes off the right foot of senior Jason Scrivner, on an assist from junior Drew Davidson.
“It came off a Mt. Vernon turnover that we were able to take advantage of,” Scrivner said. “(Davidson) got the ball, played it back across and it was just a simple finish in the back of the net off a good pass.”
Earlier in the half, Gian Colassaco had a header just go right of the post that would have got the Cougars on the board even earlier. Colassaco, a freshman, had a couple of other chances including one in the waning minutes of the first half that Glazier saved.
Colassaco wasn’t able to get his header, but he assisted on Kinnaman’s. It came with 23 minutes left in the game. It happened shortly after G-C frosh goalkeeper Jordin Jones made a save on the Marauders best opportunity of the night.
With the score 2-0 and 15 minutes left in the game, Mt. Vernon’s Tyler Webb also had a strong chance on a free kick. Jones got a piece of the ball and it bounced off the crossbar.
Mt. Vernon was playing its fifth straight HHC match. It dropped to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the conference.
When the Marauders beat conference foe Yorktown earlier this season, they also took possession of the conference’s traveling trophy (Victory Bell), which Yorktown had taken away from Greenfield-Central last year.
The Cougars now own that trophy, too.
“We had the bell for two years and lost it to Yorktown, which was pretty heartbreaking,” G-C senior back Logan Stoeffler said. “To win it on a night like this for coach Rob. A lot of us had him in mind when we were playing, too.
G-C came in 0-6 and had lost both of its conference games. It had scored just four goals, three coming in a 4-3 loss to Yorktown.
“This is a huge game for us and for our season. To get our first win of the season, now we’re thinking we’re only going to go forward from here,” Scrivner said. “Against a giant team like Mt. Vernon, that’s really good this year, we loved to come out and play a good game, a physical game and come out on top.”
The Cougars came in on the wrong side of four shutouts, but they were the team with the clean sheet on Thursday.
“We played a fantastic game,” Stoeffler added. “We shut it down. We controlled the game for 80 minutes. Our guys stayed composed and I’m really proud of everybody doing their job and staying disciplined. We got the job done.”
Mt. Vernon hopes to get back on track as its run of conference contests continues with a game Tuesday, at home, against Shelbyville.
“It was a great Hancock County soccer game between two rivals,” Mt. Vernon coach Matt Mayhew, who coached Thomas’s grandson in club soccer, and coached with Thomas at MV, said. “Things didn’t go our way. Hats off to Greenfield. They were prepared and had a great game. We have to rebound and get ready for Shelbyville next week.”
Greenfield-Central travels to Plainfield Tuesday, but then will have the cup, the bell and county bragging rights back on the line Thursday, Sept. 16, at home, against New Palestine.
