Greenfield-Central’s Tyler Kerkhof celebrates a goal along with teammates Hunter Stine and Bryce Kinnaman in the second half of their game against county rival New Palestine, Thursday.
Tom Russo | The Daily Reporter
By Brian Heinemann
For The Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — It was Josiah Findley’s night. He just didn’t know it yet.
Before Thursday night’s conference clash with rival New Palestine, Greenfield-Central assistant coach Matt McConnell told his junior midfielder it was his time to shine.
It took a while – 60 minutes of scoreless soccer – but it finally happened. Findley found himself in front of the net, the ball in the air, and he went for it.
“It went to the middle of the net, and I was like, it’s behind me, I’m going to go for a bike,” Findley said of his game-winning bicycle kick. “I finally got the chance to hit a bike. I said I was going to hit a bike at the start of the season, and I did it.”
“He’s a very technically sound player, and he’s probably been dreaming of that since he was 6-years old,” McConnell said.
Findley’s goal was the spark the visiting Cougars needed. It broke a scoreless tie and opened things up for the offense, and Greenfield-Central went on to top New Palestine, 3-0, in a key Hoosier Heritage Conference clash.
“We felt like the first half, New Pal did really well at just being composed, playing good, composed defense,” McConnell said. “Credit to New Pal for keeping us out of rhythm. At halftime, the talk was we just have to play with composure.”
The Cougars controlled the first half, more than doubling the Dragons’ shot attempts, but they couldn’t find the back of the net. New Palestine goalkeeper Blake Bobrow kept the hosts in the game and kept the scoreboard blank with a perfect diving save 10 minutes into the game, and he had several other key stops in the half.
Greenfield-Central kept the pressure up and looked to get on the board just minutes into the second half, only to see a goal whistled offside. The Dragons defense continued to hold.
It wasn’t until there were just under 20 minutes in the game left that Findley finally broke through.
“It definitely helped our team,” Findley said of his opening score. “We scored two goals really, really quick after. It definitely sparked our team.”
With the way the Cougars defense has played this season, they haven’t needed much from the offense to secure a win. But Findley’s goal was followed less than two minutes later by a perfectly placed free kick from the sideline from senior Tyler Kerkhof, who deftly dropped the ball into the top corner of the net from a long distance away and a fairly sharp angle.
Sophomore Derek Harmon closed out the scoring with seven minutes remaining, his header giving the Cougars their final three-goal margin.
It was Greenfield-Central’s sixth consecutive shutout and ninth of the season. The Cougars defense has given up goals to just two teams in 2022.
“It’s not very often that you have a defense that has the composure, experience and maturity that we have,” McConnell said. “It’s going to hurt like heck when we graduate a lot of these guys. They’re hungry, and they want to play clean sheets, always.”
The Cougars improved to 8-1-2 on the year, and, more importantly, a perfect 5-0 in HHC play. New Palestine falls to 6-5 and 2-3 in conference.
“When we won the ball, we didn’t do a very good job of keeping it, and that hurt us,” New Palestine coach Brett Canova said. “We’ve got to be able to play simple, play smart, play a little quicker. When we get a chance to be dangerous, we’ve got to be dangerous.”
Greenfield-Central is back in action next Thursday at home against Shelbyville. New Palestine hosts Delta on Saturday.
