SHELBYVILLE — Before they could win the game, they had to win the race.
Drew Davidson won the race and Greenfield-Central’s boys soccer team will live to play another day in Class 3A Shelbyville Sectional 9 of the IHSAA Boys Soccer State Tournament.
Tied 0-0 with upset-minded host Shelbyville and under 11 minutes remaining in regulation, the Greenfield-Central senior midfielder got to a free ball before Golden Bears goalkeeper Jalen Hounshell.
Davidson got enough foot on the ball to pop it over Hounshell’s head for the only goal of the game in a 1-0 Cougars victory at the Shelbyville Soccer Complex Monday.
“I just wanted to get to it and put something on it and put it in the goal,” Davidson said of his fifth goal of the season, which came with just 10:37 left in the contest.
“(Defenseman Hunter Stine) half-volleyed up to the top and it bounced off the center back’s head,” described Davidson of the game-winning goal. “I chipped it over the keeper before he could get to it.”
With the win, the Cougars are 11-1-3 on the season. They’ll play Hancock County rival New Palestine (8-7-1) in a sectional semifinal 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Shelbyville ends its season 8-8-1.
In a regular-season meeting at G-C on Sept. 22, the Cougars beat the Golden Bears 4-0.
It may have been an easy win in September, but not in October and in the postseason.
“It’s the sectional, so emotions are high,” Davidson said. “Our team was really tense in the beginning of the first half. We eased in into the second. Emotions are high so everybody is playing with a little more fire in them.”
Though Hounshell wasn’t able to beat Davidson to the ball, he did make numerous key saves, especially in the first half. He stopped an on-point header from Dalton Evanoff as well as another solid Cougar try that he hung on to between his legs.
“The hard thing about having so many teams (from the Hoosier Heritage Conference) in your sectional and being rivals, it’s hard to beat a team twice,” Greenfield-Central assistant coach Matt McConnell said. “You saw that tonight. It was tough to beat this team a second time even though we beat them by a good margin in the season. I expect New Pal to be no different. They’ll come at us hard.
“Shelbyville is a gritty, tough team. They play physical and play to their strengths and they did it well. Credit to them. Our boys came out a little slow and we have a few changes to make heading (into our next game).”
Greenfield-Central beat New Palestine 3-0 on Sept. 15 at New Palestine.
Monday’s win was Greenfield-Central’s school-record 12th shutout of the year for sophomore goalkeeper Jordin Jones.
“To get a 1-0 result, it’s nice to advance,” McConnell added. “We felt our defense and midfield was able to hold that game, we just had struggles in our attack.
“Our boys tried to be heroes a bit. We have attackers that can make big plays, but we are a team that works together as a team. We’re not a team who can work together as individuals. When we play together as a team, I think we’re tough to beat.”
