Greenfield-Central’s Carly Means strikes the ball against Richmond.
Mike Brown | For the Daily Reporter
SHELBYVILLE — Hancock County entered Friday night’s Shelbyville Girls Soccer Sectional semifinals with two teams remaining.
For one team the 2023 season came to a close, and for the other, an easy win sent them into today’s championship match.
At the Shelbyville Soccer Complex, Greenfield-Central defeated Richmond 9-0, while New Palestine fell to defending sectional champion, No. 8 East Central 3-1.
“I’m glad for the girls,” Greenfield-Central head coach Brandon Steeno said. “They’ve been through a lot and it was nice to come out here and have some fun playing soccer.”
It took 80 minutes for Greenfield-Central’s win to be official, but the Cougars all but ended it less than 10 minutes into the action.
Just over a minute in, and on G-C’s first shot of the night, Ainsley Robinson corralled the cross from Carly Means and beat Richmond goalkeeper Willow Flanagan.
Seven minutes later Robinson assisted Alyssa Deckard who fired a strike past Flanagan from the top of the box, and 23 seconds after the Deckard goal, Paige McCarley added to the Cougars lead on an assist from Callie Means.
“All season we have struggled to maintain our potential, so it was really satisfying to see them play really well,” Steeno said.
Over the next 30 minutes of the first half, the Cougars doubled their lead.
McCarley scored her second goal of the night to increase the lead to 4-0, Carly Means recorded her second assist of the night on a Mayrin Rodriguez Trujillo goal to make things 5-0, and Deckard notched her second goal of the night to give the Cougars a 6-0 lead at the break.
Early in the second half both Deckard and McCarley completed their hat-tricks to push the Cougars lead to 8-0, and Callie Means capped off the Cougars scoring with her first goal of the night.
“It was just ball movement tonight and staying engaged,” Steeno said. “It’s really easy in a game like that to play a different style and they didn’t, they kept the ball rolling, so I was proud of them for that.”
The Cougars will meet East Central in today’s championship game after the Trojans spoiled what could have been an all-Hancock County final.
“We knew they [East Central] were a good team,” New Palestine head coach Erin Clark said. “We didn’t have a chance to play them or have many common opponents, but we’ve watched a lot of video, and they’re 15-1 and ranked No. 8 in the state for a reason.”
It took them just five minutes to break the scoreless tie, and they held the lead the remainder of the 80 minutes.
On a lead pass into the box, New Palestine goalkeeper McKenzie Hacker got caught in between coming out for the ball and staying in the net, and East Central’s Alexis Watkins beat her left for the opening goal.
Down a senior leader and strong defender, Vivian Miller — who was injured in Tuesday’s match with Shelbyville — the Dragons defense held strong until the closing moments of the opening half.
On a 2-on-1 break towards the net, East Central’s Olivia Hopper made a late pass to Kendal Fox for the tap-in goal and a 2-0 lead.
“Viv is not just a strong player, but the heart of our team. We had some players step up and play some big minutes in her place which was good, but Viv has played every minute for us this year, last year, and her sophomore year, so it’s hard to replace that. They did a good job collectively, though,” Clark said. “Allie Blum has just been a constant for us all year and she kind of kept the defense together and played her heart out.”
Limited on scoring chances all night long, the Dragons opened the first five minutes of the second half with two shots on net, but each time were turned away by East Central goalkeeper Rylee Schloss.
The Dragons were outshot 19 to seven.
“We just couldn’t get the offense going. Their speed of play is just a lot faster than we’re used to and it was hard to keep the ball. Every time we tried to possess we couldn’t keep the ball moving forward,” Clark said. “We have fast players, but it was just the speed of the game. We need to take three or four touches, but they’re already there to steal the ball before we decide what we want to do with it. Their anticipation is just above where we’re at right now.”
The Trojans added to the lead 10 minutes into the second half on another Fox goal right in front of the net, and the Dragons scored their lone goal with eight minutes remaining.
On a free kick from far outside of the box, freshman Hannah Sund fired the ball towards the net, and it one-hopped over Schloss’s head and into the back of the net.
The Cougars and Trojans will meet in the championship game today at Shelbyville at 7 p.m.
