Mt. Vernon freshman Charlie Cole celebrates after scoring his first varsity goal in Tuesday’s match at New Palestine.
Stacy Muffler | For The Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE – You wouldn’t be able to tell by the final score, but Mt. Vernon had to fight off New Palestine on Tuesday night to secure their third straight Hoosier Heritage Conference win.
Despite losing 4-1, the Dragons were the ones on the attack most of the night.
“On any given night anybody can win,” Mt Vernon head coach Matt Mayhew said. “Fortunately tonight we had New Pal’s number.”
Mt. Vernon, however, was the team that made the most of its scoring opportunities.
Griffin Ruminer got the scoring started early for the Marauders. Just five minutes in and off of his own steal, he delivered a strike from 25 feet outside of the box just above the outstretched hand of New Palestine goalkeeper Blake Bobrow.
The Dragons wasted no time in their attempt to answer and took the following kickoff straight towards the Marauder goal, but Mt. Vernon goalie Bryce Glazier denied the Dragons with a diving save.
The next three scoring chances all came from New Palestine too, and every time Glazier was there for the denial.
“Bryce has been a rock for us these last two years, but this year he’s shown a lot of growth both in the off-season and now the regular season,” Mayhew said. “He’s made some great saves all year.”
The best chance came on a free kick with 21:40 remaining in the half. After an initial sliding save by Glazier, the Dragons missed an open net from an awkward angle on the left side of the box.
“I thought we didn’t take them soon enough,” New Palestine head coach Brett Canova said about the missed chances. “We just shot too slow and didn’t shoot early enough to give ourselves a better angle.”
Mt. Vernon, as they did all night, capitalized on their next chance when Nick Heitman found the back of the net.
With 11:30 to go in the first half, the Marauders added onto their lead again. On a one-on-one chase down off a long entrance pass from the Marauders, Charlie Cole out-wrestled Alex Richwine and was able to beat a diving Bobrow to make the lead 3-0.
That was the story of the night for New Palestine.
“They played hard tonight and beat us to just about every 50-50 ball,” Canova said. “They beat us physically and pushed us around all night. They played hard, they played well, and they earned it.”
After getting some starters back from lingering injuries, this marks the second consecutive game the Marauders have recorded four goals.
“We’re finally starting to feed off of each other,” Mayhew said. “They’ve kind of been firing on all cylinders right now, but we can’t be satisfied and have to keep working.”
The Dragons loan goal came on a Richwine shot from midfield that bounced over the head of Glazier and into the back of the net.
This game puts both teams at different ends of the conference standings. New Palestine now sits at 0-2, while Mt Vernon is 3-0.
“It’s always fun being out front, but it also puts a target on your back, too,” Mayhew said. “All the coaches in this conference are great and always have their teams ready to go, so it’s a dog fight each and every night.”
