FORTVILLE — The battle between two Hancock County rivals took more than the 80 minutes of regulation to decide the winner Tuesday night.
And, it took a comeback effort from the visiting Dragons to pick up the Hoosier Heritage Conference win.
New Palestine (3-3, 2-0) defeated Mt. Vernon (3-3, 1-2) 3-2 in overtime at Mt. Vernon High School.
“It’s a huge win, not only in the conference but for the boys’ confidence. We’ve been trying to find the right way to play for a while, and tonight we found it,” New Palestine head coach Brett Canova said. “It’s the slowest and most methodical we’ve played yet, but it was the possession that we wanted to control. It was the type of game we wanted, so it was good.”
After a scoreless first overtime, two minutes into the second seven-minute frame, an initial stop by Mt. Vernon goalie Will Keppler on a New Palestine scoring chance led to a scramble in front of the net.
“The keeper came out great, he just wasn’t able to smother it,” Mt. Vernon head coach Matt Mayhew said. “No fault to him, he was going one-on-one and shut it down, but then we were just in recovery mode and they buried it.”
Andon Colclazier fired a strike into the back of the net for the game-winning goal.
“It was a fantastic win on the ball, and then we kept the ball rather than turning and going straight to goal,” Canova said. “It was a beautiful finish.”
While the Dragons left the field with the win, it was the Marauders who controlled much of the first half, and the team that got the scoring started early.
Just two minutes into the game, Mt. Vernon forward Nick Heitman outran the New Palestine defense on an over-the-top pass from Colby Smith, and beat New Palestine goalie Jake Wells on a low shot to the bottom left of the net to give the Marauders the early 1-0 lead.
Mt. Vernon added another goal late in the first half on a Shawn Houser strike, but from there the Marauders offensive attack stalled, and the slow, methodical play from the Dragons began to shine.
Sandwiched in between the Mt. Vernon goals was a goal from New Palestine’s Paxton Holmes.
In front of a crowded net he beat Keppler on an assist from Drew Potter.
With just 13 minutes remaining, Holmes tied things up with his second goal of the night. From outside of the box, he beat a diving Keppler in the top left corner of the net.
“We finally opened the field up offensively, and just played simple,” Canova said. “It’s kind of a boring way to play, but it’s simple and that’s what we want to do. We don’t want anything fancy, and keeping it simple is what won us the game.”
The Marauders were limited offensively in the second half but had two chances to grab the lead late in the half.
With under 10 minutes remaining a near breakaway towards the net for Mt. Vernon was thwarted by a sliding New Palestine defender, Alex Richwine, and a few possessions later the Marauders sent a good look over the top of the net.
“Sometimes when you get that lead, you kind of sit back and say ‘we’ve got this.’ I made some substitutions to try and get the momentum back, but kudos to New Pal. They kept fighting and began to shut down some of our attackers which hurt what we were trying to do, and once they tied it up we just couldn’t get that momentum back,” Mayhew said. “Congrats to them. They fought hard, and they deserve it.”
Both teams are back in action on Thursday. The Dragons host Franklin Central at 7 p.m., and the Marauders host HHC opponent Yorktown at 5:30 p.m., with the girls varsity game against New Castle to follow.
