PENDLETON — It was a key Hoosier Heritage Conference victory.
It was a defense of the HHC Victory Bell.
And it was the first win over Pendleton Heights since 2018.
But most importantly, it showed that Mt. Vernon’s boys soccer team is hitting stride at the right time.
With a Will Keppler save on Tyler Kuhns in the seventh round of a shootout from the penalty kick area, the Marauders (8-4, 5-2) knocked off the Arabians (9-3-1, 4-1) 2-1 for their fourth straight conference victory and fifth win in the last six games.
“It’s a big one. I don’t think we’ve beaten them in the last five years. It was big for our guys. We had one guy out with an injury, and we were protecting guys with cards, so it was a total team effort tonight, everybody stepped up,” Mt. Vernon head coach Matt Mayhew said.
“It’s just belief in what we talk about. Just slowing down and playing our game. We had that bad stretch in there where there was doubting and stuff but they’ve bought in and we’re on a great run right now.”
After the opening five rounds, both the Marauders and Arabians had three goals. Shawn Houser knocked in the first attempt, Brady Webber followed him with a successful try, and in a must-make situation, Colby Smith converted.
In the sixth round Drew Lynch started things off with a goal for the Marauders, but Damian Ruiz-Pozos answered for the Arabians.
The go-ahead Mt. Vernon attempt came off the foot of Xander Sokol who beat Pendleton Heights goalkeeper Lucas Mayer-Adams to the right before the eventual winning save by Keppler.
“In the tournament we hosted this past weekend we went into a shootout and he [Keppler] came up big, and then again tonight he came up big,” Mayhew said. “He’s guessed the right way every time but one, and that’s big. If I’m the next shooter and I see the keeper guessing right on everyone else, I’m going to start doubting myself. He’s done a great job for us.”
During regulation and overtime Keppler saved five Pendleton Heights shots, and he, along with the Mt. Vernon defenders, limited an Arabians team that had scored 17 goals over its four conference games and had scored 28 goals over its five-game win-streak, to just one.
Ten corner kick attempts and 10 Pendleton Heights shots on the night were all turned away.
“We’ve just been trying to slow it down in practice and know our assignments, and routes. It’s paying off right now and this is the time it needs to. We’ve just been making it simple and taking the pressure off of ourselves by going back to the basics,” Mayhew said.
“We didn’t really shift our defense at all, but we’ve been talking about different ways to mark. I think when we went to Delta and New Pal, we gave away some breakaways. They [Pendleton Heights] have a lot of speed up front, so we focused on that in practice and how to defend it.”
Mt. Vernon took the lead just before the 21-minute mark of the first half off a throw-in to Ethan Ludlow.
Ludlow corralled the pass and fired a left-footed strike past Mayer-Adams into the top left corner of the net for the 1-0 lead.
Just before halftime a pass into the box by Pendleton Heights found the head of Jack Weflen who knocked the ball over the hands of Keppler to tie things at 1-1.
Both teams had limited chances for the win in the second half.
The Marauders sent a shot over the net in the closing minute and had a few free-kick attempts near the box cleared away by the Arabians defense.
In overtime, Keppler saved an early header by Pendleton Heights on their only offensive threat of the two overtime periods, and once again a late Mt. Vernon offensive push came up just empty.
With conference play over for Mt. Vernon, they close out the season next week with three non-conference games. The first will be on Monday at 7 p.m. on the road at Lawrence Central.
“We’ve got three games next week though leading into sectional so that’s tough for these guys, but we’ll figure it out and get through it,” Mayhew said.
