NEW PALESTINE — It was a night of role reversal.
Two years ago, the Pendleton Heights boys soccer team came into New Palestine with hopes of an outright Hoosier Heritage Conference title. The Dragons stopped that from happening and got a share of the crown, too, along with Greenfield-Central and Yorktown, beating the Arabians 2-1.
Thursday night at Kelso Stadium, the Dragons were the team seeking first place all to themselves. They came in 6-0 in the HHC play. The Arabians bussed in with a 5-1 mark.
Just like two years ago, the team seeking the share got what it was looking for.
Pendleton Heights scored twice in the second half to defeat New Palestine 2-0.
The teams finish as co-conference champions.
“I’m not willing to let it erase what we did,” New Palestine coach Brett Canova said. “We did a lot of work to get here. Tonight, they were better than us. That’s really, to me, what it comes down to. Tonight they were. We played six other conference games, five on the road and we went 6-0 in those. It’s one game. We have some seniors that have had a wonderful year doing great stuff. It’s disappointing, but it doesn’t take away all the good that we did. We’ve done too much this year.”
In the 53rd minute, and fresh off the Arabian bench, Jack Weflen got behind the New Palestine defense and found the back of the net to give Pendleton Heights a 1-0 lead.
“It was a quick counter attack,” Canova said. “We abandoned the middle, they were able to get through pretty quick and we didn’t keep him wide. We let him turn in. Congrats to them. They got it done when they needed to.”
New Palestine almost got what it needed, too.
Already with a little momentum after Pendleton Heights’ Greyson Hovermale missed a penalty kick, New Palestine had its best opportunity of the night.
Elliott Canova passed to Cohen Wintin who just missed tying the match. His attempt was going toward the upper left corner of the goal, but Pendleton Heights goalkeeper Lucas Mayer-Adams made a diving save to keep his team up 1-0.
“Coming into the season, he wasn’t the goalkeeper we were going to play with, but because of a player transferring out he got thrust in to that role,” Pendleton Heights coach Kyle Davy said. “He wasn’t who we had at first, but these guys have stepped up and played for him all year and we’ve had tons of confidence in him. When it mattered most he made one of the best saves I’ve seen all year. It was amazing. If he doesn’t make that save it’s 1-1 and who knows what happens after that. He made an amazing save.”
In the 77th minute, Hovermale erased his missed PK and found the top corner of the goal for a 2-0 Arabian lead.
“We talked about that being two years ago here,” Davy said of his club losing the 2021 match to the Dragons. “We talked about having all the confidence in the world coming in here and they took it from us.”
“They remember it just as well as we do,” coach Canova said of the battle two years ago. “I’m sure that helped play a little role into it.
“Four years ago (these seniors) won three games. The next three years we win conference twice. It’s an unfortunate loss (tonight) and I’m not going to let it take away from what we did. I’m not going to let it do that.”
New Palestine finished 8-8 in the regular season. Pendleton Heights improved to 11-3-1.
The Dragons will play Wednesday in a sectional semifinal match against the winner of Monday’s Greenfield-Central/Connersville match in the New Palestine Sectional.
