New Palestine’s Hannah Sund scored the crucial third goal in the Dragons victory over Shelbyville Tuesday.
The Daily Reporter File Photo
SHELBYVILLE — New Palestine was quickly reminded that Shelbyville, a team it had beaten 3-1 less than two weeks ago, was ready to go in Tuesday’s quarterfinal matchup of the Shelbyville Girls Soccer Sectional.
In the game’s first minute, Shelbyville’s Ava Wilson scored to give the host Golden Bears a 1-0 lead.
That quick hit early helped ignite the Dragons, who went on to win 3-2 in the highly-competitive match at the Shelbyville Soccer Complex.
“Just a bad defensive error and they converted,” New Palestine coach Erin Clark said of the opening goal. “To go down 1-0 right away, that’s tough. I was proud of the girls for coming back after being scored on in the first minute. That’s tough mentally.”
In the seventh minute the Dragons tied it. And, it was Shelbyville that made the defensive error this time.
Tylar Whitaker hit a shot right at Shelbyville goalkeeper Macy Cooley. She got her left hand on it, but it squeezed through her right to tie the game 1-1 with 33 minutes left in the first half. It was Whitaker’s 13th goal of the season, most of any Dragon player.
New Palestine’s Rylee Hurst drilled an attempt in the right back corner of the net with 11:44 remaining in the first period to give the Dragons a 2-1 lead. It was Hurst’s third goal of the year.
The Dragons never lost the lead, but their second-half goal was much-needed. The Golden Bears cut the margin to one goal in the final minutes.
“That third goal was huge,” Clark said. “That was an amazing goal (by Hannah Sund). I can’t wait to watch that on video.
“Hannah, if we have somebody on our team who works on her own every night with the ball, it’s her. To see her take what she’s doing at night every night after practice and turning it into a game-winning goal is huge.”
Sund, a freshman, scored for the sixth time this season. It came with 21:45 remaining in the second period.
“I made a 9-run to the flag so I could have my teammate (Brooke Tanksley) pass it down to me,” Sund said. “I looked to the middle and if there are (teammates) there I pass it there, if I don’t see teammates I just shoot it.”
Sund, on the right-hand side of the goal, slipped it past Cooley to give the Dragons a 3-1 advantage.
Shelbyville pressed hard late in the match and Golden Bear sophomore Hannah Baker converted with just 2:15 remaining.
The Golden Bears continued to push the pace. Not until Dragon defender Allie Blum cleared a long ball out of the zone in the waning seconds did the Dragons begin to exhale.
“The last seven minutes we got flustered by their crowd and their excitement. We just started kicking and not playing our game. We got rattled,” Clark said.
Sund and Whitaker, and Shelbyville’s Wilson, also had goals in the Sept. 23 regular season game played at New Palestine.
Tanksley, Blum and Nevaeh Gebhart had New Palestine’s assists Tuesday.
The Dragons improved to 10-6-1 with the win and will play No. 8 East Central (15-1-1), a 3-1 winner over No. 17 Mt. Vernon, in a 5 p.m. semifinal match Thursday. Shelbyville ends its season with a 12-5 record.
Greenfield-Central (5-8-2) will play Richmond (6-5-1) in a 7 p.m. semifinal Thursday. The championship match is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday.
