NEW PALESTINE — Greenfield-Central did what it did a year ago.
The youthful Cougars gave great effort, played strong defensively for the majority of the game, but were unable to match the performance of Class 3A No. 12 East Central in the Sectional 12 girls soccer championship at New Palestine High School Saturday.
East Central, winners of five straight sectional titles, improved to 16-2-1 on the season — and will host Franklin Central (11-10-1) in a regional semifinal game Wednesday —after putting an end to Greenfield-Central’s season with a 5-0 decision over the Cougars.
“There’s so much speed. [East Central coach Bill Volker] ran eight subs deep 10 minutes into the second half. I used three,” Greenfield-Central coach Brandon Steeno said. “That speed and that relentlessness wears you down mentally more than physically. We fell into a ping-pong match with them and we don’t have the horses to keep up with something like that.
“We wanted to possess through the middle and we just couldn’t get into our game and Bill’s got ‘em hummin’ right now. I’m pulling for them next weekend.”
It was a rematch and close to a replay of last year’s sectional championship in Shelbyville, won 4-0 by the Trojans. In last year’s matchup, G-C trailed just 1-0 with just under 13 minutes remaining before the Trojans finally were able to burst through a stellar Cougar defense and then-goalkeeper Jessica Merritt, who finished the night with 25 saves, many of spectacular fashion.
On Saturday, Greenfield-Central trailed just 1-0 at the half before East Central began extending its lead just under 15 minutes into the second period.
Sophomore Caroline Felver was in goal for the Cougars. Starting the season as a field player, Felver — who has played goalkeeper at the club level — took over the role early in the regular season.
On Saturday, she had 28 stops. And like Merritt a year ago, she had some highlight-reel denials, including a fantastic kick-save in the 59th minute.
“Two or three 1-v-1 saves, that kick-save with about 20 minutes remaining was amazing. That kept it 2-0,” Steeno said of Felver’s play. “Caroline stood on her head and I’m super-proud of her because she was not our starting goalkeeper Game 1. She took it all in and embraced it and showed why she’s our top goalkeeper.
“Caroline plays it in club, but she’s a good field player. We asked her to play keeper and she really didn’t want to. You can’t tell me she’s not a goalkeeper.”
Felver and the G-C defense — which blocked two shots that were on target — kept 13 first-half Trojan tries from finding the back of the net.
In the 26th minute, East Central scored its first goal, a rebound off a Felver save was knocked in by Peyton Aichele.
With the offensive opportunities few and far between, the G-C defense kept the Cougars in the game.
“We asked them to be relentless and we asked them to be gritty and they were,” Steeno added on his team’s performance. “Our defense kept us in it and made just one mental mistake on the back post early in the first half for them to get their one. Other than that, I think we did a really good job. We got wore down as the half went on.”
G-C’s first shot on goal came in the second half, the 47th minute, by sophomore Ainsley Robinson.
A pair of East Central fouls shortly after the Robinson attempt gave G-C its best chance for an equalizer.
A foul just outside the top of the box gave junior Paige McCarley a free kick, but the attempt was not on goal.
Four minutes later, East Central grew its lead to two on a goal from freshman Preslee Walter.
A redirect from Ava Leihgeber just under the 16-minute mark increased East Central’s advantage to 3-0.
The Trojans added two more goals in the game’s final three minutes. After two straight saves from Felver, Maria Mayer put a rebound by the Cougar goalkeeper with 3:06 to go. The final goal came in the final minute, scored by Heather Albrinck.
Greenfield-Central finished the year 6-10. The Cougars will graduate seven seniors, including five starters, back row defenders Chaney Brown, Tessa Joyner and Claire Davidson, starting midfielders Carly Means — who had a hat trick in the sectional semifinal win over Shelbyville —and Loren Bewley along with subs Sophia Thompson and Oliviana Ferrara, who scored her first varsity goal in the semis.
“This group is incredibly special, and not just from a talent standpoint, but they are such an amazing group of kids, amazing humans,” Steeno added. “They are going to be fantastic community leaders, every single one of them. It’s really tough to see [our seniors] go out like this with the effort they had this year.”
