The REPORTER
The Noblesville and Carmel boys soccer teams both advanced to the Class 3A Sectional 9 championship after winning semifinal games Wednesday at Brian Murray Stadium.
The No. 3-ranked Millers went first, taking care of No. 6 Zionsville 4-1. Caden Rice scored Noblesville’s first goal, the lone score of the first half.
But the Millers (11-1-6) stepped it up in the second half, putting in three goals. Rylen Jenski, the hero of Noblesville’s Monday overtime win, scored to put the Millers up 2-0, then added another goal later in the half. Korey Klimek completed the scoring with Noblesville’s fourth goal, then the Eagles scored their only goal of the game.
The Greyhounds overcame Brebeuf Jesuit to win their semifinal game 2-1. The game was tied at 1-1 after regulation and overtime, but Carmel played a perfect penalty kick shootout round, beating the Braves 5-4 to advance to the final.
Brebeuf scored its goal in the 23rd minute. The Greyhounds (6-7-3) answered that 10 minutes later, with Aidan McLaughlin putting in the equalizer. That made the score 1-1 at halftime, and neither team scored again until the shootout.
Each team gets five penalty kicks during a shootout, and Carmel made all five. Answering the call for the Hounds, in order, were Charles Pishkur, Tyler Schilt, Matthew Schilt, McLaughlin and Joseph Wrobel, who kicked in his attempt to clinch the game.
“Before the game, we talked about effort,” said Carmel coach Shane Schmidt. “We get letters that come from alumni that are words of encouragement and things that they learned in their tournament experiences. I took themes for each one of them, and we talked about effort and accountability and those types of things.
“Effort’s a choice. And I thought our effort tonight was fantastic. We recovered on runs that we needed to recover on. We got forward. I thought we recovered really well.”
The Millers and the Greyhounds will face off at 7 p.m. Saturday in the championship match.
University reaches final
University made its way into the Class 1A Sectional 40 championship at Southmont by beating North Putnam 3-0 in a Wednesday semifinal.
The Trailblazers scored all three of their goals in the first half. Simon Ngo put in two goals and Patric Hatton scored one goal.
University is 7-10 and plays 1A No. 1 Covenant Christian at 7 p.m. Saturday in the championship match.