By RICHIE HALL
CARMEL – The Carmel boys soccer team ran its sectional championship streak to four last Saturday, and that fourth title will be remembered as one of the more memorable wins for the Greyhounds.
Carmel played Noblesville, the three-time defending Class 3A state champion in the final of Sectional 8 at Murray Stadium. The game was scoreless after regulation and overtime, sending it to penalty kicks.
The Greyhounds had been in that position just a few days ago in their semifinal win over Brebeuf Jesuit. Carmel was perfect in PKs then and it stayed perfect in the final, stunning the Millers with a 5-3 penalty kick victory to claim the sectional title. The official score is 1-0.
Noblesville had won the regular-season game over the Hounds 4-1 in the regular season, and Carmel coach Shane Schmidt said the team “changed our formation” for this game.
“Last time we played them, we played them three in the back, and we changed our formation to be a little bit more of a defensive posture that would allow us then to get up involved into the attack,” said Schmidt. “They executed it, man. They worked super hard and super proud of them.”
Both teams had their scoring chances, with several corner kicks and close shots, some hitting the crossbar. But neither team could get a ball in, so it went to penalty kicks.
Carmel made all five kicks: in order, the list was Charles Pishkur, Tyler Schilt, Matthew Schilt, Aidan McLaughlin and Joseph Wrobel. It was the same group that made all five penalty kicks against Brebeuf in the semifinal.
“They did a good job with it, man,” said Schmidt. “I can’t be more proud of a group of guys, all of them, everybody in there. I can’t be more proud.”
While Carmel was perfect with kicking, it was sophomore goalkeeper Aidan Gostomelsky who made the biggest play of all during the PKs. He blocked one of Noblesville’s attempt and that would turn out to be the difference.
Gostomelsky said that while he’s in the net, he is “really just in my own head, reading his hips, reading the foot and that’s about it. You just have to be in your own mind space, I think. You can’t let other people affect you.”
Noblesville’s penalty kicks came from Deklan Jenski, Ben Hewitt and Caden Rice. The Millers finished their season 11-2-6 and saw their remarkable run of three consecutive state championships come to an end.
“The more it stayed 0-0, the more confidence Carmel got,” said Noblesville coach Ken Dollaske. “They were able to do well with their counter attacks, which in turn made us more tired, and so we weren’t able to do the things that we wanted to do. Credit to them for being scrappy, for having a defensive game plan and sticking to it with three in the back plus a sweeper and frustrating our forwards to the point where we couldn’t get the best shots that we wanted. Credit to Shane and his boys.”
The Greyhounds improved to 7-7-3 with the victory and claimed their 17th sectional championship in program history. They will play Lawrence North Thursday in the regional semifinal.
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University fell to Covenant Christian 4-0 last Saturday in the final of Class 1A Sectional 40 at Southmont.
The Trailblazers finished their season 7-11.
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