By RICHIE HALL
Anyone who doesn’t pay attention to Indiana high school soccer will have a hard time accepting the fact that the top two girls teams in the state could play each other in the first round of a sectional.
Those who do pay attention know that it is a possibility, especially in the Class 3A Sectional 8 at Noblesville’s White River Elementary School field. The Millers are ranked No. 2 and they played No. 1 Hamilton Southeastern Tuesday in the first round.
The two teams had just played each other to a tie last week. But there’s no tying in soccer once the post-season begins. Someone must win, and Noblesville won on Tuesday, beating the Royals 2-1. The Millers advanced to Thursday’s semi-finals, where they will play No. 9-ranked Fishers. The Tigers easily won their first-round game 8-0 over Anderson.
“Fishers is a very good team and they’re playing well as of late,” said Millers coach Mike Brady. “So again, we’re going to have to regain our focus. I told them to enjoy this evening, we all will, because that’s an accomplishment when you can beat Southeastern. We played them just last week to a 1-1 draw, so we know what we just accomplished, but again, the glass half-empty is that it’s the first sectional game. There’s a long road to state right now.”
The first half of the Noblesville-Southeastern game ended in a 0-0 tie. The Royals had six shots to the Millers’ one. Southeastern’s final shot of the half was on goal, but Noblesville goalkeeper Makenna Mundy deflected it away.
The Millers got the first shot of the second half, which went over the net. But a couple minutes later, Noblesville made its move: Makenna Maloy passed the ball to Jenna Chatterton, who raced down the field, set herself up in the goal box and angled the ball in to the left side of the net. The Millers had a 1-0 lead with 34:59 left to play.
Noblesville got its second goal at the 26:14 mark of the second half. Carly Hudnall booted the ball into the right side of the net from about 12 yards out. Now the Millers were up 2-0.
“The whole season, we’ve been working towards this,” said Hudnall. “I think it was just all of our hard work paid off. I think all of our hearts were really happy, because losing conference kind of brought our self-esteem down a little bit. But I think that was motivation towards scoring. Win or lose, we were going to be in it together. And I’m glad we’re in it together winning.”
“I think we’re now 9-1-5, and many of those ties, those were goals we didn’t get,” said Brady. “And now is the time of year we talked about, there’s no tie anymore in the post-season. We have to finish those chances that we get, because against teams the quality of Southeastern and Fishers, you’re not going to get that many chances. And both of them stepped up and those were both very nice shots.”
Southeastern’s scored its goal five minutes after Hudnall scored, when Molly Harris put in a free kick from about 20 yards out. The Royals were within a goal, but Noblesville was able to hang on for the game’s final 20 minutes. Mundy made another huge save with 7:13 left when she stopped a rocket of a shot on goal.
Southeastern finished its season with a 12-2-2 record.
“I can’t tell you how much I loved this team and the individuals on it,” said HSE coach Greg Davidson. “I am devastated for them and the missed opportunity to move on and see how far they could have gotten in the tournament.”
In Tuesday’s first game, Fishers beat Anderson 8-0. The Indians had won just one game coming into the sectional and put on a courageous effort, but were simply out-matched by the Tigers’ depth and skill.
“Anderson had some nice players,” said Fishers coach Ben Beasley. “They played really hard, they came out early. It took us a couple minutes to get into the flow of play, but I really appreciate the way that team played, that program played.”
Lauryn Arnett scored two goals for the Tigers, one in each half. Six other Fishers players had one goal: Delaney Whelan, Kaysey Castro, Ellen Stump, Maya Turner, Erin Brown and Isabelle Streeter. The Tigers are now 9-3-1 for the season.
Hamilton Southeastern’s Molly Harris (7) and Noblesville’s Carly Hudnall (6) both scored goals for their respective teams during their sectional game at the White River Elementary School field on Tuesday. Noblesville won 2-1 to advance to Thursday’s semi-finals, where it will play Fishers. (Kent Graham)
Fishers’ Delaney Curtis makes a header during the Tigers’ game with Anderson. Fishers won 8-0 and will play Noblesville in the sectional semi-final on Thursday. (Kent Graham)