By CRAIG ADKINS
The atmosphere of any Noblesville vs. Carmel sporting event is always heightened and why wouldn’t it be? Two neighboring communities that are rivals in every sport and it’s only fitting that the Millers and Greyhounds girls soccer programs would meet up two weeks prior to the IHSAA state tournament at Brian Murray Memorial Stadium, cranking up their schedule strengths.
The game started on Monday, but lightning forced it to be halted in the second half. The contest resumed on Wednesday, with Carmel finishing up a 2-1 win over Noblesville.
The next time these two could meet would be a potential state championship matchup, with Noblesville playing in the north and Carmel in the south of the 3A state tournament, which will be drawn at 7 p.m. Sunday on the IHSAA Champions Network, ihsaatv.org.
For the first 24 minutes of the first half, it was like watching a pinball machine. At times, it also seemed like a chess match, as both were methodical in how they dribbled and passed the ball up and down the field.
Senior Katie Soderstrom got Carmel on the scoreboard, lofting a high shot from 25 yards out that sailed to the left corner with 15:47 left until halftime.
The Greyhounds added another to their tally soon after from the foot of freshman Brooke Bailey, this time Soderstrom got the assist with 12:13 on the first half clock.
The second half got underway and the Millers were hoping to put a dent in the Greyhounds’ 2-0 lead. Then, at the 35:03 mark, the referees spotted lightning in the south sky, delaying the match 30 minutes by IHSAA rule. Not long into the delay, lightning struck again in the distance.
Carmel athletic director Jim Inskeep and both coaches agreed to continue the match at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Both teams had a 48-hour layover before the game would be finished, so it would be interesting how each would play.
“I think the kids played well. I think it actually threw the coach off,” said Carmel head coach Frank Dixon on his team’s performance after the two-day postponement.
“I’m trying to get kids in the game. Should have just been worrying about doing what we were doing. I got a lot of kids in and so we gave up a goal because of that,” said Dixon on his focus being off, despite the win.
“The two day layover meant absolutely nothing, except we played these 35:03 like we should have played the first part of this game,” Noblesville head coach Mike Brady on his team’s effort in Wednesday’s continuation of the second half.
The ball crossed the midfield stripe more times than it would in a normal game, but that was due to the competitiveness of these two strong teams.
“There was an intensity here that was here in this half that was lacking Monday night,” said Brady, who was pleased with the Millers’ effort Wednesday, despite a 2-1 loss.
Carly Hudnall scored the lone goal of the night for Noblesville Wednesday, booting a long ball from 30-yards away with 2:58 left in the contest, exciting the Miller crowd and raising the game’s intensity.
“I appreciated what I saw from my team, but there are no moral victories. Gotta hand it to Carmel; that’s a good soccer team, they deserve the victory,” said Brady, tipping his hat to both his Millers and Carmel.
A game like this prepares both of these teams for sectionals in two weeks.
“I wanted to play them, because it gives us another good team to play to get ready for sectionals and yeah, they’re No. 6-ranked and they’re good, so we want to go head-to-head with them,” said Dixon, complimenting Noblesville as a great team to prime Carmel for sectional play.
Nobleville suffered its first setback of 2017, dropping its overall mark to 9-1-3. The No. 6 Millers host No. 1 Penn Saturday at around 12:30 p.m.
No. 3 Carmel upped its record to 12-1-1 and will hit the road at No. 11 Zionsville (8-4-2) on Saturday at around 11:30 a.m.
