Soccer: ‘Hounds sail past ‘Rocks in all-county match

Westfield’s Sam Degnan directs his teammates during the game. (Kirk Green)

An all-county boys soccer game went Carmel’s way on Thursday.

The Class 3A No. 2 Greyhounds traveled to 3A No. 15 Westfield, and came home with a 3-0 victory. Carmel scored two goals in the first half, with Connor Dora and Will Latham both finding the back of the net.

Josiah Shepson scored for the Greyhounds in the second half. Carmel is 7-2-3 for the season, having won seven of its last eight games.

Carmel’s Connor Dora scored a goal for the Greyhounds during their 3-0 win at Westfield on Thursday. (Kirk Green)

“Tonight I told the boys I was super proud of them,” said ‘Hounds coach Shane Schmidt. “I thought that tonight was probably the first time that we put a solid performance together for all 80 minutes. We put good bits and pieces of games and then we had some breakdowns, but I thought tonight was the first time all season long that we’ve actually put together 80 minutes of solid soccer.”

“Shane’s got a great squad,” said Shamrocks coach Kevin Scanlon. “They jumped on us. We tried to answer and we just couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net.”

Carmel is 7-2-3 and hosts Homestead tonight. Westfield is 3-4-3 and hosts Brownsburg on Tuesday.

***

Hamilton Southeastern also won an all-county and Hoosier Crossroads Conference game on Thursday, beating Noblesville 2-1.

The 3A No. 6 Royals led 1-0 at halftime; James Wells scored the goal in the 37th minute off a cross by Oscar Tittle. The 3A No. 5 Millers tied the game when Sam Divis scored with 20 minutes left in the second half. Gavin Vogelgesang made the assist. But Southeastern got the lead back for good when Davis Brown followed a Tittle shot and put it in.

The Royals are 4-1-1 in the conference and 9-1-3 overall, and plays Tuesday at Zionsville. Noblesville is 2-2-1 in HCC play and 6-2-2 overall, and plays Saturday at 3A No. 8 Castle.

***

University’s boys cruised to a 7-0 win over Liberty Christian on Saturday.

Chris Millen scored four goals for the 1A No. 3 Trailblazers, with Jake Malinzak, Constantine Stefanidis and Liam Commons each getting one goal.

With the victory, University qualified for this weekend’s Pioneer Academic Athletic Conference championship game. The ‘Blazers will host 1A No. 1 Park Tudor at 10 a.m. Saturday for the PAAC title.