The REPORTER
The Noblesville boys soccer team celebrated its return to No. 1 in the Class 3A coaches poll with a 5-2 win over 3A No. 4 Center Grove Thursday in the Millers’ Senior Night game.
Sam Holland scored for the Millers in the first half, making a penalty kick with 5:01 left for the only first-half score. Holland got another goal in the 44th minute to give Noblesville a 2-0 lead.
Freshman Ben Hewitt blasted in a goal with 29 minutes left in the second half. The Trojans put in a penalty kick to get on the board with 26:03 remaining, but Noblesville scored again one minute later. Senior Max Reason’s free kick landed in front of the net and senior Alex Pursch, who easily kicked it in.
Center Grove put in a goal during the 67th minute, but Holland answered that with his third goal of the game with 4:24 left. Ashton Craig, Caden Rice, Reason and Carsten Shidler all had one assist during the game.
Noblesville is 10-0-5 and finishes its Hoosier Crossroads Conference and regular seasons on Tuesday by hosting Franklin Central.
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Carmel, ranked No. 2 in 3A, cruised to a 7-0 win Thursday at New Palestine.
The Greyhounds led 3-0 at halftime, with goals from Nick Basso (assist Connor Dora), Christian Nielsen (assist Basso) and Johnny Gourley (assist Dora). John Gilbert scored Carmel’s opening goal of the second half, with Hayden Warneke making the assist.
Basso picked up his second goal (assist Gourley) to make the score 5-0, then Nielsen scored, with Gilbert making the assist. Henry Boyd finished the Greyhounds’ scoring, with Brigham Forsythe making that assist.
Carmel is 11-1-1 and plays Saturday at Guerin Catholic.
The 2A No. 11 Golden Eagles played at Fishers Thursday in an all-county battle, with the 3A No. 8 Tigers winning 7-2. Complete stats from the game were not available at press time.
Fishers improved to 8-2-4 and hosts Kokomo on Saturday. The Golden Eagles are 4-8-1.
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Westfield took care of Harrison 5-2 in a Thursday home game.
The Shamrocks are 6-5-1 and play Saturday at Plainfield.