By CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
NOBLESVILLE – The obvious things that stick out in the game of soccer is the glaring statistic of scoring. If there were goals scored and who scored them, along with if there was an assist.
So far in this very young season, the Noblesville Millers have proved that yes, they can score, but they can for sure play defense. They continued their trend of clean sheets on Wednesday night by opening up Hoosier Crossroads Conference play with a 6-0 convincing win over the Avon Orioles.
Despite the obvious factor of scoring six goals, the better angle to look at is the fact that they have yet to yield a goal to any of their three opponents. After opening up the season with a 4-0 win against Cathedral and then a Saturday win over West Lafayette 3-0, the Millers are out to prove themselves.
Less than three minutes into the match, senior Ava Bramblett, an Ohio State commit, was kicked in the ankle by an Avon defender and sidelined for the night as a precautionary measure.
Bramblett’s early exit allowed for the Millers to show off their depth and give the home crowd a look at who can do whatever it takes to get the win.
“It’s still early enough in the season that the players are figuring out what roles they have on this team, so it’s good to get a lot of players to play through the game. And, we don’t rely on just one or two players, so we always know players are going to have to step up, whether it’s injury or substitutions or whatever it might be,” said 20th year head coach Mike Brady on his team’s depth.
The scoring started in the 12th minute when sophomore Meredith Tippner nudged the ball to senior Meskerem James. Tippner fed the ball inside the box and James was able to dribble quickly left to right, pushing the ball into the right side of the net.
In the 28th minute, junior Stella Scroggin took a pass from Lily Ault, putting Noblesville up 2-0.
The third goal of the first half belonged to Meredith Tippner, assisted by Nadia Zaboroski and that put the Millers in complete control up 3-0 at halftime.
“This team knows the culture of the program. It’s still ‘we are together,’ it’s all of us. They’re not concerned about their individual statistics. We have to get better as a team, if we want to achieve the bar that we’ve set and we’ve set it awfully high for ourselves,” continued Brady on his team’s selfless play.
Noblesville kept their foot on the gas and came into the second half ready to put this match completely out of reach.
Senior Lauren Adam booted in her first career goal just a few minutes into the second half and made the score 4-0.
A few minutes later, Adam hooked a corner kick right in front of the goal and reluctantly, sophomore Marit McLaughlin was right there to bump it in with her shoulder, pushing the lead to 5-0.
The Millers finished off their half dozen goal night when freshman Caylee Cunningham notched her first career goal, thanks to an assist from Olivia Boe in the 59th minute for what wound up being the final score of 6-0.
Second-ranked Noblesville (3-0, 1-0 HCC) gets to stay home for their next match and host HCC rival in top-ranked Hamilton Southeastern (6-0, 2-0 HCC) at Hallmark Orthodontics Soccer Complex. The junior varsity contest kicks off at 5 p.m., followed by the varsity at around 6:30 on Saturday, Aug. 27.
When Brady was asked about the highly-anticipated matchup Saturday vs. HSE, he seemed to have a calm response.
“It’s a big game, based on rankings, based on living in Hamilton County, but it’s our fourth game of the season,” stated Brady, admitting that yes, it is a big game, but it’s also early in the season.
“We’re going to have to be a much better team come early October when we face them or anybody in our sectional, so yeah it will be good to get that kind of test early. Again, we don’t win or lose a state title on Saturday night,” said Brady on the early implications that matchup brings.
Saturday’s big game with the Royals will be a great early-season test, but it doesn’t make or break the season for either Noblesville or Hamilton Southeastern.
“Come back in 72 hours and we’ll see. But, we’ll be up for it and Southeastern will be. It’ll be a fun game early in the season, but it’s still an early-in-the-season game,” continued Brady on Saturday night’s big matchup that pits the two top teams in 3A.