By CRAIG ADKINS
Anytime a pair of Hoosier Crossroads Conference teams meet up in the state tournament, it’s an automatic that the intensity level will be as high as it can be. That’s exactly what the feel was at the White River Soccer Complex as No. 2 Hamilton Southeastern escaped with a 3-2 first round sectional win over the host Noblesville Millers.
The crowds were rowdy and ready for what probably was already the sectional championship match, but was only the second game of Class 3A Sectional 8. This was a game where you knew that both teams would play 80 minutes without any let up.
“Without question. The six years I’ve been here, we have not had a battle like that until tonight,” said Jake Hart, Noblesville interim head coach.
“For them, we said we had to leave everything on the field,” Hart said of the Millers’ attitude toward a game of this magnitude. “These guy have been at the top of the table the whole year and they’ve been running really well, especially coming into the tournament,” Hart continued on Southeastern’s play this season.
Noblesville got on the board first with 28:47 left in the first half, as the duo of Alec Vanyo and Nicolai Andersen took advantage of the HSE defense. Vanyo tapped the ball to Andersen and he slipped it right by Royals goalkeeper Ben Haxton for a 1-0 Miller lead.
The Royals would find their chance to tie the game 1-1 on a quick offensive sequence that gave Darian Ghaffari a chance to net the equalizer with 8:00 left in the half.
The match got more and more aggressive, only dialing up each team’s intensity and play throughout.
As the first half wound down, Noblesville junior midfielder Andrew Noel took a free kick from about 25 yards out. The box was packed, so it was tough to tell where he would put the ball. Noel lofted the ball up high and into the goal to put the Millers up 2-1 with 1:04 until halftime.
The second half would grow to be twice as aggressive and physical as the first 40 minutes.
“It’s an intense, physical game and when us and Noblesville play, it always is,” Hamilton Southeastern head coach Chris White on the rivalry between the Royals and Millers.
After a see-saw in possession for the first 25 minutes of the second, Hamilton Southeastern senior Cole Barnes found room and put the Royals’ second equalizer into the back of the net with 14:17 left.
With thoughts of a possible two seven-minute overtime periods looming, both teams played frantic to avoid overtime.
It wasn’t until late in the game that the Royals’ Chayton Davidson took a foot to the ball off of a deflection into the goal with 26.6 seconds left that would seal the win for Hamilton Southeastern, 3-2.
“It was a difficult game to ref,” White on the impact of the officiating on Monday night’s game.
“There’s contact on almost every play and you can’t blow the whistle on every tackle. Emotions run high and it’s tough to be consistent because of how much there is,” White on the teams playing through the number of fouls called.
Emotions will ride even higher when the No. 2 Royals (14-1-2) meet up with the Fishers Tigers, who beat Pendleton Heights in the first game of the night to advance. Noblesville finishes 7-6-4 on the season.
