By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – With history in its sight Thursday evening, the Guerin Catholic girls soccer team sprinted to the finish line.
The Class 3A No. 6 Golden Eagles overwhelmed Covenant Christian 12-0 in its Senior Night game and Circle City Conference finale. The victory gave Guerin Catholic its first-ever conference championship in girls soccer; the Golden Eagles finished league play a perfect 5-0.
“It feels great,” said Claire Sawyer, one of the senior captains for Guerin. “It’s been our goal for so long, especially because Brebeuf’s our rival and they’ve won it every year. So, it just felt good to get it this year and finally reach our goal.”
It took a little while for the Golden Eagles to get their first goal, which they did in the 16th minute when Evie Bestard scored off an assist by Quincy McMahon. But once Guerin Catholic got started scoring, the goals came fast.
Just over a minute after Bestard’s goal, Caitlin Frees added GC’s second goal of the game. Minutes later, McMahon scored by blasting a kick into the net. McMahon was a freshman on Guerin’s state-qualifying team three years ago, then moved to Colorado for two years. She’s back as a senior, and said the reason she came back “is the community and how much love these girls have for each other and how much the student section loves us and our faculty loves us.”
That chemistry has been integral to the team’s success.
“Everyone is best friends,” said senior Caroline Quinn. “When you get on the field, it’s just so easy to flow with each other and we definitely improved each game.”
Finally, with six seconds left in the half, Katie Koger found the back of the net, giving the Golden Eagles a 4-0 halftime lead. And they were just beginning.
“It’s consistent of what’s been going on throughout the season,” said Guerin Catholic coach Sean Yau. “We’ve had now over 12 different goal scorers throughout the season. When you get closer into tournament time, to be that dynamic with your attack, that’s what you want, so teams that you’re going to compete against can’t focus on one, two or three people, they’re going to have to deal with a lot of people on our attacking side.”
“I definitely think we worked hard to get as many people to score tonight as possible and that just shows how close our team is,” said Bestard. “I think we worked well connecting our passes and getting on some of our defenders to score tonight.”
Bestard opened the second half with her second goal of the night, in the game’s 44th minute, making the score 5-0. An own goal by Covenant Christian gave the Golden Eagles a 6-0 lead, then Bestard, Koger and Alyssa Ferry each added goals before the 20-minute mark.
Guerin scored three more goals in the final eight minutes. Caroline Quinn, Claire Sawyer and Lily Snyder all found the back of the net. Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles’ defense barely let the ball reach the other side of the field. In the five conference games, Guerin Catholic scored 28 goals, while the defense allowed its opponents none.
“They’re awesome,” said GC goalkeeper Olivia Labus of the defense. “All these shutouts are all credits to them. They’re just solid back there. I always feel confident back there knowing that I have four great defenders. They’re playing great this year.”
The Golden Eagles are now 9-1-1 for the season and play two games on Saturday, against 3A No. 4 South Bend St. Joseph and Penn.
While the Guerin Catholic girls were winning a conference title, the Golden Eagles boys soccer team was doing the same thing at Brebeuf Jesuit.
The 2A No. 4 Guerin boys beat the 2A No. 17 Braves 2-0 to clinch their Circle City Conference championship. The Golden Eagles finished conference play with a 5-0 record.
Lukas Piñon scored both of Guerin Catholic’s goals, one in each half. With the victory, the Golden Eagles are 8-1-1 overall and play at 3A No. 4 Carmel Saturday afternoon.
The conference championship victories in both girls and boys soccer mean that Guerin Catholic has won five CCC titles so far this school year. The Golden Eagles have also won conference championships in girls golf, boys tennis and boys cross country.
Noblesville’s boys team, ranked No. 1 in 3A, rolled to another victory on Thursday, beating Lawrence Central 6-0 at Hallmark Orthodontics Soccer complex.
The Millers scored four goals in the first half, including one during the first minute of the game. Spencer Holland found the back of the net, converting a through ball from Garrett Poynter.
Ten minutes later, Drew Cochran sent a through ball to Drew Barnes, who drew the LC goalkeeper out and sent a shot to the far post. Noblesville quickly scored again; a Millers corner kick drew multiple deflections in the box before Brady Horn scored on a half volley. It was Horn’s first-ever varsity goal.
Holland scored the fourth goal, poking the ball in to get Noblesville ahead 4-0. The Millers added two more scores in the second half: Palmer Ault put a shot into the low far post of an assist from Sammy Holland. Kyle Marshall then scored the sixth goal in the 74th minute, his first-ever varsity score.
“It felt good to get my first varsity goal,” said Marshall. “I wouldn’t want to do it with any other squad of players or any other team.”
Noblesville is 11-0 for the season and plays two games in Fort Wayne on Saturday. The Millers play 3A No. 5 Fort Wayne Carroll at 11:30 a.m. and Homestead at 5:30 p.m.
Hamilton Heights’ girls team, ranked No. 6 in 2A, beat West Lafayette 3-0 Thursday in the semi-finals of the Hoosier Conference tournament.
The Red Devils came out strong in the first few minutes of the game, but the Huskies soon began to create opportunities. Heights broke through in the 37th minute when Kyndall Ferguson tapped the ball past the West Lafayette goalkeeper and into the net.
Ferguson scored again less than five minutes into the second half, giving the Huskies a 2-0 lead. Cassidy Felger got Heights’ final goal of the game.
The Huskies will play 1A No. 2 Lafayette Central Catholic at 11 a.m. at Northwestern for the conference championship.
Hamilton Southeastern’s boys team, ranked No. 2 in 3A, took care of Marion 7-3 in a Thursday away game.
Harsahil Gandham scored three goals for the Royals, with Isa Sayeed also getting three goals. Sam Kay scored one goal.
Southeastern is 10-1-2 for the season and also will take a trip to Fort Wayne on Saturday to play Homestead and Fort Wayne Carroll.
Carmel’s boys team, ranked No. 4 in 3A, lost to Cathedral 1-0 on Thursday.
“We were unfortunate to not find the back of the net this evening,” said Greyhounds coach Shane Schmidt. “We created several scoring opportunities, just missing the mark to capitalize on one of them. I was proud of our effort and how we moved the ball. We will head back to the training grounds tomorrow and get prepared for Guerin on Saturday.”
Carmel is 9-2-2 for the season.
Noblesville’s Brady Horn (18) reacts after scoring his first-ever varsity goal during the Millers’ boys game with Lawrence Central on Thursday. Noblesville beat the Bears 6-0 to stay unbeaten for the season. (Kent Graham)