By CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
NOBLESVILLE – In every meeting between Carmel and Noblesville in girls soccer, the two rivals keep getting more and more physical, creating one of the best matchups in the state of Indiana.
Monday night’s game was no different. Playing at home could have something to do with it, but the Class 3A No. 1 Millers used their home field to their advantage and showed out in full force in a 3-1 win over the 3A No. 3 Greyhounds.
“Whenever we come here, and it probably happens when they come to our place. It’s the home crowd and the whole shot. I thought we were a little bit slow getting started and they came out fired up,” said Carmel head coach Frank Dixon on the road atmosphere at Noblesville.
“By the second half, I think we put that away and we were playing pretty even with them. We had a couple of lost marks and they took advantage of situations,” continued Dixon on Carmel playing that much differently to match Nobleville physically in the final 40 minutes.
The Millers struck first in the 25th minute when senior Nadia Zaborowski took a shot from 22 yards out for an unassisted goal for a 1-0 lead with 15:49 left until halftime.
“She’s always going to play 100 mph. I mean, the engine on her is unbelievable,” said Noblesville head coach Mike Brady on senior Nadia Zaborowski and the game she played against Carmel.
“Then, you combine it as her soccer skill and she starts to get better and gets into a rhythm. It’s hard from where we’re running her out for them to defend her and you saw tonight that they had no answer for her,” continued Brady on Zaborowski, who was quite the difference maker for Noblesville.
Late in the first half, the match got even more intense. Annika Nelson lofted a shot on a free kick from 25 yards. The ball bounced to Miller goalkeeper Bella Wyatt. The ball deflected off of Wyatt and Kathryn Hartung shot a rebound by the sophomore Wyatt for the equalizer at 1-1 with just 1:17 remaining in the first half.
“Goalkeeping is one of those heady positions. You make a mistake and it’s really easy to get down on yourself and give up three. She again made a mistake and realized it and our defense should have been there as well. But, after that one goal, she was nails the rest of the game,” stated Brady on his sophomore goalkeeper Bella Wyatt.
As the second half stayed knotted 1-1 for the first 30-plus minutes, it became obvious that the intensity had risen and something was about to happen.
Ava Bramblett took a free kick from 22 yards out and Marit McLaughlin sent the deflection from Zaborowski to the back of the net with a header in the 72nd minute for a 2-1 Miller edge.
“The header was McLaughlin and that’s their best kid. We know that. Somebody lost a mark and we’re looking at tape to see who lost the mark,” said Frank Dixon on McLaughin’s goal that put Noblesville up.
“You can’t do that in these games. You can do it in a lot of other games, but you can’t do it in these games,” stated Dixon on how crucial it was that Carmel wasn’t able to cover McLaughlin, leaving her open to head in the second Noblesville goal.
Not even three minutes later, Nadia Zaborowski led Sydney Elliott up the middle in the box and Elliott punched in the Millers’ third goal in the 75th minute to account for the final score of 3-1.
“Carmel is the gold standard for women’s soccer and has been for a very long time,” said Brady on Carmel’s success and tradition as a girls soccer program.
“We’ve entered into the conversation recently. Again, there would have been a time when we would have settled for a tie, but that’s not our attitude anymore,” stated Brady on his team’s relentless pursuit of getting the win and nothing less.
“We’re playing all of these games to win and in the second half, they just got hungrier and they weren’t going to be denied a victory this evening. That’s a really good team over there. They’re going to be a really tough outcome postseason,” continued Brady on his team doing everything for the win and Carmel being a tough team in the upcoming state tournament.
Carmel (10-2-1) lost just its second game of the season. The ‘Hounds will host 3A No. 7 Center Grove (9-1-1) on Wednesday at Murray Stadium at 7 p.m.
Noblesville moves to 11-1 and will head north on Saturday in a neutral site matchup at Newton Park in Lakeville to face the Penn Kingsmen (4-8-2) at 1 p.m.