It was an early season, non-conference soccer match that had all the feeling of a title bout.
Crawfordsville’s boys soccer team lost a 2-0 match to Cascade, but it was anything but a friendly.
It played out as a rivalry, as these two teams have plenty of history that they will take into Monon Conference play next season.
The Cadets lost their last trip to Crawfordsville two years ago, losing to the Athenians in the sectional championship game.
The Athenians lost at Cascade last season in the sectional semifinals, ending their season.
The trainers came out to tend to injured players 10 times during the game.
That’s how the game played out. It was elbow - bump, elbow - bump the entire night, followed by plenty of sometimes easy, sometimes not, shoves to the artificial turf. There were few moments when one of the 22 players on the pitch wasn’t flat on the field.
But in the end, it was the Cadets who took the win, with two second-half goals. Both teams scored nine goals in their first game of the season, but it was all defense the second night out.
“We walked through the second half,” Crawfordsville coach Roger Azar said. “We were fighting tigers the first half, but we walked through the second. I’m not upset with losing — they are big, strong and physical. We can match that, but this was a mental loss. We have to play at their level the entire match. We didn’t do that tonight. We learned some lessons.”
The Cadets, who were 16-2-1 last season, were a beehive defensively in front of their goal. They kicked away countless centering passes and frustrated the Athenians offensively.
They put seven shots on Cadets goal keeper Jude Johnson, but only a few, all off the foot of Jaziel Gil-Herrera, were in close and personal.
Athenians goal keeper Alex Saidian, who faced only one shot in the win over WeBo Tuesday, was peppered in both halves. He turned away 14, but the Cadets had two good pass and shoot goals, the first by Brogan Trump with 27:05 let in the match on a pass from Lane Trump, and the second with 10:10 left, as Colson Mendenhall scored on a clean pass from Declan Dodson.
“It was a really tough, physical match,” Cascade coach David Moeller said. “We lost to them the last time we were here, and it was good to get the win. We controlled the midfield well, I thought, especially in the second half. Defensively, we limited their opportunities. We graduated six starters from last season, so we have new guys getting used to each other.”
“I welcome the rivalry,” Azar said of the upcoming battles with the Cadets. “I love playing the good, hard teams. We learned some hard lessons tonight, what it takes to play at that level and what needs to be done. We are so early in the season — these guys will step it up and do better the next time and the time after that. The message was sent. We have to care about how we play.”
The Cadets have a Sept. 23 match against Southmont. The Athenians are back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Greencastle.
