LINDEN — Crawfordsville’s girls soccer team dispatched their second county opponent in three days, and the 3-1 win over North Montgomery gives the Athenians the county championship.
It is the second in a row for Crawfordsville, as they move to 8-5 on the season, while the Chargers fall to 3-9-1. North also finished their Sagamore Conference season at 0-7.
The Athenians move to 5-0 in the league with the victory, however, and they have a trip to Tri-West on Monday to take on the Bruins, who are also 5-0.
The Rivalry Week matchup came down to the two Crawfordsville goals in the second half, after a 1-1 first 40 minutes.
Caroline Novak, whose first-half goal gives her 17 and co-leads the Sagamore, started instead of finished the first goal of the second half.
The junior threaded the needle with a pass to the right side of the attack zone, with Maesa Horton heading down the path.
Horton put a solid shot on goal, but it was stopped by Chargers goal keeper Ella Smith.
Depending on your point of view, the next moment was great or not so great.
The ball caromed off Smith to her right, toward the middle of the field. It rolled ever so gently right in front of Crawfordsville’s Zari Freeze, who had what the golfers call a “gimme.”
It was about three feet in front of an empty net, and Freeze didn’t freeze, scoring her third goal of the season to give her squad a 2-1 lead with 25:58 left in the match.
The Chargers, only the one goal down, brought the fight right back to the visitors, until the 9:23 mark, when Freeze scored her second goal of the match, taking a nice pass from Yuli Torres.
The momentum swung firmly in favor of the Athenians, who then played nine minutes of keep away to seal the win.
“It sure wasn’t our cleanest match of the season,” Crawfordsville coach Alex Ehrlich said. “It has been a really emotional week for us. We so want to win these county games and we might have been a little flat early, but that is due to North playing so hard. They (North) were so competitive, so aggressive. They came at us hard and never backed down. I also want to give a lot of credit to (Chargers) coach (Julie) Hodges. She is just a class act, and it is a privilege to coach against her.”
The Chargers, who fell behind early when Novak scored in the first minute, came back to tie the match with 14:59 left in the first half.
“It’s the third time this season we have given up a goal in the first minute,” Hodges said. “I knew it was going to be a bad night or it was game on. The girls gave a great effort. There were long stretches tonight where I feel we dominated them. We tied it and really worked in the second half, but that next goal just wasn’t there.”
The one Chargers goal was something to remember.
Sophie Shea had a corner kick, and the junior put a perfect curve on it, and the ball went in the goal, off the fingertips of Athenians goal keeper Litzy Huesca.
An unassisted goal on a corner kick is called an Olimpico goal, and is a rare event. It was also Shea’s first open goal score of the season, along with a pair of penalty kicks.
But it turned out to be the only goal of the night for the Chargers.
“We also had some players who played really well tonight,” Hodges said. “Gracie Ratcliff was strong on the outside, and Paige Yarger was all-out on defense. She blocked at least three shots. We had to shut down Crawfordsville’s corner kicks and she was a big part of that. I also want to congratulate Crawfordsville on winning the county and wish them good luck against Tri-West and hope they win the Sagamore. We will wait for them in the sectionals.”
Ehrlich also had some kudos to pass out.
“Litzy (Huesca) wasn’t expected to start in goal these two games this week,” he said, “but she really stepped up.”
The senior stopped nine of the 10 shots she faced.
“Our defensive line was amazing tonight,” Ehrlich continued. “(Freshman) Alea Seward was a big part of that.”
The Chargers will honor their four seniors, Smith, Ava Nunan, Callie Wright and Hailey Kunz, Saturday morning before they play Covington. The finish the season with a Monday match against Faith Christian and a Thursday trip to Rossville.
The Athenians are idle until Monday and the trip to Tri-West. They close out the regular season next Wednesday against Western Boone.
The win caps a big week for Crawfordsville sports, as the girls’ and boys’ soccer teams, along with the volleyball teams, won county titles. The boys’ tennis team added to that with a conference championship.
