SHELBYVILLE
Greenwood Christian’s boys soccer team has higher aspirations than what it achieved Saturday. That doesn’t mean the Cougars enjoyed Saturday’s achievement any less.
GCA controlled Saturday’s Class A Southwestern (Shelbyville) Sectional championship match from start to finish, using superior ball control to tame the host Spartans and claim a 3-1 victory.
The seventh-ranked Cougars won their second straight sectional crown, and fourth in school history. They also won titles in 2013 and 2015.
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They celebrated the title the way most teams do. Players sprinted to midfield to celebrate at match’s end, doused coach George Huizinga with a Gatorade jug and shared the moment with fellow students and parents. But it didn’t take them long to think about what’s next.
“I think we have what it takes to go far,” said Cougars senior midfielder Jack Kovacs, who scored the go-ahead goal late in the first half. “The best thing about this team is that we’re capable of a lot, and we’re still living up to it. Every game we play, we just get better and better, and hopefully we’re going to go to state.”
GCA (14-3-1) will face top-ranked Seton Catholic at noon this Saturday in the Knightstown Regional, with the winner playing for the championship at 7 p.m. The Cougars are seeking their first regional crown.
Kovacs’ go-ahead goal came with 4:24 remaining in the first half, after Griffin Huizinga penetrated the Southwestern defense along the end line and set him up for the score. The Spartans’ lone goal came on an own goal, when a GCA player inadvertently deflected the ball into the net off a Southwestern corner kick with 21:23 remaining in the first half.
The Cougars’ Jonathan Amador opened the scoring with an unassisted shot that found the back of the net from about 20 yards out. Defender Daniel Wilson concluded the scoring for GCA when he created a breakaway and put the ball in the net with 19:05 remaining.
GCA controlled the ball to a large extent through much of the first half, but dominated the action in the second half. Midfielders Josue Mier and George Apgar frequently attacked the wings to advance the ball and limit the Spartans’ opportunities.
“The boys just settled in and got in their routine,” Coach Huizinga said. “(Southwestern) was packing it in, so it was hard to get a lot of things going. We just recognized what they were doing and just came up with our strategy to keep possession, and we executed it. It really looked like good soccer.”
GCA’s last loss came Sept. 17 at 10th-ranked University.
“It’s exciting for the boys (to win a sectional), but you’ve got to temper it a little bit because we really haven’t won a regional, so that’s really our goal,” Huizinga said. “From what I’ve seen in this sectional, we are peaking. We had Seton Catholic on the ropes (in a 3-2 loss Sept. 15). We were up two goals on them, and we let them get three goals on us. We’re looking forward to facing them and having a chance to knock them out.”
