<p>BLOOMINGTON</p>
<p>Center Grove girls soccer coach Mike Bishop sat alone for a moment on the bench after Saturday night’s Class 3A regional final, drowning in the sounds of his sobbing players.</p>
<p>Whether unsure of what to say to them or unsure of how long to wait before gathering them together for one last goodbye, it was understandable after the eighth-ranked Trojans’ season came to a bitter end in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of No. 5 Castle.</p>
<p>"You always feel like there’s a chance to pull it off," Bishop said. "You’ve got strong kids, you’ve got solid kids. Sometimes no matter what you do, it’s just not your night. I think that’s the case tonight."</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>Jessica Jacobs put the Knights out in front in the 13th minute of the final when she pulled back to juke a defender deep on the left side, then fired from an almost impossible angle and tucked the ball in the far side of the Trojans’ net.</p>
<p>That held up as the lone goal through the midway point, but after Castle had a couple of chances to add to the lead early in the second half, Center Grove came up with the equalizer when a Peyton Murphy corner kick got through the legs of a Castle defender in front of the goal, and senior Alainna Frankel was waiting near the back post to knock it into the back of the net with 29:31 remaining.</p>
<p>No sooner had the Trojans seized the momentum, though, than the Knights took it right back. A long lead pass found Jacobs in stride for a breakaway, and the senior cashed in on the one-on-one against Center Grove goalie Kelti Wise, making it a 2-1 game with 23:32 on the clock.</p>
<p>Center Grove appeared to tie the game with 15:20 to go, but the apparent goal was waved off due to an offsides call. The Trojans tried their best to keep the pressure on through the closing minutes despite a barrage of foul calls, and two late yellow cards, against them, but could not find a way to force overtime. Their final chance came on a penalty kick with 35 seconds remaining, but the shot sailed just over the crossbar.</p>
<p>"We had multiple opportunities and just couldn’t convert," Wise said. "It was really physical, and Castle did a great job of defending us and shutting us down."</p>
<p>"I think our legs were a little tired from the morning game," added Bishop, whose team needed to go to penalty kicks to get past host Bloomington South in the second semifinal match. "It was hard to get going, but we made a couple of changes and picked up our momentum and got it going, came back strong in the second half. You just come up a little short, you come up short. Not our night."</p>
<p>The Trojans had advanced to the final by defeating the Panthers in a shootout, 4-1, after the two teams got through 94 minutes of afternoon soccer tied at 1-1.</p>
<p>Despite finishing the afternoon semifinal with a 24-10 advantage in overall shots, Center Grove couldn’t find the net during regulation against the Panthers and appeared to be in trouble when Clara Voskuil headed home a corner kick with 3:02 remaining in the first seven-minute overtime period. But a scramble in front of the goal at the other side of the field ended with Macy Detty tapping in a loose ball with nine seconds to go, and after neither team managed to even threaten in the second extra frame, they headed to a shootout for the second year in a row.</p>
<p>Paige Waskom, Katelyn Jansen and Jostin Reeves converted their penalty kicks in the first three rounds for the Trojans, and when Bloomington South’s second and third shots caromed out off the left goalpost and crossbar, respectively, Center Grove was in the driver’s seat. Detty went top shelf in the fourth round to clinch the win.</p>
<p>Victory eluded the Trojans in the final, leaving a bitter pill for the departing seniors to swallow instead of a second consecutive semistate trip.</p>
<p>"It’s just hard, the result and how it ended," said Wise, who made five saves in the title game and came out to cut off several other Castle scoring chances. "The game got all emotional … all the seniors knew it was our last game, so we were throwing our bodies out and giving it 110 percent. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to convert. </p>
<p>"Soon we’ll go our separate ways, but we all know that when we play on the field, we’re all one."</p>
