By Cameron Baker
For the Daily Journal
When a team struggles for form throughout the season, a rivalry game is the perfect excuse for the team to come together and turn the season around.
Whiteland had that in mind for Thursday night’s match at Franklin and came away with a 3-1 win, its first of the year.
The Grizzly Cubs opened the scoring in the game with about 27 minutes left in the first half when Ripken Dillon found Gavin Fugate in and about the near post off a corner kick. Fugate was able to slot his volley into the far post and past Warrior goalkeeper Jake Witherington for his second goal of the season.
Whiteland (1-6-3, 1-2-1 Mid-State) struggled in the first half to create much of anything offensively, with most of their chances coming off counterattacks and quick passes to the right-hand side of the field. Their best chance of the half came from a free kick sent in by Austin Cooper. Franklin goalie Colin Anderson was unable to cleanly catch the ball, and it fell to a Whiteland attacker. Luckily for the Grizzly Cubs, Mason Herbert was standing on the goal line to make the crucial clearance.
Other than Fugate’s goal, the Grizzly Cubs (0-8-1, 0-4) were also unable to threaten Whiteland’s defense much. For most of the first half, both teams were driving the ball forward whenever possible, leading to an extremely fast and physical game. However, when the Grizzly Cubs did find control of the game, it was due to Aybram Moore’s hard work in the midfield. Moore swept up and stopped many of Whiteland’s advances and was able to find short passes to move his team up the field.
“He’s a talented player,” Franklin coach Mike Spongberg said of Moore. “He got banged up a bit in the middle there, so he couldn’t go 100% at some points. We also have a couple of injuries that had him playing out of position, but he’s a talented player.”
The beginning of the second half seemed to tell a different story than the first. Both offenses showed some signs of life as they had shots whisk by the post.
The 50th minute marked the change of the game, as Whiteland scored two goals within almost a minute of each other. Grayson Hall opened the account for Whiteland when he rocketed a shot past Anderson. Nalon Knight then made a quick move to find himself open in the box to score Whiteland’s second of the game with 29:06 left.
The Grizzly Cubs came close to equalizing around the 60th minute when Aaiden Branch found himself wide open in the box, but he was unable to score due to the Whiteland defenders there to make a huge goal line clearance and officially shift the momentum in Whiteland’s favor.
Whiteland did score one more time with 1:43 left in the game, when Cameron Reid found some space in the box and calmly passed it into the net.
“The first half we just weren’t connecting passes. Our halftime talk was just, ‘Let’s do the things we know how to do,’” Whiteland coach Justin VanHorn said. “The win feels really good. We’ve played really well in spurts. But to get a win because we played well, it really feels good.”
