Whiteland’s Jackson Crawford, right, looks for an opening between two Shelbyville defenders during Tuesday’s sectional match.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
By Cameron Baker
For the Daily Journal
In high school sports, few events ignite as much excitement and anticipation as a sectional tournament. Emotions and adrenaline run high, as each game could be a team’s last of the season. Whiteland and Shelbyville certainly captured that energy in their Class 3A first-round matchup at Center Grove on Tuesday night, but the Warriors were unable to capture the form that had seen them win three straight coming into the tournament, as they lost to the Golden Bears 2-1.
Franklin lost to East Central in the first game of the evening, 3-0, leaving the host Trojans as the lone local team remaining in the field for Thursday’s semifinals.
It was clear early on that Whiteland-Shelbyville was going to be an extremely physical contest, with players on both sides hitting the ground and fighting for every ball. Much of the first half could be defined as back-and-forth, as both teams were able to control the ball for large spurts and attack.
But the 28th minute of the game marked somewhat of a mini meltdown from Whiteland (5-9-3), as back-to-back yellow cards set up Diego Hernandez to score on a 20-yard free kick and give the Golden Bears the first of their two goals on the night. Shelbyville (9-8) doubled its lead ten minutes later when Hernandez assisted Logan Addis with a through ball that took out two Whiteland defenders and left Addis one on one to slot the ball into the far post.
For much of the second half, Whiteland was playing on the back foot as the Golden Bears began to control the physical side of the game, something the Warriors had done well throughout the season.
“The goals definitely took the wind out of the sails for the guys. We then kind of got off track with our game plan and kind of found our way back, but those goals are tricky,” Whiteland coach Justin VanHorn said.
The beginning of the second half saw the Warriors come out more aggressively than they ended the first, with many fouls being called against them. That allowed Shelbyville to slow the game down and dominate the possession for the majority of the half.
Whiteland seemed to find another gear in the last 20 minutes of the game, as its desperation to find a goal heightened. The goal the Warriors were pushing for came in the 76th minute after Cameron Reid won a penalty for his team and Austin Cooper finished the chance to put his team back in the game. However, the late burst of energy was not enough for the comeback, as the Golden Bears sat back to hold onto their lead and Whiteland was unable to break through for the equalizer.
“Kudos to them. They were trying to run out the clock and we were trying to get a goal. They did what they needed to do,” VanHorn said. “We graduate 13 seniors, but we have a lot of guys coming back next year, which will be helpful to us. We have a lot of really good young players, but again, lots of work is needed in the offseason to try to improve every individual on the team.”
In the early match, Franklin (2-13-2) started the game playing some inspired soccer. Within the first 10 minutes, the Grizzly Cubs had multiple chances to score off some miscommunication from the East Central defense but were ultimately unable to capitalize.
From there, East Central (11-4-1) started to dominate possession of the ball, giving Franklin little opportunity to find the first goal of the game. The Trojans eventually broke through in the 37th minute after a long throw-in bounced to the back post, where Jacob Gagnon was waiting with an acrobatic finish for his sixth goal of the season.
East Central scored again in just the 41st minute, straight from the halftime kickoff. Jackson Engel kept the ball in play with some tight dribbling on the end line and was able to find Brennan Lewis in the box, who scored from an extremely tough angle.
“It was kind of a fluke goal, just a little bounce and … it happened,” Franklin coach Mike Spongberg said. “But hey, no big deal; we’ve been in this position before. Unfortunately, we just decided not to mark in the first minute and things got all jumbled and Lewis was able to get loose.”
Franklin conceded a third goal in the 60th minute on a penalty kick.
“Next year we have to focus on getting back into not only the weight room, but speed and agility as well,” Spongberg said. “And then getting back that cohesion, I think that’s one thing we lacked. As the new staff came in, we didn’t have that repertoire. It has to happen over the winter and summer. We pride our mantra on going all in, and we have to buy in.”
