Center Grove girls soccer tops Franklin for sectional crown

COLUMBUS

Franklin did everything it could to hang close with Class 3A No. 14 Center Grove in Saturday’s sectional championship match at the BCSC Soccer Complex. For about two-thirds of the afternoon, it worked about as well as it reasonably could have.

The dam couldn’t hold forever, though, and the Trojans eventually overwhelmed the Grizzly Cubs, 5-1, to set up a regional semifinal match at Terre Haute South on Wednesday.

“I don’t think there was ever a moment where we were worried about whether we were going to (score),” Center Grove coach Myron Vaughn said. “It was just going to be finding the right way and making sure that we got it in enough time to where it didn’t let the other team build confidence.”

The Trojans (13-4-3) controlled the ball almost all afternoon, camping out in the attacking third for large stretches of time. But that dominance didn’t produce any goals early on against a packed-in Grizzly Cub defense and a solid performance by junior goalkeeper Addison Mashino, who stopped the first five shots she faced and 18 in all.

The seal finally cracked late in the 17th minute when Trojan freshman wing Sadie McLaughlin dribbled into the box, drew the defense and threaded a perfect pass ahead to junior Jessie Jasek for a point-blank shot. Mashino — who made 18 saves in all — was able to get a touch on it, but not enough to keep it out of the net.

Franklin (8-8-1) never seriously threatened to score while the Center Grove starters were in, but for the better part of 60 minutes the Grizzly Cubs did everything an overmatched side needs to do to keep the score tight. Defenders deflected, altered or softened the overwhelming majority of the Trojans’ shot attempts, making life significantly less stressful for Mashino than it could have been under the circumstances.

“Our goal going into it was to keep them out of the box, prevent shots and force low-percentage shots, and we did that for 60 minutes,” Franklin coach Garrett Belden said. “Just, when you play a team as high-caliber as they are, they’re going to find a way.”

After Jasek’s goal, Center Grove didn’t really see another uncontested shot until senior Lauren Hopper found herself open with 31:46 left in the match and converted from 15 yards out. But Hopper’s goal seemed to finally open the floodgates — Jasek notched her second goal with 27:26 remaining, tapping in a Marlin shot that had missed the mark but left the back door ajar, and Marlin headed home a Hopper corner kick with 23:53 to go.

Each side tacked on a late tally after the Trojans inserted their second unit. Center Grove sophomore Aubrie LeMasters cashed in a cross from senior Hayley Smith with seven minutes left to trigger a running clock, and the Grizzly Cubs averted a shutout when junior Jazlinn Diaz-Avalos found the net about three minutes later.

Though his team came up short, Belden was pleased with what he saw from its team, which more than doubled its win total from last season’s three.

“(Center Grove’s) just going to sort and try to find a way to beat us, and today they got our number, unfortunately,” he said. “But I’m not disappointed in our girls’ performance; they played the entire game with max effort.”

Vaughn, meanwhile, feels good about which way his team is trending as it heads into regional play.

“We’ve always been a team that … is one of the best defensive teams in the state in terms of our quality and what we can do,” the coach said. “But I think the one thing that we were always kind of trying to perfect a little bit more and be better at was scoring more goals. Our leading goal scorer last season had five — so for this year, it was a matter of not only finding a way to score, but be consistent with it … overall, I think we’ve got all three phases of the game in a good place.”