Center Grove celebrates a goal by Aubrie LeMasters during Saturday’s regional final against Castle.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
SEYMOUR
Even when Center Grove’s offense didn’t really seem to be firing on all cylinders during the first half of Saturday’s Class 3A regional final against Castle, Trojans coach Myron Vaughn wasn’t worried — and his team didn’t let him down.
Sophomore Aubrie LeMasters delivered the only goal of the match with just seconds to go before halftime, and No. 14 Center Grove made it stand up for a 1-0 triumph over No. 7 Castle at Seymour.
“The whole (first) half was about us finding the composure and the ability to calm down and not let the gravity of the game kind of dictate the speed at which we played,” Vaughn said. “Ultimately, that goal was kind of an example of what we were hoping for the whole first half in terms of composure.”
Center Grove (15-4-3) advances to play a semistate match against 12th-ranked East Central, which knocked off No. 3 Carmel in penalty kicks to win its regional, in Martinsville this coming Saturday. The Trojans and Trojans opened the season against one another on Aug. 17, with East Central claiming a 1-0 win.
Avenging that defeat would certainly be on brand for Vaughn’s team, which lost a 1-0 game to Castle on Sept. 14 but flipped that result in the rematch.
Offensive chances were few and far between on both sides for most of the first half, with the only serious threat in the first 37 minutes coming when Castle’s Jillian Higgins launched a hard shot from the right side that was smothered by Trojan goalkeeper Anderson Broshears.
But after struggling to get much going early, Center Grove found its footing toward the end of the half. In the 38th minute, sophomore Mia Marlin sent a pass forward to LeMasters, whose shot was stopped by the Knights’ Madeline Greathouse.
Less than two minutes later, that same duo got the Trojans on the board. Marlin’s through ball threaded the needle to LeMasters, who got behind the defense and slid a low shot past Greathouse and into the net with just 25.6 seconds remaining before the break.
“Before that, I’d missed the goal because I kicked it right at the goalie,” LeMasters said, “so after that I had to pick my head up before I kicked it and passed it into the corners, to make sure I was able to find corners and finish the goal.”
The Trojans had an opportunity to pad their lead in the 53rd minute. Senior Brooklyn Brown’s header from just out in front of the net was saved but briefly bobbled by Greathouse; senior defender Maggie Marlin crashed for the rebound while the ball was loose but arrived a fraction of a second too late to take advantage.
Castle (16-3-2) responded two minutes later with a good-looking shot by Paiton Mitchell from the top right corner of the box, but her effort carried just inches high of the crossbar. All of the other occasional forays inside the 18-yard marker by the Knights were cleared away by Center Grove’s back line.
With 11:34 left, the Trojans appeared to put the match away when LeMasters headed home the rebound of a Brown shot that had caromed down off the bottom of the crossbar, but the apparent tally was waved off due to an offsides call.
No matter.
“We didn’t need two or three goals; we knew that a shutout wins the game,” Vaughn said. “And with this team and the defensive record that this team has, and the girls playing back there — I’m not going to lie, it was very stressful, but at the end of the day, when I look at it, I had no doubts that they’d be able to get the job done, and they did.”
With just four teams remaining, and just one remaining team (No. 2 Noblesville) that came into the tournament in the state’s top 10. Anything can happen — and Vaughn is ready for it.
“We’re going to be who we are, and at this stage … every team’s going to be good,” he said. “It’s going to come down to moments; can you defend your goal? If you make a mistake, can you make the least amount? And if the other team makes a mistake, can you punish them? There’s not much to this tournament anymore, other than a bunch of good teams trying to make the least amount of mistakes.”
Center Grove didn’t make any when it mattered on Saturday.
