Bo Campbell sampled opposite ends of the emotional spectrum in less than 24 hours over the weekend.
The Greenwood Christian junior midfielder’s first-half penalty kick on Saturday proved the difference in a 1-0 victory over Northeast DuBois in a Class A semistate match at Evansville North.
GCA (14-4-2) now returns to the state championship match for the second time in three years to play top-ranked Covenant Christian (18-1-1). The Cougars lost their season opener to the Warriors, 4-2, on Aug. 20.
The match starts at 6 p.m. Friday at the Michael Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium at IU Indianapolis.
The soccer team’s euphoria contrasts what transpired Friday night when the GCA football team, which includes two players competing in both sports (Campbell and junior Trey Dobson), lost 28-27 to Eastern Greene in a first-round sectional game.
First-year Greenwood Christian soccer coach Kefi Tonouewa, an assistant on the 2022 state runner-up squad, had long sensed that this was a group talented and dedicated enough to make it back.
“It’s a great feeling. I don’t know how to express it,” Tonouewa said. “The time that I’ve seen this team put in during practices, yeah, I thought we could go this far if we kept working hard.
“They work very well together, and they just believe. With God on our side, anything is possible.”
The Cougars hoped to widen their advantage the final 40 minutes, but weren’t able to, in large part because of the abilities of Jeeps goalkeeper Brycen Morz.
“We just kept playing our game in the second half, and kept trying to score goals,” Tonouewa said. “We tried so hard to score the second goal. We came close a couple of times, with Bo hitting the crossbar once.”
Campbell’s converted goal was his team-best 26th of the season to go along with his six assists.
