Columbus North girls soccer star Jenna Lang put two shots into the back of the net during Saturday afternoon’s Class 3A sectional championship game against Center Grove — the only two scores that either side was able to manage.
It was another Lang shot, though, that may have done just as much to alter the course of the match.
A little more than 10 minutes into the match, the All-State junior fired a rocket from about 20 yards out on the left side that rammed into the head of Trojan senior Paige Waskom, the reigning county player of the year.
Waskom went to the sideline to go through the standard concussion protocols, and the verdict came down moments later — she was done for the day. Lang scored her first goal shortly thereafter, shifting the momentum in what ended up as a 2-0 Center Grove loss in Whiteland.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“I thought at the beginning, we really had the momentum,” Trojan junior Peyton Murphy said. “We knew what we needed to do, and we thought we were going to put that into action. And then Paige got hurt, and that kind of put us back a little bit.”
“That was a blow that we didn’t need to have,” Center Grove coach Mike Bishop said of Waskom’s injury. “But the girls rallied; I’m proud of them. We were dinged up, broken, exhausted, and I’m so proud of this team for the work that they have put in and the ability to fight as hard and as long as they did.”
Center Grove (14-5) had the better part of the action for the first 15-plus minutes or so, even after Waskom’s exit, getting a couple of quality looks at the net on breakaway shots by senior Macy Detty.
Still, it was Columbus North (16-1-1) that got on the board first.
Lang, who had scored all four goals in the Bull Dogs’ season-opening win over the Trojans in August and has 43 for the season after Saturday, got loose for just a second and took advantage of the opportunity, punching home a right-to-left shot with 19:58 to go in the first half. That was the lone score for either side before the midpoint.
Lang struck again with 37:05 remaining in the match, getting just enough space in a crowded box to squeeze off a shot that found its way into the right side of the net.
Center Grove kept the ball in Columbus North’s half of the field for most of the rest of the game and had some chances — the Trojans finished with a 5-3 advantage in shots on goal — but couldn’t cut into the deficit.
“We had the run of play all afternoon,” Center Grove coach Mike Bishop said. “We had a good game plan, and it worked — we just couldn’t get it past the goal. We had opportunities; we had better quality opportunities than they did. And we just came up short.
“Those things happen. The keeper holds one half second, we bury the ball. The center back takes a half step to get to where she needs to be, and Macy’s got three goals — and it’s a much different story than what we ended up with.”
Though Saturday’s match ended in disappointing fashion, the Trojans can take solace in the fact that they return all but four players next fall.
Bishop and his players feel good about how they closed out this season, winning six straight and 10 of 11 prior to the closing setback.
“I think we have a lot of potential for next year, because all our young players, we got our team chemistry,” Murphy said. “We just now started to really bond, and so now we’re starting with that foundation next year and we’re only losing four seniors, so we can start with that — and hopefully make it back here and beat them next year.”
