Center Grove’s Niekos Whitney, left, kicks the ball during Tuesday’s match against visiting Greenwood.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
For all of the progress that Greenwood has made on the field in recent years under coach Dan Priscu, it found out on Tuesday evening that there are still far greater heights to climb.
The Woodmen became the latest victim of a Center Grove team that has been nothing short of a buzzsaw so far this season, coming away with a 9-0 loss against the Class 3A No. 2 Trojans.
Based on the early returns, it’s fair to wonder if Center Grove — which has now outscored opponents 33-2 during its 7-0 start — is somehow underranked.
Greenwood (3-2) kept the Trojans off the board for the first 11 minutes but could only hold off the onslaught for so long. The dam finally gave way with 28:39 to go in the first half when senior Evan Hewitt set up junior Niekos Whitney for the first tally of the match.
Senior Austin Lowden followed with a hard shot from the top of the 18-yard box just over three minutes later, and the rout was on.
“Anytime you start a game, just start out from minute one hitting on all cylinders, that’s a good night when you do that,” Center Grove coach Jameson McLaughlin said. “And honestly, (Priscu) has them very well coached. They’re organized. They never quit; they worked hard. And when you have a team that’s organized and they work hard, it takes a minute to figure out, ‘What do we do?’ Also, when we figured out we don’t have to play a 40-yard ball and we just play 10, 15 yards and just move off of it, then that’s when the levee would break.”
Lowden had another opportunity from point-blank range in the 18th minute that was turned away by Woodmen goalkeeper Braden Reynolds — one of several impressive stops by the sophomore — but the relentless assault continued. With 21:54 left in the half, Whitney converted a short crossing pass from junior Bruno Gubert to make it 3-0.
Greenwood managed to hold the margin at three until the 36th minute, when senior Charlie Habig took a Lowden through ball in stride and punched it home. Senior Matheus Gubert scored on a free kick with 2:58 on the first-half clock, and Whitney notched his third goal a minute later, putting home a rebound after Reynolds had stopped a Lowden shot.
Part of the problem for the Woodmen was that advancing the ball out of their own end was so difficult. For as dynamic as the Trojan offense is, McLaughlin says that his team’s defense is a highly underrated asset.
“Our first six games weren’t cupcakes, and they gave up two goals — and one was a PK,” he said. “And it’s not the defense in the back; it’s the three kids up top. They work. You saw (Lowden) come all the way back a couple of times to come get the ball. … It’s the defense from 1 to 11 — really 1 to 19. They all work hard defensively, and that’s been our thing. It’s like, ‘Guys, if you give up zero goals, we are going to score.’ There’s not going to be a team that’s going to hold us to zero. I will be amazed if that happens. So if we can hold them to zero, we’re going to win.”
Center Grove put the game to an early end with three more goals between the 56th and 61st minutes. Whitney netted his fourth of the night off a Matheus Gubert assist and then fed Lowden for another shortly thereafter. The final tally came when junior Owen Kalmas tapped one into an open net with just over 19 minutes remaining.
Priscu put the Trojans on the schedule this season because he believed his squad had come far enough to compete with a top-tier team. After seeing the Woodmen get overwhelmed, he said the most important thing will be how they respond to it over the final month-plus of the season.
“In all honesty, getting your butt kicked once in a while is good,” Priscu said. “I think that it’s going to now show them the growth that we still have to do.”
McLaughlin, meanwhile, has had teams with similar talent to this one before — but there’s a bit of a different feel to the current edition, like something special might be afoot at Center Grove this fall.
That, the coach feels, stems from chemistry.
“They are always together,” McLaughlin said. “On the field, off the field. I’ve had teams that are good, but the difference is that they are always together as a group of friends first and foremost — and you can see it in their play. Yeah, they yell at each other; yeah, they get on each other. But at the end of the day, they all just walked off as a group, they all play as a group. They work for each other.”
