Greenwood’s Brayden Wright, right, celebrates with teammate Alex Baugh after scoring the go-ahead goal during Wednesday’s sectional semifinal against New Palestine.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
INDIANAPOLIS
With a spot in the sectional championship match on the line, two teams that had already battled one another this season — New Palestine and Greenwood — met for round No. 2.
In mid-September, the Woodmen erased a 1-0 halftime deficit to defeat the Dragons 2-1. In Wednesday’s Class 3A Perry Meridian Sectional semifinal, they did so once again, but this time with much bigger stakes at hand.
“Just trying to put this into words, it’s real. This is my first group, and this solidifies that they’ve bought into everything, and they understand everything that we want and what it takes to win sectional games when everybody is bringing it,” Greenwood coach Dan Priscu said. “That just speaks volumes about this group of guys and the future of the program. I just couldn’t be prouder.”
As they did in the first meeting, the Dragons controlled possession, took more corner kicks, had more total shot attempts and sent more shots on net. But in a first half in which New Palestine outshot the Woodmen 9-5, they were only able to find the back of the net once.
With 3:08 to go, on a deep pass played towards the Greenwood box, Cole Christopher beat Woodmen goalkeeper Braden Reynolds to the ball, got around him and tapped in the first goal of the night.
Seconds later, New Palestine goalkeeper Jake Wells denied a point-block shot by Greenwood’s Braedan Townsend to send the Dragons into the break up 1-0.
“It’s two different halves,” Priscu said. “That was my message. We were still feeling some stuff from the last game, and we were trying to accommodate that, but at this level when it could be the last game of the season, you have to put everything into it. The message was to find whatever was needed on the inside because in the first half, we were missing some of the principles that we normally play with.”
After the break, the Dragons were on the attack most of the half once again and controlled possession again, but when the Woodmen got their opportunities, they made sure they counted.
Five minutes into the second half, Emmanuel Jackson headed the ball to Samuel Thompson, who was able to beat Wells with a header of his own to knot things at 1-1.
At the 28-minute mark, Greenwood’s Brayden Wright got past Wells and broke free on net to score the decisive goal.
The Dragons sent two shots on net in the second half and took six total shots, but couldn’t get much by Greenwood’s back line.
“That group is a lot of seniors and some guys that have been here for a while,” Priscu said. “They know how to communicate and stand tall when needed, but it was a fight.”
Midway through the half, New Palestine’s Paxton Holmes sent a hard shot on net that was saved by Reynolds; a few minutes later Christopher sent a shot just wide, and later in the half, a Mark Everett shot was denied by Reynolds. With 11 minutes to go, New Palestine senior Eli Martin sent a free kick towards net that went over the head of Reynolds but was headed out of play by a Woodmen defender.
