Center Grove’s Austin Lowden fights his way through two East Central defenders during Saturday’s sectional final.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
Stopping Center Grove’s boys soccer team from scoring is a lot like trying to stop the tide. You can find ways to buy yourself some time, but the end result is pretty inevitable.
East Central was the latest victim of the state’s top-ranked team, which got three first-half goals from Austin Lowden on the way to a 5-1 home win and a Class 3A sectional championship on Saturday night.
“Pace, power, technique; we’ve got a pretty good mix of all of that,” Center Grove coach Jameson McLaughlin said. “There’s a reason we’re 18-0.”
The unbeaten Trojans will travel to No. 7 Bloomington South for a regional semifinal on Thursday night. The two teams met in Bloomington on Aug. 22, with Center Grove taking a 3-0 victory.
If you happened to doze off on the couch and miss the opening minutes of Saturday’s match, it was not your lucky day; the action was fast and furious from kickoff. Center Grove got on the board just 28 seconds into the match on an Austin Lowden goal, and East Central (12-5-1) struck back with a Brennan Lewis tally in the fourth minute to tie it.
“We talked about (Lewis) all week leading up to this game,” McLaughlin said. “If there’s a kid that’s going to get you, it’s going to be that kid. … He’s fast, and if he gets behind you, you’re in trouble — and he got behind us.”
The home team had several chances to reclaim the lead throughout the rest of the half, including a particularly dangerous one in the 20th minute when Lowden ripped a hard shot on a free kick that was stopped by East Central netminder Curtis Bender; the rebound came out to junior Niekos Whitney, whose one-touch attempt sailed wide of the frame.
After several knocks on the door, Center Grove finally pulled back ahead for good with 5:48 left in the half. Lowden carried his way through traffic in the box and hammered a left-to-right shot past Bender. Four minutes and five seconds later, Whitney served a ball in from the right side to give Lowden a point-blank shot out in front, and the senior converted with ease to make it a two-goal game.
Whitney noted that East Central’s 3-5-2 alignment gave him plenty of room to operate; that, along with his chemistry with Lowden, proved a deadly cocktail for the visitors.
“I kind of know where he’s going to be, he kind of knows where I’m going to be, so it makes it a lot easier to finish the ball,” Whitney said.
Finishing is something that Lowden, who now has 17 goals on the season, does as well as anybody in the state.
“When he hits the ball, man, he hits it so much different than anybody you’re going to see,” McLaughlin said. “He’s a handful. Physically, there’s nobody that can handle that.”
Center Grove continued to generate opportunities in the second half, and it broke through again with 28:36 on the clock. Senior Owen Dorrell sent a long pass ahead to Whitney, who carried the ball up into the left side of the box before dumping a perfectly placed touch pass to senior Matheus Gubert in front for a 4-1 lead.
East Central got a couple of cracks at the goal a couple of minutes later, but Trojan sophomore keeper Carter Dorrell turned one shot away and a second effort from the left side sailed wide. Owen Dorrell then capped the scoring at the other end when he turned and fired past Bender in the 58th minute.
With Center Grove’s reserves in for the final 20-plus minutes, both sides had some good chances to add to the scoring but neither was able to convert.
Center Grove, ranked No. 1 in the nation by MaxPreps, has now outscored its opponents 69-6 on the season.
