Crawfordsville boys soccer has had a shaky start to its 2023 season. Coming into Thursday’s Sagamore Conference battle with Lebanon the Athenians were in unfamiliar territory with a below .500 record of 2-3. Against the Tigers the Athenians were able to get back to their winning ways with a 4-0 win to get back to .500 at 3-3 and keep an undefeated record in SAC play at 2-0.
Three of the four Athenian goals came in the first half. Kevin Puerto led the way with a pair of goals for CHS in the win with Jazier Gil-Herrera adding one goal and an assist. Manuel Olvera rounded out the goal-scoring for the Athenians. David Estrada assisted on two of the four goals as well. Defensively Alec Saidian along the back line of Matt Miller, Drew Griggs, Armando Munoz Guitierrez, and Ryan Sanchez preserved the shuout with Saidian recording four saves.
“It’s been a challenging last few weeks for us,” Crawfordsville coach Marcus Hale said. “Dealing with the weather last week we went a full week without playing a game. Our guys were just glad to be back on our home pitch tonight and did a really good job of playing as a team and for each other. We possessed the ball very well and created some good opportunities early in the game to get out to that lead.”
One missing piece of the Athenian offense is still senior Patrick Corado who is still taking it easy while dealing with hamstring injury. Against the Tigers, Cville’s depth showed with three different players finding the back of the net. Hale complimented his team with how they continue to find ways to be effective.
“What’s really important is that these guys trust each other,” he said. “Having three different kids score tonight, it makes it difficult for a defense because you don’t necessarily know where the shots or goals are going to come from. We have to continue to take advantage of those situations because there’s lots of talent on this team. I’m very pleased with what we were able to do tonight.”
Cville once again find itself right in the thick of the Sagamore Conference race and by this time next week, we’ll have a much clearer picture of where CHS stands. The next three games will all be Sagamore Conference games with the Athenians hosting Tri-West on Saturday afternoon, followed by a Montgomery County showdown with Southmont on Tuesday, then CHS will get re-match with Frankfort on Thursday, a team that defeated them 2-1 to win the Frankfort Invite. To say these next three games are important for the Athenians is an understatement.
“We have that goal of finishing on top of the conference again,” Hale said. “We need to really play well these next three games and we’ll see what happens.”
