Zoey Corbin stood in the long shadow of a stadium light Wednesday evening as the sun began to set.
The Crawfordsville girls soccer goalkeeper was ready, but did not get much business in her end of the field. The match was close to the dominating performance coach Alex Ehrlich had been looking for from his team in a 5-0 win over South Vermillion.
“We had some adversity the past few games,” Ehrlich said. “It’s just nice to see them work hard, have fun and put a few in the back of the net.”
Sophomore Caroline Novak sailed her second shot on goal in the first three minutes over the South Vermillion goalkeeper’s head for an early 1-0 lead. She did double duty, playing a good portion of the first half and then turned her attention to the county cross country meet before returning for the final few minutes of soccer.
“It’s cool to see an athlete like that at Crawfordsville. It’s not very common to be good at many things especially in the same season. I love hearing my soccer kids succeed in the classroom and other sports.”
Riley Gardner added two goals. Her first was in the 32nd minute and assisted nicely on a kick by fellow junior Zari Freeze two minutes before that. Crawfordsville (2-6) peppered the goal with 24 shots in the first half and a 3-0 lead. They added a goal each in the second half.
The Athenians’ speed and aggressiveness was too much for the Wildcats (1-5).
“We wanted to come out hot tonight. Spatial awareness is one thing. We spaced out a lot better and made better passes. We made good consecutive passes and worked well off the ball.”
Ehrlich’s squad had been outscored 39-9 going into the contest, but did not allow a shot on goal in the first half and only two for the match. The defense, lead by senior Taylor Abston, kept the ball on the Athenian end most of the game.
“Taylor held it down. The whole defensive line did great tonight.”
It is right back to work Thursday for the Athenians against North Putnam before playing host to Northview Saturday.
“This is an exhausting week. But these girls work hard. It doesn’t matter if they have a game the next day. This is a tough group of girls.”
