Crawfordsville girls soccer is out to prove to that the days of them being counted as an ‘easy win’ are over. In the Athenians season opener on Tuesday, they fell to No. 7 Faith Christian 5-2, a team that beat them 10-0 the year before. Thursday with the Athenians back at home, they face a similar situation in welcoming Benton Central. The visiting Bison defeated CHS 3-1 a year ago. Early on in the games first 20 minutes both teams exchanged goals and the Bison led 2-1. Then at the 19 minute mark junior forward Zari Freeze had the equalizer to make it 2-2. Fast forward to the second half and it was all Athenians as they added two more goals to take down the Bison by a final of 4-2.
Beatrice Swick scored the go-ahead goal for CHS early in the second half at the eight-minute mark. Fast forward nearly 30 minutes later and Caroline Novak put the dagger in the back of the net to seal the CHS win.
“These girls have come a long way from the beginning of last year,” Cville coach Alex Ehrlich said. “They’ve even made tremendous strides in these first two games and I’m unbelievably happy for them. We have been seeing the field very well and they are starting to take so much personal responsibility for themselves and their team. It’s been real awesome to see and everyone who entered the game tonight performed well.”
After the Bison’s Avery Hardebeck put the Bison up 2-1, the Athenians then flipped the script almost immediately and began to apply constant pressure on the Bison defense. There were countless shots on goal including two that hit the posts and nearly went in. Ehrlich attributes his team’s success to the close game situations they were in almost every single game last year.
“I think this team enjoys facing adversity,” he said. “When our backs are up against the wall, they perform because they know they have no choice. It’s cool to see this team rally after allowing those two early goals. We could’ve been defeated, but we hit BC back even harder. These girls are the real deal and I’m just proud to be the one who gets to coach them.”
The win for the Athenians pushes their record to 1-1 on the season. Cville will be back in action on the pitch on Monday when they travel to take on Greencastle.
“These girls are starting to realize that any one of them can put it in the back of the net,” Ehrlich said of having the four goals scored by three different girls. “We have four or five of those girls on offense who aren’t afraid and when they get in the mindset of they’re going to score, they’re tough to stop.”
