Today, this moment, is one of firsts for Crawfordsville’s boys’ soccer.
After a 1-0 overtime win over Danville Thursday, the Athenians are Sagamore Conference Champs.
All by themselves.
All alone.
At the top.
It’s the first time in school history that the boys soccer team has been the only team at the top of the conference standings.
They shared the title in 2016, but this season, it’s outright.
And undefeated.
They are 7-0 after last night’s win.
History has been made.
It took overtime for the third Sagamore match of this season for the Athenians to grab the victory, move to 12-3-1 overall and the big 7-0 in the league.
After 80 minutes of scoreless soccer, Crawfordsville put one in the net 40 seconds into the first OT.
Joseph Sanchez was on the left side of the goal — the ball was on the right.
Andrew Jones put a shot on goal that was turned away, but it ended up right in front of Sanchez, who pushed in the three-footer for the goal that will go down in history.
“I told the strikers (during the timeout before the extra play) to come up with something that would work,” Crawfordsville coach Marcus Hale said.
Work it did, and just like overtime wins against Tri-West and Frankfort earlier in the season, the Athenians didn’t have to settle things on penalty kicks.
“These guys are gonna compete the whole game,” Hale said of his squad. “Tonight is a culmination of a big goal. It’s one of the goals, but winning the conference is a testament to the seniors, and to the whole team — the kids and their parents and their coaches.”
Hale pointed out time and again the role of the seniors especially in the success of this team.
“I knew these guys could be special when they were sophomores,” Hale said of the 10-person crew. “They showed their potential. Then they improved as juniors and again this year. We got some good younger players added this year, and they have been able to win the conference title.”
One of the seniors was called upon to speak for the whole bunch.
“We are ecstatic. We are proud. This is such a big thing,” Marshall Horton said. “We have a lot of team meetings, and we set goals and ambitions. We also list our personal goals. It makes us a better team. When we were sophomores, we were close to the bottom of the conference, and last year we finished 6-1. We knew we could do more. We set winning the conference as a goal, and next we want to win the sectional. There is a lot of work to do, but we are ready to do it.”
That work puts Hale in a historic spot for the second time in his seven-year career, as his 2016 team won the first-ever conference championship, albeit shared.
There is no sharing this year.
“Everyone did their part tonight,” Hale said, “just like every game this season. “The players, the subs and especially my coaches, Josh Manker and Luis Lagunes. They deserve a lot of the credit.”
The match itself was tough from the get-go, as most Sagamore action will be.
The Warriors, who fall to 4-9 overall and 2-4 in the league, packed up to nine players back in the defensive end of the pitch, making Cville’s offense a tough go.
While the match was played on the Athenians end of the field most of the night, they managed only eight shots on goal, and Danville goalkeeper James Beck made an all-star save of a shot in the first half off the foot of Ryotaro Nishina.
Athenians goalkeeper Landon Timmons turned in another clean sheet, turning away nine shots on goal. He gave Crawfordsville fans a heart attack in the first overtime when a shot got through his fingers and he literally took the ball off the goal line.
In the end, that senior was one of the 10 that gathered for the pictures of the first outright conference champs in school history.
“A lot of the kids on this team had brothers or relatives or friends on that 2016 team,” Hale said. “We channeled them, set our goals, and worked toward our goals. This is a proud moment.”.
A moment of champions.
