Crawfordsville boys’ soccer coach Marcus Hale knew it would take a complete 80-minute effort to knock of Danville for a second time in seven days in the IHSAA Sectional on Wednesday.
The Athenians and Warriors played to a 0-0 draw after 40 minutes, but Danville twice found the back of the net in the second half, including Aidan Shearin’s game-winning goal to defeat Crawfordsville 2-1 and advance to Saturday’s sectional final against Tri-West.
Walker Dorsey buried a goal with 26 minutes left in the game to give the Warriors their first lead, but for a second night in a row, Crawfordsville’s Emmett Bowman responded with a quick goal to tie it up.
“Emmett in the last few games has really stepped up in that regard,” Hale said. “We talk about times in the game that are critical — first five minutes of the game, last five minutes of the half, first five minutes of the second half, last five minutes of the game — but also the first five minutes after someone scores, and last night was a good example of it and tonight was as well where we immediately came back and scored and tied it up.”
Shearin answered with the game-decisive goal at the midway point of the second half, and the Athenians were unable to tie it in the final 20 minutes.
Crawfordsville finishes the season at 12-4 and will graduate seniors Eli Reeves, Christian Chacon, Kevin Barrera, Joseph Martinez, and Dwane Macias.
“They demonstrated as a group great leadership, particularly for the incoming freshmen, they had a lot of fun,” Hale said. “Even in our postgame conversation they were very optimistic in terms of what the team can do moving forward if they put the work in, and they encouraged them to do that, so that was good to hear from them.”
