Alex Ehrlich will begin his second season at the helm of leading Crawfordsville girls soccer. While it has been has a struggle for the Athenian girls soccer program the last few seasons, last year despite winning just one game, CHS showed progress and was in many games including both county games (1-0 loss to Southmont and 2-1 loss to North Montgomery). CHS fell 1-0 to South Vermillion and also fell in a shootout to Frankfort.
This season Ehrlich has his hopes high for his team as they are just about to get their 2022 season underway.
“We’ve had our seniors really step into our leadership roles during the off-season,” he said. “This team as a whole is super welcoming and encouraging especially to our underclassmen. That shows what kind of culture that they’re wanting to establish here.”
Maintaining a consistent offense and possessing the ball was one of the main struggles for the Athenians a season ago as they scored just five goals all season. So far during Ehrlich has liked what he has seen on that side of the ball.
“We have some girls who have shown a ton of grit when they get inside the box,” he said. “They aren’t afraid of getting down and dirty in order to put one in the back of the net. We’ve also shown a lot better patience when we’re down there. Instead of just firing one to the goal, we’ll look for a better pass and that’s something that’s been really encouraging.”
Ehrlich did mention a few goals that he has for the his Athenian team for the upcoming year.
“We want to win county,” he said. “That’s a big goal for us and we were competitive in both of those games last year so we think we have a shot to take it home this season. Against some of the bigger teams on our schedule like Tri-West and Lebanon, we want to be able to possess the ball more.”
The Athenians will open up their 2022 season on the pitch Tuesday when they travel to take on Faith Christian.
