Crawfordsville's Faith Rogers and North Montgomery's Haley Sommer both chase after the ball.
North Montgomery's Lydia Dugard and Crawfordsville's Karina Landa Hernandez fight for the ball.
North Montgomery's Nina Gable works the ball up field. The sophomore scored the go-ahead goal in the first half for the Chargers.
Crawfordsville's Sierra Hutchison stops the shot of North Montgomery's Teegan Bacon.
An early goal on a penalty kick was all North Montgomery needed to slip by Crawfordsville 2-0 in girl’s soccer on Thursday night.
Following an Athenian (1-12-1, 0-5) handball inside the box, Charger junior Nina Gable lined a penalty kick just past goalkeeper Sierra Hutchison and gave North Montgomery the lead 15 minutes into the game.
The Chargers (6-6-1, 2-4) were only able to come away with one first half goal, but dominated offensively by taking 15 shots, seven of which were on goal.
“We dominated the possession and dominated the game up top,” Chargers coach Julie Hodges said.
Freshman Teegan Bacon added the second goal in the final 10 seconds of the contest, as North Montgomery played keep away from Crawfordsville for much of the second half.
“If we have no offense on our team then we would tie 0-0 in every single game and not do anything,” Athenians coach Laurie Vellner said. “We’ve got to score. We had opportunities.”
Record Breaking
North Montgomery’s offense slowed a bit in the second half, but Hodges continued to be pleased by her team’s togetherness.
“The biggest thing I was happy about was we filled our spacing between our position sets, and we will our gaps,” she said.
The Chargers have broken three single season records this season, which Hodges says a lot about the depth they have offensively.
“We have scored the most goals in a season as a team, the most assists in a season and the most points in the history of our program,” she said. “It shows you that obviously Sidney Campbell is our leading scorer, but we have three, four, five other goals that are stepping in and putting the ball in the back of the net.”
High Praise For Hutchison
Both coaches had nothing but positive things to say about Hutchison, who has been Crawfordsville’s goalkeeper for the last four seasons.
“We know they have a great defense. Sierra Hutchison in the goal, I give her all the credit in the world, and I even told her after the game that ‘I’m glad you’re graduating,’” Hodges said. “For four years it doesn’t matter how many shots we take on this team, she’s an amazing goalie.”
North Montgomery squared up more than a dozen shots on goal, and Hutchison saved all but two.
Vellner realizes the strength of her team is Hutchison and the defense, but knows it must translate to offense to see successful results.
“I think we are a defensive team because we have Sierra Hutchison in goal,” she said. “And I think that’s always been one of our strong suits for defense. Our defense needs to then transfer to midfield. The push is not up there to transition from defense to offense.”
Crawfordsville hosts Tri-West at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, while North Montgomery travels to Faith Christian.
