The Southmont girls’ soccer team is hoping to win a fourth-straight IHSAA Sectional this week.
The Mounties (3-7-1) enter sectional play in Class A at Cascade on Thursday at 5 p.m. with a matchup against South Vermillion (1-6-1), a team they beat 5-0 last week.
On the other side of the bracket sits 3-10 North Putnam and 1-10 Monrovia, who meet in the quarterfinal tonight, before the winner plays Cascade (8-5-2) at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Southmont has struggled to score goals this season, but has defeated both the Wildcats and Cougars, and fell to the Cadets 2-0. Second-year coach Phil Keller understands the importance of the offense in the postseason.
“We have to score more goals than the other teams,” he said. “That is the bottom line. At this point in the season, there is no losing, if you lose your season is over. We have to put away every chance that we get in order to set ourselves up for success. We need to make sure our passing is on point and work hard every second of the game to score those goals.”
Last season Southmont made it to the regional final for the first time in school history, and now even with just three wins, the Mounties have confidence they can take it one step further.
“Being able to win a fourth sectional title in a row would mean alot to our school and our community.,” Keller said. “However, our seniors want to win a regional this year. we came close last season, but if we play to our potential, it is a goal that we can achieve this year.”
At Danville in the Class 2A Sectional, North Montgomery (8-7) will play Tri-West (13-3) tonight, a team they fell to 8-3 during the regular season. As the Chargers chase success in the sectional for the first time, a win over a top team would be just what the doctor ordered.
“We have been talking about this lately,” longtime coach Julie Hodges said. “We have had several very successful and record breaking seasons over the last several years, but we don’t have that staple win both in the sectional or in the conference. A win over one of the power 3 teams in the Sagamore Conference will do so much for the confidence in the rest of this year’s sectional as well as for future teams.”
Hodges knows it will take a special effort to beat the Bruins, but has the confidence to do so.
“We only lost 3-2 in the second half,” Hodges said about the regular season meeting. “Once we were able to understand Tri-West’s shape, we did a great job adjusting in-game, which allowed us to get our offense going and do a better job defensively on their skilled players. If we can start the game off strong, that is what we will be looking to do.”
Frankort (9-7) and Greencastle (9-5-1) play in the other quarterfinal on Tuesday, while Crawfordsville and Danville will meet in the semifinal on Thursday at 7 p.m.