Prior to Thursday’s match, the Greenwood Christian Academy boys soccer team had permitted a total of six goals all season. The Cougars can make the same claim today.
Coach Dan Carmichael’s squad recorded its third shutout of the season by defeating Whiteland 4-0 on the strength of two second-half goals from junior midfielder Gerrit Huizinga.
“Our defense was stellar,” said Carmichael, whose team is 5-1 entering Saturday’s 11:30 a.m. home match against Pioneer Conference foe Crispus Attucks.
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“We’ve got a new defense put in this season, and we’ve got players stepping up. And on offense we’ve got nine different players who have scored a goal in only six games.”
After a scoreless first half, the Cougars scored their first goal at 31:46 of the second. Senior forward Ethan Chupp did the honors off a corner kick from Huizinga.
Huizinga tacked on his fifth goal of the season at 24:27 to make it a 2-0 lead for Greenwood Christian Academy. His sixth essentially put the match out of reach at the 14:33 mark.
The Cougars’ final goal was off a header from junior Cayden Bauschek with only 59.3 seconds remaining.
It was Bauschek’s second goal of the season having earlier provided his team one in the season-opening 7-3 victory against Trinity Lutheran.
Whiteland coach Justin VanHorn, who watched his Warriors drop to 2-4, was impressed with Greenwood Christian’s desire as much as its talent.
“They wanted it more tonight. We’re still trying to figure some things out,” VanHorn said. “We have the talent. We just need to find that missing piece.
“We’ve started a lot of matches slow this year. In soccer, small mistakes lead to big results.”
Whiteland’s next match is at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Roncalli.
