BLOOMINGTON
After surviving a morning filled with drama, the Center Grove girls soccer team left absolutely nothing to chance in Saturday evening’s Class 3A regional final.
A barrage of three goals in a 2:14 span early in the second half opened the floodgates in the eighth-ranked Trojans’ 7-0 rout of Floyd Central at Bloomington South.
That laugher came after Center Grove (18-3) had to go through two overtimes and penalty kicks to shake the host Panthers in the semifinal match.
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"I can’t say enough," Trojans coach Mike Bishop said after the blowout in the final. "I’m happy for the girls for the effort they put in. Especially after this morning, to be able to come right side up on a game and put your stamp on it, this is so much fun."
Jostin Reeves broke the seal in the title game, punching home a Peyton Murphy cross a little more than 15 minutes in. The Trojans added to that lead when Megan Perry took a through ball from Lexi Glover and hammered it past Floyd Central goalkeeper Sophia Gianfagna with 2:52 left in the opening half.
The match got away from the Highlanders quickly after halftime. Perry made it 3-0 with 32:34 left, hooking a shot in from the top left corner of the box, and Piper Belden added a penalty kick just 86 seconds later after being taken down on a breakaway in the box.
Paige Waskom finished the blitz by bending one in with 30:10 remaining, and Glover padded the lead with a pair of goals in the 58th and 59th minutes before Bishop emptied his bench.
"A 2-0 lead is the most dangerous lead to have," Perry said, "and we didn’t want to take any chances. We knew that they were going to come back harder, so we just knew that we had to put it away."
The morning semifinal wasn’t nearly as lopsided, as the Trojans struggled to put it away despite a 14-4 advantage in shots on goal through the first 94 minutes.
Belden put Center Grove up at the start of the shootout, and after three missed shots, Waskom punched one in to the right side. Macy Detty gave the Trojans a 3-1 edge when she tucked one in the upper right corner, and a third Bloomington South miss clinched the victory.
Bishop said he was confident with the players he sent out for the shootout.
"We’ve got plenty of depth and we’ve got some cool under pressure kids," he said.
Center Grove advances into a semistate match at Seymour against Carmel, which claimed the MIC championship with a 1-0 home victory when the two teams last met on Sept. 26.
The Trojans haven’t been beaten or scored upon since that match, so they’re heading in with some momentum.
"(Carmel coach Frank Dixon) will be ready," Bishop said. "His girls will be ready to go; they always are. They’ve got talent at every spot. So it’s just, let’s take care of our business and make things count when we get our opportunities, and hopefully we’ll be on the right side of the score."
"It’s going to be a really good game," Perry added, "but I think that we have a chance of pulling it off."
