A holding midfielder on her club soccer team, Macy Detty tries to view her role as a striker for the Center Grove girls largely the same way.
"I’m usually connecting passes or over balls (in club), and it’s not that much different than finishing," Detty said. "It’s just connecting passes from me to the corner of the goal."
The junior has connected on plenty of passes to the goal this fall.
With former All-State forwards Piper Belden and Megan Perry graduating from last year’s semistate team, Center Grove needed someone to step up and lead the way offensively, and Detty has been up to the task. Her 13 goals through nine matches have her right on track with where Belden, the Daily Journal’s 2018 Player of the Year, was at the same point last season.
Detty came off the bench for much of her sophomore campaign, but she got an opportunity to play more minutes when Perry was sidelined for part of the year, and she cashed in on it by ranking second on the team with 14 goals.
Tasked with sliding into a bigger role, she’s embraced it.
"Me being able to just play with Megan and Piper was such a huge learning experience for me to know how to lead the team this year from an up-top perspective," Detty said. "I kind of realized what I had to do to keep this team moving."
Center Grove coach Mike Bishop hasn’t been the least bit surprised at what Detty has been able to accomplish.
"We thought it last year as well," he said, "but when you’ve got two seniors at that caliber, it’s hard to find minutes. And she’s gotten even better. Her tenacity, her ability to turn and attack a defense has been top-notch so far."
Since putting home two goals in the opener at Columbus North, Detty has scored at least once in every match but one for the 8-0-1 Trojans; on the one day when she didn’t produce a goal, she delivered two assists in a 3-2 win over Avon.
Making Detty even more dangerous is the fact that opposing defenses don’t have the luxury of keying on her. Eleven different Center Grove players have scored goals already this season entering tonight’s match against Pike, including senior Jostin Reeves with eight and freshman Emily Karr with six. Junior Paige Waskom and sophomore Peyton Murphy have tallied four apiece while also combining for 11 assists.
Bishop believes that the chemistry many of those players have developed from years of playing together has paid off.
"They know each other’s tendencies, so the deliveries are stronger, they’re better, they’re where they want them to be," he said.
Detty also benefits from her time in club playing back in the defensive midfield, where she’s able to see everything developing in front of her and build an understanding of what she needs to do during the high school season.
"I see what strikers do the entire season; I’m just kind of watching from the back," she said. "So being able to look at it from that perspective and using it at forward, that helps me a lot."
Playing up top and being counted on to produce offense for the team can bring more visibility and greater stress, especially on a team such as Center Grove’s where the expectations are so high year in and year out.
But Detty isn’t shying away from any of that. Rather, she tries to harness it and turn it into a force for good.
"I think there’s a little bit of pressure, but it comes with the position," she said. "I want that pressure, because I think it’s going to make me a better player. If that pressure wasn’t there, then I wouldn’t have as many stats as I do now, and I don’t think our team would have been as successful if we didn’t have the pressure from last year of being so successful."
