Tiger Cub girls' soccer rocked by injuries

PLAINFIELD -- The Greencastle girls' soccer team was bitten by the injury bug in their 2-1 loss to Plainfield Thursday.

Greencastle's Jessica Brown battles with Plainfield's Colleen Diemer in Thursday's match.

The first injury came minutes after the Quakers scored their first goal of the night when sweeper Becky Grivas and a Plainfield player collided in the air, with Grivas hitting the turf hard. During the collision, it looked as though Grivas caught a shoulder to the back of her head, but managed to leave the field on her own power. Shortly thereafter it was apparent the injury was something more significant.

"Becky, we're guessing, has a concussion," GHS head coach Maurice McKee said.

As the half ended, Greencastle was down 1-0 and Grivas was taken from the facility and to the hospital.

The second half started well for the Tiger Cubs as Kate Babington helped deflect some quick Quaker shots in front of the goal. Greencastle keeper Jennifer Grumme provided some sure hands for GHS in the net. With 33:38 on the clock, Plainfield sent a corner kick to the front of the net, where a Quaker player sent a header rocketing toward the net where Grumme's quick hands were waiting. She also had two huge saves as the second half progressed.

"Our keeper did an awesome job tonight," McKee commented. "We've been working with her and we're going to working with her some more, getting her to come out. She came out tonight after the ball, which was great -- it cuts the angles down and that's what we need."

Greencastle put up its only score with 29:39 on the clock, when Whitney Brotherton stepped past the Plainfield defense and curled a high shot over the fingertips of Quaker keeper Kelli Kern.

Then the injury bug bit for a second time on the evening.

With 10:30 on the clock, sophomore Sydney Terry was in pursuit of a ball on the Greencastle goalline. After coming in contact with a Plainfield player, Terry went to the ground in obvious pain. After several minutes she was helped to the sidelines, where her left knee was packed with ice.

"Sydney's knee popped out, but we think it went back in so it will probably be sore. The trainer looked at it and we can't see anything that is out of place," McKee said.

Plainfield scored the eventual game winning goal with 9:38 remaining when Colleen Diemer spun quickly and fired a shot into the Greencastle net, taking the 2-1 lead.

Greencastle was able to penetrate on the Quakers, but Plainfield was able to clear the ball to avert the GHS attack.

Greencastle's second half was an amped up version of the first. Where the Tiger Cubs were tentative in the first half, they went on the attack in the second. Unfortunately for Greencastle, Plainfield loaded their side of the pitch, causing the Tiger Cubs some difficulties.

"Actually, again they played better than the first half," McKee said. "We needed to step it up with a little bit faster, little bit quicker to the ball and setting the ball down and start playing like we did against Crawfordsville.

"This team collapsed on us pretty back. They would throw everyone on our side, so it kind of hard when you have that many people over there to move the ball around. That's another defensive tactic that works out," he added.

Despite the loss of two players in the game and a couple players under the weather, McKee was pleased with his team's effort and the players who rose to the occasion.

"We've got two people playing sick and then losing Becky and Sydney both, that really hurts. We lost Becky 10 minutes of the first half and the all of the second half," McKee commented. "She does an awesome job back there sweeping for us. Melissa Ball stepped up and did a really nice job taking care of the sweeper position.

"Overall, I'm please with the girls. Yes, we would have like to have won or tied, but they knew what we were coming up here with I think. With our sickness and injuries, that's didn't help us any," McKee said.

The Tiger Cubs will host Mooresville at noon Saturday.

At Plainfield

Next game -- The Tiger Cubs will host Mooresville at noon Saturday.