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Tiger Cubs win first regional game, advance to finals
The Greencastle boys' soccer team won its first regional game in program history, defeating West Vigo 3-2 to advance to the regional final on Saturday. Seniors Mitchell Ball and Sonney Basham teamed up to account for all the Tiger Cubs' goals on the night.
The team got a lift from its varsity football squad as it stopped its practice and cheered on the team when the lineups were announced. They also joined the fans at Dee Monnett Field following practice.
"That was great. It was good to see them. All the noise and support always helps," head coach Dave Lilly said.
Greencastle handled the Vikings easily during the regular season 4-0, but Thursday proved to the Tiger Cubs they had some fight left in them. With the Tiger Cubs struggling to penetrate the Vikings defense around the goal, West Vigo was able to break out in the open and get the game's first goal of the night at the 8:50 mark when Andrew Kump scored.
The score seemed to amp up the Tiger Cubs efforts and five minutes later senior Mitchell Ball turned in front of the goal and fired a shot past Vikings' keeper Nathan Augustus to tied the game 1-all with 3:44 remaining.
The team went to the break tied 1-all, but it served as a wake up call for the Tiger Cubs. Greencastle's normal attacking offense was reserved in the first half, but the start of the second half was a different story. Greencastle attacked the goal hard and was able to reap the benefits.
Less than three minutes into the second half, Sonny Basham scored on a rebound off a shot from Ball to put the Tiger Cubs up 2-1 with 37:17 on clock. Seven minutes later he would add his second goal of the night to put Greencastle in a comfortable position, leading 3-1.
Greencastle received a slight scare midway through the half when Basham abandoned a bicycle kick midway through its motion and struck his head as he fell to the ground. He motioned to the bench to be taken out, but would return.
West Vigo refused to go away and scored on a header with 18:36 to pull within one goal at 3-2, but Greencastle was able to hold them off to preserve the win.
"They're a good side," Lilly said. "They have a half dozen guys like we do that technically are very skilled and they're 80-minute guys that can run, run run. The difference between when we saw them earlier and tonight was we go up on them early (during regular season) and with them scoring first, I knew we were in for a little bit more of a dogfight.
"I was confident. We had some good chances to open up the second half and the wheels should have come off there when we extended it from 2-1 to 3-1, it could have easily been four or five," he added.
Lilly said the only disappointing part of the evening was when the Vikings scored its second goal off a header. He said the team needs to work on marking their assignments better when it defends corner kicks. Other than that, Lilly said everything went according to the team's plan.
"I'm happy with the result. I'm happy with how it all went strategically for us. I look forward to seeing who is coming up. We didn't really show a whole lot and still got the job done. We accomplished what we wanted to tonight," Lilly said.
Greencastle will face Covenant Christian Saturday at 11 a.m. for the Class A Regional championship.
At Greencastle
Class A Soccer Regional
West Vigo 1 1 -- 2
Greencastle 1 2 -- 3
First Half
WV -- Kump 8:50
GHS -- Ball (Harms) 3:44
Second Half
GHS -- Basham (Ball) 37:17
GHS -- Basham (Ball) 30:08
WV -- Guymon 18:36