Greencastle blanks North Putnam 5-0

Friday, September 10, 2010
North Putnam's Chandler Meyer and Greencastle's Marcus Benassi battle for the ball in the first half of Thursday's game. The Tiger Cubs won 5-0.

GREENCASTLE -- The Greencastle and North Putnam boys' soccer teams entered Thursday's contest on opposite ends of the spectrum. Greencastle had only one loss on the season, while the Cougars are struggling to get things going. Thursday was no exception.

The Tiger Cubs were the aggressors, keeping the Cougars on their heels the entire match to earn a 5-0 win over their county rival.

Facing a team that is struggling is sometimes a tough task for a team. It's easy to look down the road and forget the opponent who's standing right in front of you. But Greencastle came out and took care of business in quick fashion.

GHS head coach Dave Lilly agreed his team did what it had to do and kept their eyes on the Cougars the entire time.

"No, that's true," Lilly said about not overlooking the Cougars. "And give North Putnam credit. They've got increased numbers in the program from what we see, the guys played as well as they've played in the past. They are an improved team; I just think we're that much better than them this year. They're not as bad of a team as their record indicates.

"They're not having a lot of success, but next year we graduate nine seniors and they've got a lot of young players that really played well out here tonight (Thursday). If they continue on the path they're on, it will be tough for us in a couple years. We certainly won't look past them," he said.

The Tiger Cubs scored less than five minutes into the contest as Brandon Query slammed the ball home with 36:43 on the clock. Less than 10 minutes later, J.T. Hennette added Greencastle's second score of the night, putting the Tiger Cubs up 2-0.

Mitchell Ball scored the final GHS goal of the first half as players gathered in front of the goal, allowing him to pop the ball past the keeper for a 3-0 lead in Greencastle' favor.

Watching the opposing team put up three first half goals, it would be interesting to see how the Cougars would respond. Unfortunately, the squad came out flat and allowed Greencastle its fourth goal of the night less than a minute into the half.

Greencastle's Cody Watson poked the ball over a North Putnam defender to a streaking Query who blasted the ball into the back of the net for his second goal of the night with 39:35 on the clock.

The frustration began to show for the Cougars as the contest wore on. With 32:19 remaining, Keegan Foltz was cited for a yellow card and many second half calls were met with grumblings from the North Putnam side.

Greencastle had another chance to score at the 9:30 mark, but Sonney Basham's headers connected with the cross bar, bouncing harmlessly away.

The Tiger Cubs did have one score left in them, which came with 2:58 remaining in the contest. Evan Smith dribbled in traffic and popped the ball of the outstretched hands of the North Putnam keeper, giving GHS its final score of the evening, making 5-0 in its favor.

With only one loss to its name, Greencastle is making a strong run this season, and Lilly knows it's on his team to keep the pressure on itself.

"I feel real good," Lilly said. "We had a little bit of a rest from the Terre Haute South game. We had a couple tough games going into that one and we were kind of beat up. Three really physical games in a row and we had some injuries that having a week off with some light practices has let us recover a little bit. We're kind of in an easier part of our schedule, so we're pushing ourselves harder in practice right now to get ready for the post-season.

"I see our next real tough test will be when Terre Haute North comes here. I'm not going to look past anybody, but I think we should have our way with the guys we're going to see coming up for a few weeks. We're going to try to work on some things in the process," he said.

Lilly also stated he believes the Terre Haute North game will be a measuring stick for his team and how it will do against sectional caliber opponents.

"We'll get ready for North. That will be a good measure to how we're going to stack up against Martinsville and Mooresville in the sectional. I think from what I've seen in common opponents, I think... I'm optimistic again. We're looking forward to having some good competitive matches over there when sectional rolls around," Lilly commented.

Following the contest, North Putnam head coach Dave Moeller acknowledged his team's difficulties with Greencastle and found it hard to put the evening into words.

"Greencastle's a good team -- probably the best team we'll play this year. We just struggled to contain them defensively. It's a tough conference game," he said.

At Greencastle

Greencastle 5, North Putnam 0

Scoring

First Half

36:43 -- Query (GHS) 1-0

28:12 -- Hennette (GHS) 2-0

15:13 -- Ball (GHS) 3-0

Second Half

39:35 -- Query (GHS) 4-0

2:58 -- Smith (GHS) 5-0