Cougars advance with shutout win against Wildcats, 4-0

North Putnam sophomore Trae Straziscar takes a run at the net during a match earlier this year. Straziscar scored a goal during the second half against South Vermillion on Wednesday. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

TERRE HAUTE -- The North Putnam boys' soccer team traveled down to West Vigo Wednesday night to participate in the first round of Indiana High School Athletic Association sectional play. The Cougars drew the South Vermillion Wildcats, a team they beat earlier this year, and they did not disappoint. The defense pitched a shutout and the offense played phenomenally getting the Cougars a win, 4-0.

"It's our first win in a sectional game that I know of. There have been a couple close ones over the years but we weren't ever able to pull them out," North Putnam head coach David Moeller said.

The game was played at 7 p.m. so the Cougars experienced new things in a soccer match, one being they got to play under the lights. The second being that, due to the lateness of the game, they had to deal with slick, wet conditions with the dew despite having a cloudless night.

The Cougars coped well with the conditions, keeping the ball on the ground since it was slick and blasting the ball past defenders en route to a lot of breakaway shots and goals.

The Cougar defense played excellent, only allowing a couple threats. Many times they stole the ball from the offensive players on the Wildcats and then passed it off to a teammate who, most of the time, got it back down the field into Cougar territory. The Wildcats only had 11 shots on goal all night long.

"The defense played well," Moeller said. "We won a lot of balls out of the air. We didn't make too many mistakes which was something that kind of killed us in some games this year."

If the Wildcats did manage to break through the Cougar defense, sophomore goalie Jake Holtze was there to make the save. Holtze had seven saves on the night, but he performed much better than the statistic could even show. Holtze led the defense by communicating to them where to be and what to do.

The Cougars knew that they would be in for a dogfight in this game and were hoping not to be overly confident coming into it, aware that South Vermillion would be much improved.

The Cougar faithful did not have to hold its breath long as senior Bennett Hazelgrove put in the first goal of the night off a great pass by fellow senior Zach Hunter with just under 29 minutes to go in the half. This goal gave Hazelgrove 14 for the season and tied him for the school record of most goals in a season.

The next goal did not come until the second half. Another great pass by Hunter set up sophomore Trae Straziscar who nailed it into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead with 15 minutes left in the game.

The Cougars did not waste much time and put the game away when sophomore Kyler Jeter booted one into the net with 14 minutes remaining. The Cougars did not score by themselves again but an own goal by South Vermillion's Jacob Bryant put the game away for good with 4:12 left.

Despite scoring four goals, the Cougars left many opportunities on the field.

The Wildcats goalie seemed to leave the net quite often which in turn gave the Cougars a lot of open-net looks. On most the Cougars were not able to capitalize and returned down the field empty handed.

"We can't miss those opportunities against Covington. Those are things we definitely need to finish. We had a lot that went right across the face of the goal and we were just two steps slow. But overall I thought we finished well," Moeller said.

The Cougars will look forward to the sectional championship when they play Covington at West Vigo High School Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

"We need to play the full 80 minutes. We need to stay focused and not have letdowns at the end of the halves. We need to make sure we convert opportunities. Zach (Hunter) did not play when we played Covington in season so having him will definitely make things different," Moeller said.

IHSAA Boys' Soccer Sectional Semifinals
At West Vigo High School