PREP ROUNDUP: No. 18 Tiger Cub soccer edges No. 23 Danville

Greencastle’s No. 18-ranked boys’ soccer team picked up a big 2-0 win on Thursday over 23rd-ranked Danville.

“This is always a fun battle to watch, and we had our best performance of the season,” coach J.D. Sims said. “The first half Greencastle did not see a lot in the attack, playing in much of their own half. Greencastle controlled the ball holding on to possession and eventually found a counter attack.”

Just before halftime, Sims noted that Hector Lezama played the ball deep to Evan Crowe — who used his “blistering” speed to run by Danville’s defense to net a goal.

“In the second half, the boys came out strong playing a much better defensive game,” Sims said. “Using high pressure, the boys were able to close down on Danville’s backline and midfield, forcing turnovers. The boys were able to keep the ball in Danville’s defensive third for most of the game.”

Sims said this tactic eventually led to a penalty against Crowe, who used his speed and ball control to “torment” the defense once again. Simon Foss stepped up and put the penalty away.

Sims noted that Brett Sosebee saved the momentum of the game with a crucial tackle that could have seen Danville find its way onto the scoreboard, and goalie Brody Watson made several big saves.

The Tiger Cubs will host North Putnam tonight for the county championship.

In other soccer:

• Edgewood 8, North Putnam 2 (boys) — The Mustangs had a 3-0 lead at the intermission, and outscored the Cougars 5-2 in the second half to record the win.

“What started out as a tight game with very limited opportunities on both sides completely changed with 15 minutes left to go in the first half,” North Putnam coach Curt Krominaker said. “In a one-goal game, on a 50/50 ball an Edgewood player collided with our goalie. The fact the ball slowly rolled across the goal line was not the painful part; it was our goalie Aidan Millican taking a shot to the leg that took him out for the rest of the day that did the damage.”

Krominaker needed to rotate one of his field players into the goal.

“That really hurt our ability to move the ball,” he said. “The boys made a strong charge in the second half when Tyler Thompson cleared a long pass deep down the center of the pitch and Caleb Duncan raced between two defenders to get us on the scoreboard. Later in the game the same combination would lead to our second score when Duncan was fouled in the box and Thompson took the penalty kick and blasted the ball into the upper part of the net.”

Injuries continued to mount in the second half, as starter Elliott Sabens was kicked in the knee and had to leave the game.

“With no substitutes left and two starters out of the game, it really challenged the boys,” Krominaker said. “I was very proud of the way the boys played and the attitude they keep with never giving up. We have four games to play this week in the span of six days. The team trainer might be the one to determine our success in the next few days.”

Thompson finished with one goal and one assist in addition to Duncan’s score.

The Cougars play at Greencastle tonight for the county championship.

• Edgewood 2, North Putnam 1 (girls) — The Lady Cougars dropped their second game in a row in a heartbreaking loss.

The game was tied 1-1 until late in the second half, when Edgewood scored its second goal of the game shortly after a key injury was suffered by the Lady Cougars defensive back four.

Abby Spencer added her fourth goal of the season for the lone goal of the match for North Putnam.

The Cougars host Greencastle tonight for the county championship.

Volleyball

• Cubs go 1-2 at BC — At Nashville, Greencastle defeated Edinburgh 25-20 and 25-18 on Saturday in the Brown County Invitational, while losing 13-25, 23-25 to the hosts and falling 28-30 and 19-25 to Indian Creek.

Stat leaders for the day were Jada Amis with 18 kills, Allison Stevens with 15 kills, Lilly Meyer with nine kills and 12 digs, Jalyn Duff with 52 assists and 13 digs, Maggie Meyer with 32 digs, Ivy Wright with 16 digs and Mackenzie Woodall with eight aces.

Cross country

• Eagles run well at Hokem Karem — At Danville, South Putnam competed in the Danville Hokem Karem meet on Saturday.

“We had a really good morning at this race,” Eagle coach Brandon Welti said. “The attitudes were really positive, effort was great, and everyone ran pretty consistently in this race.”

In this meet, each athlete has a partner for a six-mile race (each running a total of three miles) and the times are combined.

Going into the meet, everyone was given goal splits to hit, and every individual ran those goal times or faster, Welti said.

“It was a great day for everyone competing,” he added. “Because of the SAT, we were missing quite a few of our seniors, but that didn’t stop the team from getting out there and competing.”

Welti noted the highlight of the day was that Brent Wiggins, Chelsie Edwards and Samara Young all ran “negative splits” — with each mile run faster than the previous.

Welti said it was “great to see” Austin Rumley and Karl Egold finish in the top 10 (seventh), trailing only tandems from Southport, Lawrence North, Edgewood and Ben Davis.

“They did a great job of getting out there with some strong runners, and they just never let ‘em go,” Welti said.

He thought the he pairings of Lexi Vanihel/Edwards and Ally Nichols/Lillie Stein were also “really fun to watch” since Nichols, Vanihel and Edwards are normally close to each other.

“I knew they would be competing really well,” he said. “Then Lillie stepped up in a huge way and was right there with them split-wise. The four of them absolutely crushed it, and it’s fun to think about what they will be able to do at the end of the season.

”We believe this team has a lot of potential,” Welti added, “but we know there is still room for improvement. As long as they continue working hard and smart and remain disciplined with the little things, this team will only get better as the season progresses.”

North Putnam freshman duo Grace Elmore and Anna Haste placed 21st with a combined time of 43:04.72 in the girls’ race

Caleb Duncan and Kyle Young combined to place 35th to pace the Cougar boys.

Danville Hokem Karem

(six miles)

South Putnam girls — 5. Chelsie Edwards-Lexi Vanihel 39:11.57, 11. Ally Nichols-Lillie Stein 40:27.76, 34. Samara Young-Rachel Jones 44:53.11, 42. Caity Crossman-Ally Menke 46:44.31

North Putnam girls — 21. Grace Elmore-Anna Haste 43:04.72, 49. Madison Trotter-Ashley O’Neal 48:31.61, 51. Taylor Hensley-Gabby Carney 49;55.01

South Putnam boys — 7. Austin Rumley-Karl Egold 31:44.27, 28. Eric Hinkle-Andrew Carr 34:27.96, 59. Daniel Johnson-Brent Wiggins 38:18.50

North Putnam boys — 35. Caleb Duncan-Kyle Young 34:46.83, 63. Adam Bonebrake-Grant Jarboe 38:45.10, 69. Janus Oestergaard-Dinesen-Jacob Farrington 41:56.03

• Wilson wins again — At Shelbyville, Greencastle junior Emma Wilson won the Dave Bannon Invitational hosted by Franklin Central at Shelbyville on Saturday.

Wilson posted a winning time of 17:51.43, more than 40 seconds faster than runnerup Grace Williams of Bloomington North.

Sydney Kallem placed 30th in 21:07.77 for the Tiger Cubs and Emmy Huber was 99th in 24:59.57.

Two Tiger Cubs ran in the boys’ race, with Ian Frank placing 126th in 20:22.99 and John Brook placing 159th in 22:17.67.

• Clovers run well at RP — Cloverdale placed seventh in the boys’ race and had two of the top 13 individual runners in the girls’ race on Saturday at the Riverton Parke Invitational.

“We ran well,” Clover coach Andy Tyler said. “Everyone dropped a significant amount of time from the last meet.“

Tyler thought Rylan Hall and Chase Ashcraft had “great individual performances” and the team as a whole “looked good.”

Hall was 22nd overall and Ashcraft was 26th.

Lily Monnett and and Macie Couch both finished in the top 15.

“They are both very competitive in meets and in practice,” Tyler said. “We are training hard and are looking forward to this coming Saturday.”

Boys’ race

Cloverdale finishers — 22. Rylan Hall 19:23.82, 26. Chase Ashcraft 19:43.91, 31. Brady Sczcer bik 20:07.50, 48. Eddie Mannan 21:34.71, 50. Seth Geiger 21:35.88, 55. Elliotit Williamson 21:51.69.

Girls’ race

Cloverdale finishers — 12. Lily Monnett 23:44.00, 13. Macie Couch 23:56.13, 48. Megan Miller 28:35.94