East claims share of conference title

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For the ninth-straight season, Columbus East took at least a share of the Hoosier Hills Conference title in girls soccer.

With the Olympians’ 3-1 win Thursday night at Seymour, they finished 8-8-1 overall and 6-0-1 in the HHC in a tie with Floyd Central.

It took just two shots on goal for the Olympians to take the lead in the opening half.

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East first got on the scoreboard at the 35:04 mark when Sarah Park stole the ball from the left wing and centered it to Addy Galeano, who slotted it into the back of the net from 18 yards.

Seymour nearly countered at 31:40 when Marie Lenart broke through the back line and rifled a shot from 12 yards, but East goalkeeper Brooke Hamblen stopped the shot down the center.

Kayla Griffin took back-to-back corner kicks for the Owls at 18:34, but a header by Andrea Ferrer was deflected out, and a pass that was kicked back to the senior for a shot was saved by Hamblen.

Hamblen continued her strong play by picking off a high cross at 15:13 that nearly found the head of the Owls’ Aidan Hiester.

The Olympians nearly added another score with 3:11 when a shot from 20 yards on the right wing by Park clipped the top of the crossbar.

At intermission, East held a 1-0 advantage.

Both teams came out firing to start the final 40 minutes.

East’s Maya Federle pushed a shot off a deflection for a score from 5 yards after Seymour keeper Rachel Collett made a diving save at 9:03.

Lenart answered two minutes later for the Owls, as she beat an Olympians defender down the right wing and dribbled to within 10 yards before converting a shot across her body to the far post.

Galarno nearly added another Olympians goal at 22:35 with a header, but a diving save by Collett thwarted the effort.

A free kick from just outside the 18 box by Griffin bounced off the crossbar, and the followup header by an Owls teammate also hit the woodwork at 9:57.

“Second half, I thought we fought for 40 minutes with them,” Owls coach Greg Musser said. “We get a goal, and then get an excellent opportunity to make it a 2-2 game. I don’t think it (feels like) a 3-1 game with how we played.”

Jaeda Berkemeier added an insurance goal for East when she followed up a teammate’s shot that bounced off Collett at 4:49.

Collett collected eight saves, as the Olympians outshot the Owls 12-4.

“(Collett) has been stable back there for us,” Musser said. “I think she leads the HHC in saves. We didn’t follow the backside run. We rotated out of there, and they had girls wide open. She has been big for us all year, and I don’t’ see why that would change for the rest of our games.”

On Saturday, Seymour (8-6-2, 2-3-1 HHC) will host a makeup game with New Albany.

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