GIRLS SOCCER: Western rips LCC for Hoosier Conference title
Sep. 27—Western's girls soccer team isn't flying under the radar anymore. The Panthers announced their presence loud and clear Saturday with a 5-1 thrashing of Class 2A No. 13 Lafayette Central Catholic in the championship game of the Hoosier Conference Tournament at Northwestern.
Prior to the tourney, the Panthers had put together a solid 9-2-2 record, with ties at the hands of North Central Conference schools Harrison and Lafayette Jeff, and losses to HC rivals LCC and Hamilton Heights.
In the HC tourney, the unranked Panthers (12-2-2) beat three ranked opponents in a week and avenged both their losses. Western opened the tourney with a 2-1 victory over Class A No. 11 Tipton on Tuesday, then topped Class 2A No. 8 Heights in penalty kicks after a 0-0 tie on Thursday.
In Saturday's championship, the Panthers rolled LCC with Lucy Weigt scoring four goals and Liza Szerdy bagging one.
"The excitement level was through the roof Thursday night especially, and [Saturday] I think the parents were in disbelief at what was going on," Western coach Sam Parr said. "The senior class, they were able to win their second Hoosier Conference title as a class so the younger kids had not experienced that before and I think they really appreciated it. And being in that atmosphere they were even more excited to move on from there."
The Panthers last won an HC title in 2018 when the current seniors were freshmen.
Heights had previously beat Western 3-1 in August and LCC topped Western 6-2 two weeks prior to the HC tournament. Western was shorthanded in both games. Saturday's championship was an eight-goal turnaround from the regular season game against LCC.
"The first two games [of the HC tournament], defensively we were outstanding, and again we were defensively outstanding in this game, but this game the offense came to life," Sam Parr said of the title game. "We worked on some attacking patterns Friday in practice. We were able to possess throughout the midfield into the final third through their defense. It was fun to see."
Weigt scored to get the scoreboard moving early in the championship game, then Szerdy doubled Western's lead midway through the first half. University of Louisville recruit Karsyn Cherry pulled a goal back for LCC on a 30-yard blast, but that was all Western allowed the Knights.
The game went to halftime 3-1 and Weigt bagged two more after that.
"We just kept the pressure on them, they were flustered you could tell," Sam Parr said. "Second half, [the Panthers] are already up two and they decided the only way they're going to be able to do anything is to put Karsyn up top and the [Western] midfield just stymied them.
"Lucy added two more goals after that and you could tell they didn't know what hit them."
Szerdy, Abigail Fouts, Maisy Harlow and Maddy Parr each fed Weigt for goals as the Panthers consistently found ways to put the predatory junior in position to attack. Weigt added an assist on Szerdy's goal.
"Lucy took it right to their defense," Sam Parr said. "There's times when it was 4 on 1 and we were just throwing balls over the top and she was able to get past. She was just more physical than their defense to get to the ball and get shots off. Once we had the pressure on them, we kept hammering at them offensively in that second half and it paid off huge."
Weigt has 25 goals on the season.
On the other end of the field, Panther goalie Kyndal Mellady recorded five saves in the final. She and Western's defense allowed just two goals in the tourney.
"They gave up two goals total, one was an own goal on accident and the real goal they gave up was Karsyn's goal and there's times you're not going to stop Karsyn because she's that good. To limit the teams to only being able to score one goal was a fantastic job and it seems like each game we're getting better and better," Sam Parr said.
The Panthers are getting their footing on artificial turf just before the postseason begins. Western has one more regular season game on Thursday at McCutcheon before next week's Class 2A Maconaquah Sectional.
"Psychologically it gives our team an advantage because they know what they can do now," Sam Parr said of the HC title. "They've experienced it and felt it. They're all excited to be moving on from here."
