Pike goalie saves, scores in PKs for Marion County boys title; Brebeuf girls dominate.

Cesar Morales-Juarez had been in this situation before.

In 2021, Pike was in the Marion County soccer tournament against Roncalli. The game went into penalty kicks and Morales-Juarez couldn’t keep any out as the Red Devils lost.

A year later, here he was. In net, facing penalties again, this time against North Central after neither team scored in regulation of Saturday's Marion County championship.

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He hadn’t forgotten about last year. In fact, he had been thinking about this very setting. He wanted to make it back to championship to exorcise the demons of the previous season.

Morales-Juarez deflected one Panthers attempt, and his teammates scored on their first four kicks. Kaleb Faber got North Central’s fifth shot past him, leaving one more for Pike. If the Red Devils scored, they won. If not, the penalties continued.

Regardless, Morales-Juarez’s night wasn’t done. In this situation last year, he had been just the goalkeeper. Now he had another job to do. He lined up behind the ball, stepping away from the net. Whether or not he returned now depended on his right foot.

Morales-Juarez whistled a laser to the top left corner of the net. North Central goalkeeper Henry Isenberg, who had gone toe-to-toe with Morales-Juarez as his counterpart all evening, dove right. Morales-Juarez turned and sprinted down the center of the field, disappearing into a sea of teammates and Pike students storming the field after the 1-0 win.

“I was calm,” he said. “I hit it. I knew the goalkeeper wasn’t going to guess the right way. He went every single way on the same one, so I knew if I just put it on the other side, he wasn’t going to get to it.”

“We knew Cesar had two chances to win county,” Pike coach Theron Smith said. “Either by making a save or hitting a PK, and I knew he was going to make one of those.”

It ended a tense, physical, defensive game. Both teams had grievances to air to referees throughout the night. There were three yellow cards. Morales-Juarez, Isenberg and each team’s respective defenders never blinked in regulation, even as both sides had chances.

In the first half, a high cross on a North Central opportunity was broken up by Leo Spitznagle. Minutes later, Diego Bravo-Gomez blocked a Panthers attempt from point-blank range directly in front of the net.

Close to midway through the second, a header from Jaden Branigan that would have given North Central the lead came tantalizingly close to the net but bounced wide. A free kick that would have done the same for Pike sailed high.

“It’s very frustrating to handle, especially when you see a great buildup and ready for that finish,” Smith said. “The finish is the toughest part of the game, putting the ball in the back of the net. So I guess you just kind of laugh it off.”

The Red Devils never got that finish, but it didn’t end up mattering. Four Pike strikers scored penalties, but it was Morales-Juarez, pulling double-duty, who won the game. After the chaos in the immediate aftermath of his game-winner subsided just slightly, he was the first Red Devil to raise the trophy. In a crowd of teammates, he lifted it into the air, shouting and soaking in the feeling he had waited for a year to experience.

Brebeuf girls continue county tournament dominance in win over North Central

The buzzer sounded on Brebeuf Jesuit’s 4-0 win over North Central to win the Marion County tournament, and little changed in Brebeuf’s collective demeanor. Players exchanged high-fives on the sideline and took a picture with the trophy, but it was a scene that’s become routine over the past decade.

It was Brebeuf’s 12th county tournament championship, including six of the past eight. Coach Angela Berry White won her seventh. White’s goal coming in was to win, but she also hoped the weekend would help prepare the team for sectionals. The businesslike dispatching of North Central accomplished both.

“There’s always a need to win when you’re playing at Brebeuf,” goalkeeper Sophia Payne said.

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The game was as lopsided as the score suggested. Brebeuf controlled possession for much of the evening, especially the first half, in which North Central had two shots on goal, one from too far away to ever have a chance of going in. On the other end of the field, freshman goalkeeper Eva Whitmyer, filling in for an injured Maryn Weiger, was peppered with shots all game.

“That’s just our style,” White said. “Any 11 players on the field at a time, we do believe that they can control the game, control the speed of the game just because of our technical ability, and we were able to do that today.”

The Panthers got more pressure in the second half with four shots on goal. White attributed it to Brebeuf playing a more defensive style, improved offense from North Central and fatigue from playing two games in a day.

Brebeuf got on the board early when a North Central attempt to get the ball to Whitmyer ended up in the back of the net for an own goal. Forward Mia Winters was the closest Brebeuf player to the play. Freshman Aly Arena added onto the lead later in the first half, beating Whitmyer from the right side of the field.

Josie Studley had a near-miss, her low line drive that would have increased the Brebeuf lead to three deflecting off of Whitmyer’s hands. On Brebeuf’s next rush down the field, Studley found herself in space. From well outside the box, she sent a rocket toward the top left corner of the net. It glanced off the bottom of the crossbar and dropped past the goal line.

“My shot range is usually pretty far out,” Studley said. “When it went in, I was just really surprised.”

Madison Shields added one more for Brebeuf, its only goal of the second half, to cap off the rout.

“Our girls were pretty focused and they wanted to just make sure they were always first to everything,” White said. “First to every air ball, first to every ball on the ground and set the tone early, and I think that helped … they have a lot of confidence right now in their ability to score, and I think that’s why I think we were able to get four on them today.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA soccer: Pike boys, Brebeuf girls win Marion County tournament