Girls soccer sectional semis: G-C, NP win

The soccer sectional championships will be happening 12 miles apart, but they'll have the same look.

Greenfield-Central vs. New Palestine.

Like their boys counterparts last night, the Cougars and Dragons both won their semifinal games in the girls soccer sectional tonight at New Palestine.

G-C beat Mt. Vernon 1-0 in the opening game of the sectional. The Cougars carried the play in the opening half, but the goalkeepers -- G-C's Katie Peters and MV's Jordan Slusher -- were able to keep the teams at bay. But in the first three minutes of the second half, a mishandled ball in the box gave G-C's Emily Koers the opening she needed. She punched a loose ball in the goalmouth into the net.

Peters made a handful of saves as MV desperately pushed to get the equalizer in the final minutes, but was unable.

The Cougars will move on to play New Palestine in Saturday's 5 p.m. championship game at NP. The Dragons scored five goals in each half to beat Shelbyville 10-0 in the second semifinal.

Leading goal scorer Lauren Joray scored twice for the Dragons. Lauren Kehrt also had two goals. Morgan Parish, Jordan Barton and Kristin Wagner each added a goal and an assist. Lindsay Meyer had two assists to build her season total to 19 -- one back of the state leader.

Joray scored the game's first two goals 41 seconds apart in the opening nine minutes. NP then scored two goals 50 seconds apart from Barton and Emilee Larson. Kehrt scored late in the first half, and then 54 seconds into the second. NP scored three times in the first 4:02 of the second half. Morgan Carpenter and Jennifer Roberts also scored second-half goals for hte Dragons. Amy Hilton and Kalli Shepler-Tucker had assists.

Holly Hilton and Mckenzie Morgan shared the shutout for the Dragons, who outshot Shelbyville 29-0. It is Hilton's state-leading 15th shutout of the season for the Dragons, who are 15-0-3.

Saturday night, it's soccer night in New Palestine and Greenfield.
Everything begins at 5 p.m. with the girls game between the Dragons and Cougars at NPHS.
Then, the boys game will take place on the westside of Greenfield with the Dragons-Cougars matchup at the G-C field. The game is currently set to be at 7 p.m., but the schools are planning to move it back to 7:30 pending approval from the IHSAA. Our www.hancockcountysports.com broadcast will begin 15 minutes before kickoff of the boys game.