More this week

Boys soccer sectional at Greenfield-Central

Tonight's games

Greenfield-Central 2, Shelbyville 1, SO (G-C 5-3 in PKs). Adam Koers goal for G-C, Collin Kleckner makes save in shootout, scores game-clinching goal. 

New Palestine 1, Mt. Vernon 0: John Ernster scores on PK with 29:28 left. Jaron Pridgen with the shutout. 

Saturday night: Greenfield-Central vs. New Palestine, 7 p.m. (www.hancockcountysports.com broadcast: 6:45 p.m.)

Girls soccer sectional at New Palestine

Thursday's games: Greenfield-Central vs. Mt. Vernon, 5 p.m.: New Palestine vs. Shelbyville, 7 p.m. 

Saturday night: Championship, 5 p.m.

Friday night football

4A #1/4 New Palestine (7-0/5-0) at Greenfield-Central (5-2/4-1), 7 p.m. (www.hancockcountysports.com broadcast, 6:30 p.m.)

Delta (2-5/2-3) at Mt. Vernon (5-2/3-2), 7 p.m.

Eastern Hancock (2-5) at 2A #10 Shenandoah (7-0), 7 p.m.

County volleyball tournament at Mt. Vernon (Saturday)

Semifinals

11:30 a.m.: Eastern Hancock vs. Mt. Vernon (www.hancockcountysports.com broadcast, 11:20 a.m.)

11:30 a.m.: New Palestine vs. Greenfield-Central

1 p.m.: Championship (www.hancockcountysports.com broadcast)

Follow Hancock County sports action on HancockCountySports.com!

Cougars, Dragons to play for title

Greenfield-Central and New Palestine will play for the boys soccer sectional title in razor-thin matches. (listen to the match at 6:45 p.m. Saturday with Andrew Smith at http://www.hancockcountysports.com)

In the two semifinal games tonight at G-C, only one goal was scored in regulation -- and only one goal was scored in the run of play -- but there was plenty of drama. 

G-C beat Shelbyville 2-1 in a shootout -- with all the goals coming in overtime before the Cougars won the shootout 5-3. NP beat Mt. Vernon 1-0 in an emotional game that saw four Marauders receive red cards and numerous yellow cards shown. 

In the opener, the goalkeepers held sway through much of regulation, as G-C's Collin Kleckner and his Shelbyville counterpart both pitched shutouts through the first 80 minutes. 

It appeared G-C would win when Adam Koers punched a shot out of a scramble into the back of the net midway through the first seven-minute overtime. But the Golden Bears' Mitch Brown drew a penalty kick when G-C was called for a handball in the box. Brown buried it with 2:28 left, sending the game into a shootout. 

G-C's Collin Kleckner -- who has been a solid keeper all season for the HHC co-champion Cougars -- stood tall, diving to his right to stop the Bears' first attempt in the shootout. It would be the only cushion the Cougars needed, as Angel Rodriguez, Caleb Dunn, Trent Barnhart, Koers and Kleckner all scored in the shootout to win it 5-3 -- Shelby's last shooter was not necessary. 

In the second game, New Palestine defeated Mt. Vernon 1-0 in a game where emotions ran high as the game went on. Early on, both teams had scoring chances but NP's Jaron Pridgen and MV's Corban Hartley both made key saves. The Marauders had the best chance of the opening half when a corner kick got loose in the goalmouth, but Pridgen made two point-blank saves on shots from inside six yards to thwart the threat. 

NP got the lead when Ben Richter went down from behind just inside the 18-yard stripe with 30:00 to go, drawing a penalty kick. John Ernster put int into the lower-left corner for his sixth goal of the season, giving the Dragons the game's lone goal. 

NP had a handful of other chances -- Ty Fidler just missed a header from 10 yards out five minutes later, as it skimmed just over the bar. With 20:38 left, it appeared the Dragons went up 2-0 when Ernster tried to quick-kick a free kick. Hartley came way off his line to punch it out, but the ball went right to NP's Daniel Wright, who perfectly placed a 30-yard shot from the left side into the vacated net. 

However, the official said the ball was put into play before the ready-for-play signal had been given -- a yellow card had previously been issued on the play, stopping the clock and allowing a substitution -- so the goal was disallowed. Three minutes later, the Dragons had another apparent goal disallowed when Wes Fox was ruled to have fouled Hartley before chesting the loose ball they were both going for into the net. 

So, it stayed 1-0. Pridgen was forced to make one strong save, but things got heated in the final 10 minutes, when two Marauders were sent off after a foul with 9:46 left, and in the final two minutes, two more MV players were given red cards -- including Hartley for making a what appeared to be goal-preventing play to stop a Dragon on a loose ball 20 yards away, and another for a hard foul in the closing seconds, forcing MV to finish the game with seven players. The Dragons received a pair of yellow cards in the same stretch and four in the game, including one for playing with 12 players on the field. 

MV finishes a fine season with a 9-4-3 mark, and will send off a strong senior class. 

So, the co-Hoosier Heritage Conference champions will play each other Saturday night for the sectional title. When they played in the regular season, their match went to the seventh round of the shootout before G-C won 3-2. The Cougars are 12-3-2 on the year. The Dragons are 12-5. 

Soccer sectional tonight

Tonight begins boys soccer sectional play at Greenfield-Central.

The host Cougars -- HHC co-champs -- face Shelbyville at 5 p.m. in today's first semifinal. New Palestine -- which shared the HHC title with G-C -- meets Mt. Vernon at 7 p.m. in the second semifinal.

The championship game is at 7 p.m. Saturday and will be broadcast live on HancockCountySports.com

Tuesday wrap: MV falls in tennis regional

Mt. Vernon pushed Lawrence North to the limit, but fell 3-2 Tuesday in the IHSAA boys tennis regional at North Central.


Kendall Ryan (#2 singles) and Reid Eberhard (#3 singles) won three-set matches for the Marauders.

Volleyball
Full night of volleyball in Hancock County tonight. You can listen to the archive of Chris Lambert's call of Hamilton Southeastern vs. Greenfield-Central here.

HSE won that match 17-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-12, 15-6, led by Jessica Pongonis' nine kills. Shay Pope led the Cougars with a match-high 14 kills. Caity Sosnowski eight aces. Jordan Bunch had five kills.

G-C is now 10-15 on the season. HSE is 15-11.

Also in the county, Noblesville defeated Mt. Vernon in four games, giving the Hoosier Crossroads Conference two victories over Hoosier Heritage Conference teams tonight.

Stay tuned
Wednesday night: Boys soccer sectional at G-C: Shelby vs. G-C at 5, NP vs. MV at 7. Updates on our Twitter feed!
Thursday night: Girls soccer sectional at NP: G-C vs. MV at 5; NP vs. Shelby at 7. Updates on our Twitter feed!
Friday night: Big night of football. Join us for the live broadcast of NP at G-C at 6:30 p.m.
Saturday AM: County volleyball tourney. Join us for the live broadcast at 11:20 a.m. -- MV vs. EH (and updates on NP vs. G-C) in the semis, with the title match to follow.
Saturday PM: Live broadcast of the G-C boys soccer final at 6:45 p.m. Also updates on the NP girls soccer sectional final, which begins at 5.

Follow the matches here, and listen to our live broadcast at www.HancockCountySports.com

Huge week for Hancock County sports

... and a big week for HancockCountySports.com.

First, our broadcast schedule. Click this link to LISTEN LIVE!
Tuesday 10/4: VOLLEYBALL: Hamilton SE at Greenfield-Central, 7:30 p.m.
Friday 10/7: FOOTBALL: New Palestine at Greenfield-Central, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday 10/8: VOLLEYBALL: Hancock County Tournament, 11:20 a.m.
Saturday 10/8: BOYS SOCCER: Greenfield-Central 2A sectional championship, 6:45 p.m.
Monday 10/10: VOLLEYBALL: Mt. Vernon at New Palestine, approx. 6:30 p.m.

Now, a more in-depth look at the sports
Volleyball
New Palestine and Mt. Vernon have had strong seasons. Greenfield-Central is young, but has players putting up some huge numbers -- as evidenced by Shay Pope's school-record 31-kill effort last week against Pendleton Heights. We'll bring you the Cougars against HSE on Tuesday (we've also added the Oct. 17 match between Mt. Vernon and HSE).

Also, we'll broadcast the 2011 Hancock County Tournament. 
Pairings (Saturday, Oct. 8 from Mt. Vernon)
11:30 a.m.: Mt. Vernon vs. Eastern Hancock (main gym)
11:30 a.m.: New Palestine vs. Greenfield-Central (aux gym)
1 p.m.: Championship (main gym)/Consolation (aux gym)
Join Chris Lambert for the call of the matches from the main gym on Saturday afternoon at 11:20 a.m. 

Soccer
Big week for both boys and girls soccer, as the three county teams -- Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon and New Palestine -- join Shelbyville in a four-team sectional. The boys play at Greenfield-Central, the girls at New Palestine.

The boys sectional is wide-open and features four defending champions -- Mt. Vernon and Shelbyville won sectionals last year before realignment put them together, while New Palestine and Greenfield-Central are HHC co-champions this year. Two of the three intra-county matchups were decided in shootouts, the other by one goal.

The girls sectional shows unbeaten New Palestine as a favorite, but the Dragons, Cougars and Marauders all played each other close this year and were the HHC's top three teams.

The pairings
Boys sectional at Greenfield-Central
Wednesday, Oct. 5
5 p.m.: Greenfield-Central vs. Shelbyville
7 p.m.: Mt. Vernon vs. New Palestine
Saturday, Oct. 8
7 p.m.: Championship (live broadcast begins at 6:45 p.m.)

Girls sectional at New Palestine
Thursday, Oct. 6
5 p.m.: Mt. Vernon vs. Greenfield-Central
7 p.m.: New Palestine vs. Shelbyville
Saturday, Oct. 8
5 p.m.: Championship (we will give updates on our broadcast)

And, of course, we can't forget football
It's a HUGE HHC matchup this week when the #1/4 New Palestine Dragons face the Greenfield-Central Cougars. NP is 7-0 for the first time since 1992. G-C has clinched back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in at least that long. Some of the best athletes in East Central Indiana will be on display, as NP quarterback Connor Simmons and his deep stable of receivers meets G-C's tough secondary led by Matt Dickerson and Derek Conley. Join Andrew, Mike and Chris at 6:30 p.m. Friday from Clayton Myers Field at Cougar Stadium. 

Other sports
Mt. Vernon will compete in the North Central tennis regional at 4 p.m. Tuesday against Lawrence North. The Marauders won the sectional by beating New Palestine 3-2 and Eastern Hancock 5-0.

The cross country sectional round will commence Oct. 11. Mt. Vernon will compete at Pendleton Heights, the other three county schools at New Palestine.

Saturday Morning QB: A three-team HHC race

It's a three-team race for the Hoosier Heritage Conference title after New Palestine broke the 40-point barrier for the third straight week in a victory over Shelbyville and Greenfield-Central posted a thrilling 6-0 OT victory over Mt. Vernon. In addition, Pendleton Heights gave head coach John Broughton his 200th career victory in a 31-7 victory over Yorktown.

Let's look back at the Friday night of football:
Greenfield-Central 6, Mt. Vernon 0, OT: The game we had for you last night. An incredible defensive game in which the Cougars' Derek Conley nabbed two interceptions in regulation, then ran in the game's only score from three yards out in OT to give the Cougars a victory and keep them in second place in the HHC. Brant Boles had an interception on MV's OT possession and also blocked a field goal earlier in the game. Conley (62 yards) was the game's leading rusher, as well. G-C now hosts New Palestine next Friday with the HHC title on the line. G-C is now 5-2/4-1 in the HHC. MV is 5-2/3-2.
Daily Reporter | Broadcast archive

New Palestine 49, Shelbyville 13: Another big passing day for the Dragons, who have now thrown for 23 touchdowns in seven games. Austin Monday ran for three touchdowns and a career-high 152 yards, Connor Simmons threw for four -- two to Brandon Collins and one each to Josh Penley and Brandon Wiggins. The Dragon defense forced four turnovers and the offense turned three into touchdowns. Simmons had radar-like 14-of-15 accuracy, and has thrown for 200+ yards now in all of the Dragons' seven games. 4A No. 1 NP is now 7-0 and 5-0 in the HHC. Shelby is 1-6/1-4.
Daily Reporter | Shelbyville News

Eastern Hancock 27, Wes-Del 6: The Royals finally got that elusive second victory after being on the cusp three straight weeks. Spencer Gilbert ran for 261 yards as the Royals improved to 2-5 on Senior Night. EH travels to Shenandoah next week before finishing at Edinburgh.
Daily Reporter

In the HHC
Pendleton Heights 31, Yorktown 7: It was a special night in Yorktown as the Arabisns gave 36th-year head coach John Broughton his 200th career victory with the victory. Yorktown, in a classy move, presented him with the gameball after the game. More importantly for the Arabians, they maintained pace in the conference by improving to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the HHC. PH, ranked 10th/9th in the two polls. Jacob Lyons had 147 rushing yards and QB Mitch Patishall completed 10-of-15 for 132 yards. Lyons and Jon Furrow each scored two TDs and Furrow kicked a field goal. PH was 7-for-7 on fourth down. Yorktown is 3-4/1-4.
Anderson Herald-Bulletin | Muncie Star-Press

Delta 48, Rushville 22: The Eagles got back on the winning track after a rare three-game losing streak. Ozzie Mann completed 14-of-22 for a season-high 199 yards, including 143 and three TDs to Jake Greenberg. Delta had 235 yards on the ground, using several backs to replace the production that had been provided by Austin Fuatavai -- who is out with an injury. Delta is now 2-3 in the HHC, 2-5 overall (although 4-3 on the field).
Muncie Star-Press

HHC standings

#1/4 New Palestine 5-0/7-0 (at G-C, at MV)
#10/9 Pendleton Heights 4-1/6-1 (vs. Rushville, vs. G-C)
Greenfield-Central 4-1/5-2 (vs. NP, at PH)
Mt. Vernon 3-2/5-2 (vs. Delta, vs. NP)
Delta 2-3/2-5 (4-3 on the field) (at MV, at Shelby)
Shelbyville 1-4/1-6 (vs. Yorktown, vs. Delta)
Yorktown 1-4/3-4 (at Shelby, at Rushville)
Rushville 0-5/2-5 (at PH, vs. Yorktown)

Our broadcasts on HancockCountySports.com
Friday, Oct. 7: New Palestine at Greenfield-Central, airtime 6:30 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 14: New Palestine at Mt. Vernon, airtime 7 p.m.

Saturday wrap: HHC CC

The Pendleton Heights Arabians swept the Hoosier Heritage Conference CC meet today, winning both the boys and girls championships at New Palestine.

Hancock County teams were the runners-up -- Greenfield-Central finished second in the boys race, Mt. Vernon was the runner-up in the girls event.

In the boys race, PH totaled 32 points, G-C 69, Delta 72, MV 91, Rushville 115, Yorktown 151, New Palestine 152 and Shelbyville 185.

PH's Sam Bayliss was the individual champion (17:02), as the Arabians had three runners in the top five and four in the top 10.

Tyler Wilcher led G-C with a fourth-place finish in 17:16. Teammate Garrett Benedict placed ninth to give the Cougars two top-10 finishers. Christopher Tatom (12th) and Syrus Fletcher (18th) were also all-conference runners. Jared McQueen's 26th-place finish rounded out the Cougars' scoring.

MV was led by eighth-place Nathan Bode (17:35). Matthew Abebe placed 11th, Taylor VanWinkle 20th, Gary Maley 22nd and Sam Higdon 30th.

County champion Seth Eagleson led the Dragons by finishing seventh (17:27). Austin Dodd placed 29th for the Dragons, Oliver Dockins 34th, Sam Jones 36th and Zach Nagel 46th.

In the girls race, PH had 47 points, MV 66, Delta 70, Yorktown 79, NP 90 and G-C 163. Shelbyville and Rushville fielded incomplete teams.

Yorktown had the top two finishers in Lexi Hunt (20:17) and Betsy Lowry (20:26). PH's Emma Manchess was third (20:34).

MV's Elizabeth Cook was the top Hancock County runner, pacing three Marauders in the top 13. She finished sixth in 20:56. Also scoring for MV were county champion Mandy Bode (9th), Jessica Grubb (13th), Cassandra Eiler (18th) and Micaela Elmore (20th).

NP was led by seventh-place Natalie Shields, finishing in 21:03. Emily Trimpe was 11th for the Dragons, Izzy Fleetwood 23rd, Caroline Voelz 24th and Kayla Medaris 25th.

G-C's top runner was Katie McKeeman in 28th. Also placing were Claire Talbott, Rebecca Flora in 29th and 30th, Emily Dupnick in 36th and Bailey Thompson in 43rd.

The teams will compete in their respective sectionals Oct. 11. NP and G-C will compete in the New Palestine sectional. MV will compete in the Pendleton Heights sectional.

Girls soccer
Mt. Vernon 3, Franklin 2: The Marauders won in a wild finish, with Chelsea Thomas converting a long rebound in the final minute to give MV a dramatic victory.

Suzy DeWael scored twice to give the Marauders a 2-1 lead with three minutes to go. Trying to get the equalizer, Franklin pushed and got a penalty kick after a handball foul in the penalty area on the Marauders. The Cubs converted to tie the game.

But in the final minute, Thomas put away a long rebound to give MV the victory.

It gave the Marauders a 12-3-1 mark and set a school record for victories in a season.

The Marauders open sectional play Thursday against Greenfield-Central. The game will begin at 5 p.m. at New Palestine.

Columbus North 4, Greenfield-Central 0: The Cougars dropped their season finale on the road. G-C finishes the regular season with a 10-4-1 record. The Cougars will face Mt. Vernon at 5 p.m. Thursday in the New Palestine sectional. Jordan Slusher made six saves in goal for the Marauders.


Boys tennis
Mt. Vernon wins sectional: The Mt. Vernon tennis team defeated Eastern Hancock today to win the Mt. Vernon sectional. The Marauders defeated New Palestine in a 3-2 match Friday before dispatching the Royals today for the title.