Freshman’s late goal gives Olympians a victory

Columbus East had plenty of chances to get on the scoreboard in Tuesday’s girls soccer match against Hoosier Hills Conference opponent Bedford North Lawrence.

Olympian freshman Lindsey Stoughton’s header ended the deadlock battle.

One minute after the Stars scored a goal in the 71st minute to level the game at 1-1, Stoughton received a pass from Karlee Dowd and hit it with the left side of her head for the go-ahead goal. East held on in the end for the 2-1 victory.

It was Stoughton’s first goal of the year.

“It’s pretty exciting and probably my first header goal I’ve had since I have been playing,” Stoughton said. “When the ball came to me I was like, ‘You got to get this, you got to get this,’ and I was so happy after it went in.”

“(Stoughton) has played at a high level for quite time, so she has a lot of experience,” East coach Ilya Schwartzman said. “She understands her role on the team and knows what she needs to do. She is getting much better, stronger and wiser. She has come through for us this season.”

The Olympians (3-4, 2-0) controlled the match in the first 15 minutes. Bedford North Lawrence had the advantage for the rest of the first half, but could not capitalize.

“The first 15 minutes, we had really good control of the ball, but after that for some reason we just did a lot of kicking without too much purpose,” Schwartzman said. “The second half was much, much better and it showed on the scoreboard and how we responded.”

The Olympians first goal came in the 50th minute when Addy Galarno received a forward pass from Dowd. Galarno dribbled the ball on the right side of the field and kicked it passed Stars goalkeeper Gabby Wilson for the 1-0 lead.

“Karlee and I always have this connection just from the beginning,” Galarno said. “She played it downline, and I called for it and it was a great pass that couldn’t have gone any better.”

Once Stoughton scored the go ahead goal, the East defense held on the last 15 minutes of the game to preserve the win.

“The back four, regardless of who we had back there, came through for us,” Schwartzman said. “We had a lot of girls that played great tonight. The goal Addy got was a fantastic strike and a good play on net sequence. Maggie Lewis had a great game, as well, especially in the second half. She played smart and very strong.”

“We played more defensive minded since we were ahead, but our defense played very well tonight,” Galarno said.