Falling behind early Thursday night, the Columbus East girls soccer team looked to be in trouble.
Trailing 1-0, the Olympians would string together four consecutive goals en route to a 5-2 dismantling of Seymour on senior night. With their victory, East clinched the Hoosier Hills Conference title.
The Owls began strong, scoring in the eighth minute, putting East into an early hole. From that point forward, East (9-5-2, 6-0-1) seized control of the match, putting their foot on the gas.
In the 19th minute, Lindsey Stoughton found Alana Dwenger for the Olympians’ first goal of the night. Less than two minutes later, senior Addy Galarno scored to put East in front.
“It was pretty tough as first,” Galarno said of dealing with senior night emotions. “It is our last home game together as a team, but we came out hard, and we really played well. I thought we controlled our emotions really well.”
The Olympians came out fast to begin the second half. Dwenger tacked on an unassisted goal in the 46th minute. Two minutes later, Maya Federle put an unassisted goal into the net to give East a comfortable lead.
In the 62nd minute, Seymour scored on a penalty kick after an Olympian handball in the box, closing the gap to two goals.
Battling for the next 10 minutes, East junior Sarah Park put to rest any thought of a Seymour comeback, scoring an unassisted goal from just outside the box.
The Olympians outshot the Owls 13-2. Jenny Bastian finished with two saves.
“For us to beat a quality team tonight is a fantastic boost of confidence,” East coach Ilya Schwartzman said. “We believe we are a good team, we believe we can play excellent soccer. This kind of game really helps us going forward into the sectional.
