Right from the opening kickoff, Columbus North attacked early and often against Bloomington North in Thursday’s Conference Indiana boys soccer matchup.
The Bull Dogs scored two goals in the first 10 minutes, leading to their first win of the season, a 3-1 decision.
The early attack of the Bull Dogs (1-1, 1-1) helped them to clear the frustration of their disappointing home conference loss to Southport on Saturday.
"It feels great to bounce back from that first loss against Southport," North forward Graham Keele said. "It was a good, collective performance from the team tonight."
It showed in the second minute when Keele made the perfect pass from the left side to a wide open Nathan Imlay down the middle of the field. Imlay converted the easy opportunity to give Columbus North a 1-0 lead.
"(The chemistry) has been good (with Imlay) because we have been working all summer to build that relationship," Keele said. "That’s not just with me and Nathan, but it is with the whole team. It just happened to us tonight where we both found each other and it worked for the game."
A few minutes later in the ninth minute, the ball was in the middle and landed at the head of Ben Malone, who put it in the net, and all of a sudden, the Bull Dogs quickly led 2-0.
With Columbus North scoring so early, Bloomington North wasn’t fazed by any chance. The Cougars attacked right back, and in the 21st minute, they cut the deficit in half when Kyle Trilling passed the ball up to Kaan Silay, who finished from the left side to cut the lead to 2-1. The score remained that way for the rest of the half.
In the second half, the Bull Dogs got an insurance goal in the 51st minute when Imlay returned the favor for Keele. Imlay booted a shot, and the ball took a deflection off the left post and then on the crossbar. However, a clear signal of goal was not called initially. On the next dead ball, the referees had a quick discussion and then awarded Keele with the goal to extend the Columbus North lead to 3-1.
"We saw the Southport tape today, and we really thought we were the better team," Columbus North coach Tom Pollert said. "We really didn’t change anything. The only thing we needed to do was have that level of intensity right from the start, and that was our focus. We had that intensity, and were going to battle right off the bat, and that’s what happened."
