GREENWOOD — For the better part of 80 minutes Thursday night, Columbus East kept peppering shots at the Franklin goal, but kept getting turned away by Addison Marshall.
While Marshall posted 17 saves, the Olympians were able to sneak three shots past her to pick up a 3-0 victory in the semifinals of the Center Grove Sectional.
“We created a ton of chances and certainly should have had a little bit more clinical finishing on a lot of the opportunities,” East coach Ilya Schwartzman said. “However, as I said to the team, in the tournament, you have to persevere and advance. It doesn’t have to pretty. I just has to be a ‘W.’ We did what we needed to do.”
The Olympians (11-4-2) advance to face host eighth-ranked Center Grove in the final at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Trojans beat No. 11 Columbus North 3-1 in Thursday’s first semifinal.
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East managed 18 shots, including 10 on goal, in the first half, but didn’t score until the 35th minute when Alana Dwenger finished a pass from Sydney Berkemeier. The score remained 1-0 at halftime.
In the second half, Lindsey Stoughton scored off an assist from Gabi Schuetz in the the 50th minute. Schuetz added the final goal when she put in a rebound off a Kathleen Soedel shot in the 76th minute.
“I think we definitely could have scored more,” Stoughton said. “It’s not always pretty. I’m just glad we got the result. We definitely could have played better and connected more passes. We just needed to calm down and focus.”
The Olympians finished with 36 shots, putting 20 on goal. the Grizzly Cubs (3-14) managed just one shot, and it was not on goal.
“I thought defensively, we were pretty good,” Schwartzman said. “That was well done by the defense.”
East now turns its attention to Center Grove, a team that beat the Olympians 7-1 on Sept. 28.
“I’m excited because we just played Center Grove three weeks ago, and it wasn’t the turnout we wanted,” Stoughton said. “So I’m excited to come back and have a good rematch against them. Hopefully, we’ll get a positive result this time.”
