In the final regular season home match for the Columbus East boys soccer team, the Olympians honored senior Chris Quisenberry following their 5-1 Hoosier Hills Conference victory over Jeffersonville Saturday afternoon that gave them the outright Hoosier Hills Conference title.
Quisenberry, who set the school’s career goal scoring record last week, set the career assist record and the single-season goals record, as well, on Saturday.
Quisenberry was glad to share the moment in front of his hometown fans one final time at the brand new BCSC Soccer Complex.
“It’s amazing,” Quisenberry said. “Getting this in front of our fans is much nicer. I’m so happy that I had the opportunity to play on this field. It’s such a nice field, and to end my last regular season game on this field with a really good result, I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
Quisenberry’s 60 career goals so far surpasses Nick Hollenkamp’s 52 from 2007-10. Quisenberry’s 30 career assists surpasses Jorge Nieto’s previous record of 28 from 2016-19, and the single-season goals record of 25 surpasses Hollenkamp and Zach Deak’s 23 from 2009.
“It feels like a huge step I’ve taken. It’s amazing for all of the people that have supported me and got me here from freshman year to senior year,” Quisenberry said. “At the end of the day, I’m thankful to have the opportunity and have such a great team that supports me and makes me strive to be better and be competitive and go for my goals and those dreams. It feels really great.”
East coach Josh Gonsior was mostly proud of how much Quisenberry has grown as a soccer player throughout high school.
“Goal scorers are very hard to train, and that’s why there aren’t that many of them around,” Gonsior said. “Having played a role in that and in his development was really confirming of what I’m doing as a coach. I really enjoy seeing the results come to fruition. It’s been nice.”
The win Saturday allowed the Olympians (11-3-1, 6-0) to finish unbeaten in the HHC.
“We could have had a share of the conference even with a loss, but we wanted to win it outright,” Gonsior said. “They took care of business today. I think that’s going to give them a lot of confidence going into the sectional.”
It didn’t take long for Quisenberry’s presence to be felt. In the 11th minute, Kevin Galindo Sanchez passed the ball up to Quisenberry, who then took a couple of touches down the left side. His shot tucked into the far post for a 1-0 lead.
In the 25th minute, Dathan Wolf scored off a Quisenberry assist, and a couple minutes later, in the 27th minute, Quisenberry netted his second goal off an assist from Cam Trueblood for a 3-0 halftime lead.
In the second half, in the 44th minute, Alberto Galindo Sanchez scored from an assist from Quisenberry, and then Quisenberry completed the hat trick a couple minutes later.
East then subbed out much of its starters the rest of the game. With less than six minutes left in the match, Jared Ramirez added a goal for Jeffersonville to prevent the shutout.
The Olympians will take on the Jennings County-New Albany winner in the New Albany Sectional semifinals on Wednesday.
“Most of that sectional is our conference,” Gonsior said. “Having those experiences we’ve had against those teams, I think that is going to go a long way in getting us over the hump.”
