Norah Dwenger
The Columbus East girls soccer team made quick work of Jennings County by scoring five goals in the first half and never looked back to claim a 9-0 Hoosier Hills Conference win Wednesday night at the BCSC Soccer Complex.
“Winning conference has always been our goal, so every game, we‘ve got to take it seriously and come out and play,” East coach Ilya Schwartzman said. “We were ready. We came out and played pretty good soccer for large portions of the game. When we play pretty soccer, good things happen. The result is good evidence of that.”
The Olympians (4-3-3, 2-0-1) didn’t waste anytime coming out of the gate. In the 10th minute, Norah Dwenger booted a corner kick that was finished off by Allison Craig for a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later, Dwenger added an unassisted goal for 2-0 lead. East added another Dwenger goal in the 23rd minute, a goal from Nadia Harris in the 26th minute and a goal from Kylie Hatcher in the 32nd minute to go ahead of the Panthers (3-6-1, 1-4) 5-0 at the break.
In the second half, the Olympians added another goal in the 47th minute with a goal from Taylor Scott, another by Kira Van Valkenburg in the 77th minute, another from Elizabeth Deckard with a goal in the 75th minute and Sydney Berkemeier ended the scoring with the goal in the 76th minute.
Schwartzman made a couple goalkeeper changes, one in the first half and another in the second and also made several rotational changes between the varsity and reserve players during the match.
“Anytime you’re on the field in a varsity game, that experience is very valuable, whether it is for this year or for future years,” Schwartzman said. “As we get closer and closer to sectional time, having everybody ready to go is very important. It was really great to get everybody on the field and get them experience.”
Next up for East is another HHC clash as they travel to New Albany on Saturday. Jennings travels to Silver Creek today.
