Columbus East’s Boston Ely and Columbus North’s Thomas De La Cruz (20) battle for the ball during a sectional match at Roncalli High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
INDIANAPOLIS — After Columbus East played Columbus North to a scoreless tie during the regular season, the Bull Dogs knew the importance of taking advantage of every opportunity they had Tuesday night with the teams met again in the opening round of the Roncalli Sectional.
The Class 3A No. 4 Bull Dogs did take advantage of one of those opportunities. Nathan Imlay stuck in a goal in the 20th minute, and North held on for a 1-0 victory.
“I think it gave us a big boost of confidence, especially from the first game,” Imlay said. “The first game, we had no goals on them, and I think that first goal gave us that boost of confidence to keep going. We should have had a couple more, I should have had another one, but that was a big boost of confidence in our way of play.”
The closest either team came to scoring the rest of the way came in the 42nd minute, when the Bull Dogs’ Obed Oliva put one off the right post.
“We had that mental block there for some time that we’ve been working to transcend,” North coach Andy Glover said. “It was a good victory for the team in more ways that one.”
The Olympians (3-9-4), who utilized a packed-in defense for most of the regular-season meeting, played a more straight-up brand on Tuesday, especially after Imlay’s goal.
“It opened things up a little bit, which played into our favor there,” Glover said. “But I’ll give East credit. They played very differently tonight than they did the first time in the season. I like a good, honest approach to the game, and I think they brought that approach today. I felt like two Columbus teams played an upright game of soccer tonight.”
The Bull Dogs (14-1-1), who advance to play Roncalli in tonight’s 7:30 p.m. semifinal, finished with a 9-2 shot advantage. They put four shots on goal to one for East.
Max Grewe, who played the first half in goal for North, posted one save. Oscar Ballinas did not face a shot in the second half.
“It feels amazing,” Imlay said. “We just have to keep doing this and doing this, just to keep going through. We have nothing to lose. I’m excited to see what we can do (today) and hopefully Saturday.”
Pete Coriden recorded three saves for the Olympians.
“Obviously, a different result than the first game, but I thought it was a much better game from our perspective,” East coach Josh Gonsior said. “We came to play and took it to them and had opportunities, and we just couldn’t finish them. I don’t feel like they had a lot of dangerous opportunities. Nothing troubled us too much, other than that goal that slipped through. We just kind of clicked off for that moment, and they were able to take advantage of it and put it away, and that as the difference today. I think the effort we put in tonight in knowing we can play at that level is everything going into next season.”
